If you are headed overseas, I 100% recommend joing some type of team, club, or league. This is one of the most natural ways to make friends and establish relationships, while also getting familiar with your surroundings. It is crazy how the feeling of being a part of something can really help you take ownership and feel as if you have found your place (kind of) in your new environment. I joined a football team and help out with a girls running program and they have been two of my favorite things!
My football teammates have taught me so much, including the gift of generosity. For starters, they let the white foreigner who speaks broken French join their team even though we really can’t communicate and I am not all that great. I know it can be a hassle or a burden to try and explain things to me, yet they do so kindly and with smiles on their faces. Secondly, less than a third of my teammates are wearing both cleats with shin guards and socks by the end of practice. This is because they share. If someone is a lefty and another is a righty, then the two of them will each wear one cleat with the corresponding sock and shin guard. This isn’t something that is argued about or questioned, it’s assumed. When it’s time for a water break, a few people will go get water and then share with the rest of the team. For my teammates, they don’t think twice about these habits. For me, I am constantly in awe of their generosity and the effortlessness with which they share. There are a ton of other lessons these girls have taught me, including more football skills, but overall I think this is the one that sticks out the most.
How often do I have a complaining, grumbling, selfish heart and attitude? Not to say that my friends don’t also experience these emotions, but they are so inclined to generosity that it is often subconscious. That is what I want to model. I want to model this generosity, which I really believe comes from the Lord, in my everyday life. I want to be so generous that instead of only giving out of abundance, I can also give out of a space of scarcity. That’s what these friends do, and I am humbled and honored to be able to be on the receiving end and learn from them! Stepping out of my comfort zome and joining this football team was, and still is, quite stretching but in all the best of ways!