Vickery Meadow Soccer

Tomorrow is our fourth weekend of Refugee Soccer here in Dallas. It's our third season, and it's becoming a demanding and highly enriching part of my life here in Dallas. It's a bizarre thing to drive into Vickery Meadow in-and-of-itself, but to then park near a field and watch as over 100 kids emerge from the streets and apartments to come and play soccer is just wild. Kids from some of the most torn countries on the planet, relocated here to this vast apartment jungle through the US Relocation Program.

They face huge challenges as they adapt to our culture and way of life. Many of them are fatherless, many of them start their education way behind, many of them are connected to gangs that have split Vickery Meadow into competing territories. The languages, dialects and diets are across the board, but we've found at least one thing that transcends all of it: Soccer.

We give them a league in their own neighborhood. We bring in the goals, the shirts, the water, the staff, the refs (me!), the love and the sweat. It all kind of hangs on by a thread, but it also works. Along the way, we try to share with the kids one other thing that transcends their differences and challenges: the love of God and the hope of Christ.

Ethan is playing in the younger division this year, which I'm really excited about. I know it's a little intimidating for him since these kids are a bit older and filled with soccer instinct. But he'll hold his own, and hopefully enjoy a summer of soccer in what feels for now like another world.