Today we had class, and we had class. Today we had our first Tok Pisin class and it is evident that our group will learn quickly because a few of us have had more experience in it.
That wasn't the challenge.
After class there was some soccer. POC is at the top of a hill, and so when the ball goes over the hill, it goes and goes and goes.
I thought it would be fun to play soccer with my son, so we joined up. At one point, the ball went through a small hole in the hedge keeping the ball from going over the hill, it began to go.
It had rained all day... so the grass and mud were very slippery.
For some reason, in my head, I said "if I go down the hill faster than the ball, I can catch it" So... with everyone watching, I ran after the ball, and slipped through the same hole it went through in the hedge, over the hill and down.... down....down....down... slipping barefoot down the hill through the mud.
It was a blast!
reminded me of being a kid.
The ball however went down much faster than myself and I decided quickly to stop myself by reaching out and grabbing a tree. This particular tree's bark is mostly thorns. My left hand got about ten thorn pricks into it, but it wasn't bad and they came out quickly.
After I got up the hill, I looked at the hole. It was roughly the size of a basketball.
Everyone was chattering about how they saw me going after the ball then slipping through a tiny hole... and where DID I GO? They all wondered if I meant to do what I did.. which I did and thought it cool.
Yeah.. cool. I'm cool. Me... hahahahaha.
Anyway.. then, someone said "next goal wins the game" and the ball happened to be near me after a while near the goal (two coconuts) and I did a sliding kick, half on purpose half involuntarily and scored the winning goal.
My son was rather excited about that. He was telling me that he knew if I got the ball I'd score the winning goal. His confidence in my athletic ability far surpasses my own.
I really stink at most things athletic and yet I was glad to do something like that with and in front of my son because growing up, seeing my dad's athleticism was always impressive and always lent evidence to my belief he was king of the world.
So, if a dad can seem bigger in his own son's eyes for a brief moment, then so be it. It's worth thorns in the hand and a sore knee in the morning (-;
But today's challenge was different. A challenge that we're unsure whether or not is from the enemy or not.
Please pray. Our son isn't handling this transition to POC too well. He's taken a pause from the general lovable easy going Calvin and become a whiner, and a complainer, and a fit thrower. He's argumentative and the other boy his friend here doesn't speak English.
His attitude is draining us as parents and distracting us from the learning we need to do. I missed half of class today trying to get him to nap. He simply isn't happy.
He hasn't been the happy Calvin for a while now. As parents we're tired out by it. Anything will set him off, he'll scream over pineapple at lunch. It makes us tired and sad.
Please pray that we will have wisdom to give him what he needs to become the old Calvin again. The patience and the energy. Our family is our priority, I didn't mean to sound like it was not. It is that his constant.... crankiness is wearing us down a bit.
Please pray for him and for us. There are a lot of challenges here and we don't really have time to stop and allow the enemy a single foothold.
thank you.
