We know many of you have asked us to share more stories with you!
Stories are often hard for us to share because we never want to expose or exploit someones story who is not yet ready to share. However we are excited because a few members of our soccer team have given us permission to share their stories with you.
So we plan to do just that. We will be sharing one story here, but over the next few weeks we will be sharing more stories on our instagram page @hellomarked and on facebook! So follow along and be on the look out.
Victor.
For 12 years, Victor lived a life of lockdown. A common practice by the mamas in our communities who are doing their best to keep their children out of the gang life. He was aloud to go to school, but then immediately had to come home to work and simply be. Locked in his home or tiny cement patio, hours were spent in solitude. Years of thoughts and torment with no one to relate to.
At the age of 12, Victor had had enough and would begin to play soccer with anyone who would play with him. Every chance he could get he was on that soccer field. Though it started innocent, he quickly found himself playing with an older group of guys, that would introduce him to a lifestyle of anger and violence.
The field turned into a place where all the emotions he had bottled up for all those years began to explode. Burst of uncontrollable anger began to be a normal part of his life as he began to walk down a path of pure destruction.
It was through that same soccer field a few years later where we met Victor. And though he didn’t know who we were, he simply wanted to play and the invitation was open to him.
When Victor started playing with our MARKED team we had many conversations about his anger, and how we as a team played. How good sportsmanship was one of our core values and that we would help him find solutions to tap in and heal those areas of his heart that were so bound with anger. Game after game, we saw something shift. Victor was changing. Though he walked a fine line with his anger, we were watching him learn self control. Instead of his fits of rage, he would grab fists full of gravel rocks and clench them tightly in his hands. And instead of throwing them, he was met with his coaches and his fellow teammates calling his name as he slowly let them go. One rock dropping at a time.
Months later, and more times than we can count of rocks picked up and slowly released we have seen something even more significant. Every time he picked up a handful of rocks, he released something and was met with supernatural healing.
Today, Victor is now a straight 10 “A” student, one of our players with so much potential to further his soccer career and in the fall of 2020 he will begin his high school career. Today you will find him hanging out any chance he can at our community center, always greeting everyone with a hug and the biggest smile. He is often the first to show up and the last to leave. He has found freedom in family.
Names and photos have been changed to protect identity.