This month my primary ministry was the soccer program whose vision is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, all over the world, using the “Living Ball” as a tool- where each ball becomes a symbol of hope. The Living Ball is quite genius; there are 57 countries in Africa who all know about soccer however only a quarter of them know who Jesus is, what better way to share the love of Jesus with them than doing something they love. Over the past two months I have had the opportunity to work with Liz Cloutier, an incredible woman of God. She was a World Racer who returned home September, 2013 and has been continuing her run towards the Lord ever since. She came to Africa to use her passion for soccer to glorify the Lord. Her obedience and drive is admirable.
There have been soccer tournaments hosted in South Africa, Zambia, and Malawi and will be hosted in Swaziland. The winner of each country will travel to South Africa to play in the championship. Over the past few weeks the WR soccer team and I have been working on planning the tournament for Senga Bay, Malawi. We were originally planning on having the tournament on a Saturday, however there was a funeral and in Africa when someone passes the entire area is quiet for 2 days out of respect. We already had everything planned and carried the goals all the way there (over 2 miles) and set everything up but we canceled the tournament.
Our host Johann and Liz both prayed about a day to reschedule the tournament and both received Thursday. We were advised against this because Saturdays are the day for soccer in Malawi and with school and work it is not very likely to have a good turnout. We decided to put faith to the test and have the tournament on Thursday. Liz had to leave for Zambia so it was up to my team and I to host the tournament. We had only two days to get the soccer field approved, inform teams, and tell local churches and vendors. We already made the goals (out of bamboo trees) and had all the brackets and pools organized but had no idea how many teams would actually show up. My team and I prayed about it and Jenna and I both received the number 12. Sure enough the day of the tournament we had 12 teams come. Each team was assigned a world racer to hang out with them for the day and get to know them. I wasn’t able to work with the teams directly because I was busy on the administration side but I heard from many racers it was their favorite day of ministry in Malawi thus far. My soccer team and I were extremely pleased and grateful with how well the tournament turned out!
There are four colors on the ball…
Black: Sin (Romans 3:23) Red: Jesus’ blood (John 3:16) White: washed clean (Hebrews 12:14) Green: Grow in Christ (Ephesians 4:15)
To learn more about the Living Ball or to follow Liz and her ministry please see lizcloutierblogspot.com
