The Champions

A highlight of New Staff Training is men's and women's recreation. The men play soccer EVERY week, the women... well, we have a hard time agreeing on one thing, so we do lots of things, like play kickball (all 120 of us... and there are only two teams... we play with 10 outs per inning... it's a blast) or go on a scavenger hunt or have a craft night. (More on that later, it was a neat one.)

Praying before a game.

To help foster community the missionaries are broken up into groups of 8 men or women that form a "college." It's kind of like a cabin at summer camp. Each men's college pairs up with another college to form a soccer team for the summer (except for the married men who have enough married guys for their own team). At the end of NST the men have their end of the season playoffs between the colleges and they determine a champion in one night. LAST NIGHT WAS THAT NIGHT.

The history of The College of St. Thomas More (the married men's college) is not a pretty one. In previous summers, it's a good night if someone scores a goal. One year they didn't win a single game.

But last tonight, history as we know it changed. The College of St. Thomas More, or "Indissoluble" (in honor of the indissolubility of marriage, St. Thomas More's martyrdom for the sake of marriage and their ability to not be destroyed) reigned victorious and brought home the championship title defeating the previously undefeated biz-cas (as in business casual) team (they go to a thrift store and buy oxfords and ties for their jerseys... it's a tradition).

Notice: They are holding up their RING finger to show "we are number one"... because that's the finger their wedding bands are on.

Since we wives were all at our own rec event, we missed it. BUT we did get a 30 minute explanation of the entire seasons highlights as we celebrated on the married floor with Coors Light and Pink Strawberry Champaign from our thoughtful hubbies. They made it through three playoff games tonight and won in sudden death PKs in the final game.

The supportive wives. (kind of Captain Planet-ish)

We were all very proud of our men and can't wait to see their championship t-shirts. There is already talk of making a traveling trophy in honor of the event.