‘A coach will impact more people in one year than the average person will in an entire lifetime‘
– Billy Graham
Forty teenaged boys arrived with their coaches to camp in summer of 2006. However, there was one little boy that didn’t belong there that year…
David* was younger than the camp directors had recommended and smaller than a lot of the other boys. He was also from a village where there were no Christians and his coach had been praying for an opportunity to build relationships through his football teams.
By the end of the week, David committed his life to following Jesus and left camp to share the same message he’d heard from his coach with his village. More than 70 people accepted God’s gift of life and a church was planted.
Today, David has founded 22 sports ministry teams and continues to spread the good news of Jesus among the least-reached of Ethiopia — the country where Sports Friends began in 2002.
SIM ministry Sports Friends shares a vision for local churches and church planters to use sports as a powerful tool to share his love with young people, their families and their communities, across Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
During Sports Friends’ camps, many young people encounter the love and good news of Jesus through crafts, dramas, games, and the relationships they build with camp staff and their coach who accompanies them.
“Our vision and hearts’ desire is to ultimately see many thousands of churches around the world using the platform of sports to touch millions of lives with the love of Jesus Christ,” says SIM UK’s Cat Tongkao, who leads the Sports Friends communications team.
*Pseudonym used
Please pray
- Many young people would place their hope in the truth of the gospel and grow to become mature disciples of Jesus Christ.
- For families to see how sports ministry has transformed the lives of their children and be open to hearing the good news for themselves.
- For Sports Friends coaches serving around the world, as they strive to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those around them.