futbal de salon

So life here isn't really so bad, but I think I'm going to have to learn to love AFL. Or at least tolerate it. Fortunately among the BCV students there are quite a few European and South American guys, which ensures that a proper emphasis on football (sorry, soccer) is maintained.

Speaking of which, I played futsal for the first time in a while last Friday night. Futsal is a Brazilian invention; its full name is 'futbal de salon' - basically 'football in a small room' - and is five a side soccer played on a basketball court with smaller goals and some modified rules. Also the ball is smaller and heavier so the emphasis is more on passing and small, quick moves because you can't blast the ball into the opposite goal on a goalkick. So. Futsal. Friday night. I played two games with my friends from BCV, playing two quite hard teams. And we won! Woot and all that. I think the scores were something like 9-6 and 8-7. And the highlight....well. Picture the goal, about the size of a field hockey goal. And then picture a whole lot of people around one side of it, trying to kick the ball. And then picture the ball popping out to the other side of the goal with no one to kick it. So what could I do? I just had to run forward and help it into the GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALL! I think that's my first goal in futsal. Really, it was just cleaning up. But a goal's a goal.

So I think that's the most fun I've had in a while. But coming up this Saturday morning, beginning at 0300, is the most fun I will probably have in a while. Although I'm not really sure it's fair to compare the two, seeing as the one is more than 160 times longer than the other. But hey. I'm going to PNG (God willing) this Saturday for two weeks. So all I am doing this Thursday and Friday is waiting for Saturday. And some other things I have to do also.

I got baptised today

"There are two reasons I'm standing in the pool today : the first is my parents. When I was eight, I was walking down the street, holding my Dad's hand, and he was explaining that I had to invite Jesus into my heart. 'Righto,' I thought, 'fair enough. Jesus, please come into my heart.' And that was the moment I became a Christian, even with such a small faith. So my walk began there.

"The second reason I'm here -- 2 Timothy 3:4-5 says, 'But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it' -- that's my parents -- 'and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.' So the second reason is the power of the Scriptures and God's work in my life. This salvation is based solely on Jesus' death and resurrection -- that is, he died for my sins, and was raised to life so I could be justified.

"Let me read to you -- well, let me tell you some verses from Romans 6 : 'Or don't you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus' -- that is, baptised with the Holy Spirit -- 'were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life...For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin -- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin...In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.' [Ro. 6:3-4, 6-7, 11]

"Now this baptism is symbolic of the change that has taken place in me. As David pushes me into the water, it symbolises me dying to sin, and as he pulls me back out, it symbolises my being raised to new life in Christ Jesus.

"So this baptism is a public declaration of the fact that I have died to sin, and am alive to God in Christ Jesus."