A few years ago the Salvos started connecting with
people in a local Park in Merrylands. We shared great food and often had a kick
of the soccer ball with some of the kids. This soon grew and kids and their
parents came form everywhere to join in.
One of the ways we started to build community when we
started a Salvo ministry in Merrylands, a very multicultural suburb in Sydney,
was to meet in the local park for a BBQ.
We had met a few people through things like providing welfare hampers
and in our conversational English class at a local school and they were keen to
gather and join together and make new friends.
At first the meals were quite simple.
Usually a BBQ with a simple salad but soon we invited everyone to get
involved in the organizing and cooking the meal. There were people from Syria, China and a
variety of other cultures and the food was spectacular. Our BBQ was soon replaced by a charcoal
cooker and we stopped eating sausages and started eating things like kebabs,
marinated chicken wings and dumplings.
We loved the time to just sit and chat on those balmy summer Sunday
afternoons.
A fabulous part of the gatherings was the presence of
families and the children. They were
full of energy and life and wanted desperately for us adults to join in their
games, take them to the playground and pay them some attention. It didn’t take long for me to be providing
whizzies and pushing kids on the swings and having a great time.
One kid was obsessed with soccer and managed to get me
and a few of the dads present to have a kick with him on the oval. Soon brothers and sisters joined in and we
had the beginnings of a game. Other kids
in the park saw this and asked if they could join in. Of course we said yes. We eventually set up some shirts and drink
bottles as goals and started playing a more serious game. Well disputes arose about the rules and it
was clear we needed a ref, so despite the fact that I am only versed in the
rules of AFL, I took on the mantle and proceeded to shout at kids that seemed
too rough or who actually picked up the ball with their hands. The rules were quite simple at first.
Before long I managed to remember to bring a whistle
and we soon had some colourful cones to set up a goal and some sideline
boundaries. We eventually got fully
inspired and purchased some good sized portable soccer goals – it even had a
net.
Well that changed everything and every kid in the park
wanted to join in. We were still playing
with adults and so if a kid joined in, I told him to go get his dad or mum and
get them to play too. That was a good
way to maintain a bit of discipline and maintain some semblance of order and
fair play. Although some dad got pretty
serious themselves. Luckily they soon
ran out of puff and retreated to the sidelines for a cool drink and a
rest. Before long we had enough adults
to form a team against the swarm of kids.
Maybe 7 adults verses 15 kids.
This went a little crazy and some Sundays we would have 40 or 50 kids playing
together. It was mayhem and just too
congested to actually work.
In the crowd of bodies following this white ball
around were lots of little guys and girls who didn’t want to miss out. The older kids were asked to be nice and give
them a fair go, but it eventually became clear that this was frustrating the
older kids and they were often too rough or just hogged the ball. We ended up realizing this problem was a
good way to justify splitting the group and having two smaller games rather
than one big one each Sunday. So we had
a little kids match followed by the senior teams. We had an A league apparently. This worked well for a while but again kids
hated having to sit out while the other teams had a go and often the kids would
get bored and just join in again.
The other problem we had was that kids would swap
teams mid match, without telling anyone.
If their side was losing – they would just start playing for the other
side to get more action and have a chance at scoring a goal. I struggled to know who started on what team. We needed to make a way to distinguish teams
and so a few of the mums got together and sewed up bibs. This way teams started and finished with the
same kids and we could maybe adjust teams in a more orderly way, if it became
obvious that one team was slaughtering the other.
One ten year old came to me and explained that all the
famous soccer teams and individual superstars in the world started like us –
just a bunch of kids playing soccer in a local park. We could be the next Real Madrid he
said. And you could be the next
Maradonna I said. Who’s that he
said. Oh maybe that was a few years ago,
who is your favorite player, can you choose one? Messy
he said. Yeah its tricky to choose just
one eh? Awkward silences.
Well with me as the main coach and expert on the field,
world soccer domination was unlikely but what is true is that for a whole
summer in 2018 there were a bunch of kids who came to a park in Merrylands
every Sunday night to play soccer with the salvos and they absolutely loved
it.
I ended up watching a few of these kids play soccer
for their local clubs and cheering them on from the sidelines. My love of soccer has waned since then, but
connecting with kids and being a part of their world has not.
The kids in my life these days love making movies on
their smart phones. Maybe these guys
will be movie stars and Oscar winning producers, who knows.
Bless ya,
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