The Canby Cup

It’s hard to imagine a much bigger honor than to have a futbol tournament named after you in Africa where futbol is THE game and children grow up dreaming of becoming the next World Cup champion. To be honored in such a way is truly humbling – nice work church!  The tournament consisted of 16 local teams competing for the privilege of becoming the first ever Canby Cup champion.

This championship match wasn’t played in one of  the largest stadiums of the world, instead it was played in a cow pasture near the village of Kacungwa.  The goals didn’t have nets, they were made from 3 poles – the cross piece sagging like a [severely] sway-backed horse.  There were no lines on the field - a 4’ tall anthill represented one sideline and the fans lining the road was the other (reminded me of some of the places I played baseball as a kid).  The guest of honor wasn’t royalty or a political leader, instead he was a humble pastor from Canby, Oregon.  The players weren’t handpicked from an entire nation, instead they were local young men representing their small villages in the area surrounding Kacungwa – and about half of the players played without shoes.

In all of my experience watching world cup matches through the years, I haven’t experienced anything like what I did sitting in the “box” with the guest of honor.  There were an estimated 2500-3000 spectators watching this event and to them this WAS the world cup.

When the match was about to begin, our rag-tag group of missionaries were lead onto the field to greet the players as if we were something special.  The players lined up and we shook each player’s hand in turn and wished them good luck during the match.  These were truly athletes with determined looks on their faces and a handshake grip that showed their true strength.

The referee blew the whistle and the match began.  Sitting there looking at the crowd lining the field and seeing the uniquely African surroundings, I knew  this was a once in a lifetime event and I was going to enjoy every minute of it.

The scoring of a goal in the Canby Cup tournament is quite a spectacle.  Screaming and running on to the field by nearly the entire crowd.  There were people doing backflips onto the field – it truly was a moment worthy of the world cup!

The match was winding down and the Kacungwa team in Red was down a goal.  With just a minute to play, they put in a miraculous goal to tie the game.  The crowd went wild – rushing the field, singing, dancing, laughing, yelling, jumping up & down – it was truly an amazing way to cap off regulation play in the first annual Canby Cup championship game. 

Ultimately, however, in a championship game there can be only one champion.  A series of penalty kicks were to determine the winner of this game.  The first 2 players from each team easily made their shots.  The third player from Kacungwa hit the [sagging] cross-beam and it bounced back to the field (required some repair to the aging goal in the process).  The next shot went in and as the next Kacungwa player kicked the ball, it went high over the goal ending the game with the opponent winning the championship.

All of the thousands of spectators made their way to a semi-circle in front of us for the presentation of the championship trophy, the local village leader spoke, the gospel was shared, children sang worship songs and Pastor Sylver told the crowd of the great things Canby Christian Church was doing for their community and how much we love them – that is why they wanted to honor us by naming this the Canby Cup.

I think that we were all feeling unworthy of the honor being bestowed on us, because it was God who has provided and we are his vessels.  But at the end of the day, it truly was God who was glorified, that He would put the love in His people to travel to Uganda to help them was the story.  The announcement of the medical clinic coming in the next 2 days was the final announcement before the awarding of the trophy and where we are heading tomorrow.  Please pray that God will touch many people to heal them physically as well as spiritually.

I hope I can be back next year to experience another round of Canby Cup Futbol in Uganda!

Mukama mulungi (God is good)

PS  I know you were probably wondering what could happen if you played a fast-moving sport in a cow pastures with numerous cow-pies scattered throughout the field – and the answer is as you can imagine.  There was one spectacular “event” where a player stepped in the middle of one while running full speed and both the player and “debris” went flying resulting in a loud groan from everyone in the crowd.

SOME PICTURES OF THE FANS