First off...This city is beautiful! Nice people, peaceful, calm, everyone has seemed genuinely nice. I've enjoyed this trip so far, it's tough so flying alone, and staying alone, having zero human contact for most of the day cause your in your room since you have no car, and know nobody here. Anyways I first off want to thank God, for this opportunity to come up here to try out with a PDL team which is basically a summer league soccer team. It's there first year having a team, Eric Dutt the coach allowed me to come up here for the last trial this weekend yesterday was my first day and in two hours will be my last day, then a select few (including me I've been told) will play against Jacksonville University. Things are looking real good, and I think the most important factor, element, or whatever you want to call it is that I have allowed God to take control, and stopped trying to make things happen in my own strength. I remembered now that I am not able, or good enough to make this happen but God is my sole purpose and reason for continuing to pursue this dream. I believe it's Gods calling for my life. So things so far on this trip have definitely been a positive! I'm not gonna front though, I've been lonely up here I don't feel I have many people to talk to back home that I could really open up to, but thankfully before I came up here my boy (thank God for this niggas life) Albert he told me "You should never feel lonely, God is there for you, He is all you will ever need, don't seek a person seek him." He's completely right, I'm seeking for this physical compassion or love from a woman that I don't need right now. I'm not gonna lie it would be nice to have that, I remember when I did and it's awesome to have that other half pushing you and supporting you but I'm here cause of Gods grace and I have to continually seek Him, and bring Glory to His kingdom. I want to thank God for all the people He's been putting along my path that are helping me to really grow as a person! I'm gonna leave this blog saved up for now and will recap after my last training session and game......
Okay I got there at about 1:15 with training starting at 3:00 so I was VERY early. Goalkeeper coach pulled up at about 2, he's from England and played pro and asked me about my background and said he liked the way I play, and he could tell I had previously played pro, we spoke for a decent amount of time, and he truthfully gave me a lot of confidence going into the training session. This last session was very light and we were put apart about 16 of us from the majority of the players trying out. We trained lightly and were spoken about what formation we were going to play against JU...So training was fine, I did well scored two goals in a 8v8 game and we wrapped up at about 4:30. From there we went all of us 16 players to Subway and one of the assistant coaches payed for everyone, along with a Gatorade! That must've been the biggest Subway bill they have ever seen. Anyways after that we went to the training ground to play our game against JU. I was chosen as one of the starters and the game kicked off. JU has a pretty good bunch, at least offensively they have some foreign international players who definitely know what they're doing. I played a pretty good game overall, I was dead tired in about the 80th minute and asked to be sub, so I rested the final 10 minutes. JU had a very good attack and scored on penalty kick, which wasn't a penalty kick there player and our goalie collided on a 50/50 ball and they gave the call to the player...Stupidest call ever but what can you do. We were fortunate enough to get a goal in about the 86th minute to tie it up at 1-1 and the game ended with that result. After my game I was rushing to see if I can make my flight in time, before I left the coaches all congratulated me, and then head coach Eric Dutt pulled me to the side to have a few words. He pretty much said they really liked me, and my style of play. I have to work on my fitness, and my technical ability just a bit, and I should really be good to go. He also mentioned the best news for me of the day which still has me smiling, that was "we definitely want to sign you, so i'll keep in touch with you in the upcoming days." Finally after so much struggling because of my self and the positions I had put my self into. I've come to God stayed close, kept a humble heart, and finally I'm playing soccer again. It may not be a professional contract or anything but it's a start, and you better believe I'm going to work and not take this for granted. On top of that not do things in my own strength but for Gods glory. I have some awesome mentors in my life who are definitely going to keep me close, and reminding of Gods word and his unconditional love!
Anyways so boom I rushed out of there with a big smile on my face Rafael Diaz, my driver who's Colombian had brought his family with him, to take me to the airport. It seemed as if I wasn't going to be on time, but whatever along the way we spoke his family, and I. And wouldn't you know it his family has a very close relationship with God. We got into speaking about Gods kingdom, and it's beautiful I don't know how to explain it, but it's like when you see God putting the right people in your life. I mean seriously how many personal drivers are going to first of all open up to you like that, second of all be close to God, third of all they have their own radio station which they sing, and preach basically Gods word. I mean God is just moving in my life, and it's amazing and a blessing to see the people he's bringing along the way. I can definitely see myself hanging out with them when I get back into town May 10th.
Unfortunately I was unable to make my flight in time, I tried speaking to any tenant but nobody at all was working. The airport literally looked deserted. I mean I'm from Miami were somewhat like New York, in the sense that the city is constantly in movement and people are working around the clock. Well not the case here, there was zero tenants and zero flights leaving the airport. I weighed my choices, spoke to a cop, and he said I could go up the street to the Clarion Hotel or sleep here till about 4-5AM and wait till the workers to come in. I called the Clarion and they gave me a discounted rate for missing my flight, and now I'm here just ordered some room service, and I'm ready to hit the bed and figure out my flight arrangements for tomorrow back to Miami. I'm still happy though, I'm not letting something like this take away my high. I'm thankful for having an awesome God who's still here for me, despite all the things I've done to Him. Thank you God, I love you, I'm grateful...Gnight guys see you in Miami soon. Love y'all.
God Bless
