What have I become...

     This is my first real blog so I hope it turns out okay. If you haven't guessed from the title of my blog, I am a soccer player. I've lived in Nigeria for 11 years, Ghana for 1 year, and the United States now for 6 years. My parents were missionaries and that was the reason for me being born and living in Africa. I learned a lot while living there and have great stories to share with people. But I think that the best thing that I learned and experienced over there was soccer, or football.
     I grew up playing the beautiful game against grown men. My father had started a Christian soccer team that would go around and play against other teams in Nigeria and afterwards we would all come together as one family and do a devotion and eat together. It was great for me to get the experience to play against men like that. My father used to put me in defense, because obviously for a 5th grader I probably wasn't going to dribble through people let alone score, but I was good at reading people when they came at me and getting some part of my body on the ball to get it away.
     Growing up that way taught me that size does not matter. And that little phrase people often say jokingly is actually very true... "It's not the size of the dog but it's the size of the fight in the dog."
     Lately, I have not been the player I once was. The player that in my high school years got the reputation of "Game changer." The player that won awards for soccer both in America and in Nigeria. The player that came to America for one season in high school and earned the right to wear the captains band and be an influence on others. Lately... I have found myself afraid, to put it short. I think fear affects everything and if you live life with no fear then you will excel higher than a lot of people. The only fear I used to have was in the Lord. Now I not only have been fearing the Lord but other players, my coach, what people say about me, how strong other people are compared to me, how good people are with the ball, how fast people are... and the list goes on and on. Thank God, I have now realized it. I first realized what my problem was this week when my teammate asked me what happened to me. He had been going through my pictures on facebook and he saw the type of player that I used to be and it shocked him that I have not been doing that. So he confronted me. Thank the Lord for that confrontation and for my teammate to care that much to even bring it up.
     I play for South Georgia College in Douglas, GA and it has been great but also a big struggle the whole way. So now this blog, to me, symbolizes a new beginning. A fresh start. I am going to get back to the old me and make improvements along the way. And I hope that people will read this and join in with me whether it is praying for me, or learning something new that they themselves can use in their life and hopefully we can all get back to where we started, fully confident and ready to go, trusting in the Lord all the way.

     Mathew 7:7-12 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."


     Just an added note, that is me the little white kid next to the truck. My father is there too. And the man next to me grabbing my shoulder is one of my oldest friends named Yakubu, he has known me since I was born.