The 2004 National Christian Football Festival has just been staged in Manchester with a record 27 Church teams from all over the country taking part. Over 100 matches were staged over two days and the winners were determined by goal difference at the end of it. Genesis FC from Loughborough scored more goals so snatched the trophy from Heworth Christian Fellowship from Gateshead in the North East.

Molesey Community Church from Surrey won the Fairplay trophy which was voted for by the referees and opposition teams. The New Teams trophy was won by Westcliff Baptist Church from Essex who just piped Sunderland Methodist Circuit for the title.

 

David Cox of Betel in the West Midlands and Joe Maloney from Christ Church New Malden in Surrey were voted the two players of the tournament. The local referees complimented the players on their behaviour and asked if they could referee again next year when Ambassadors in Sport take over the organising from Mark Blythe of Molesey Community Church, visit www.aisint.org for information.

 

Kevin Connolly from Chessington Evangelical Church and David Cox from Betel shared how God had brought them through very different tough times and had turned their lives around. Dave Oakley from Ambassadors gave all 400 players the opportunity to look to Jesus as the real source of happiness.

Mark Blythe

 

Football weekend at Frinton on Sea

49 children ( 11 girls and 38 boys) between the ages of 11 and 14 attended the event. Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon was taken up with a variety of coaching sessions where kids were taught dribbling skills, penalty shootouts, ball control etc., culminating with their own World Cup tournament. Interspersed with the football coaching the kids came together with the coaches to learn about how Jesus could become an effective part of their lives.

 

The weekend culminated with the Church service on the Sunday evening being made over to an awards evening for the kids that took part in the coaching weekend. The head coach from Ambassadors, Jon Hamilton, gave his own challenging testimony at the end of the service. In the

region of 50 parents attend the service, most of whom do not regularly attend a Church.
 

Kids that attended the weekend and their parents are already asking when the next one will be!! We do run a Monday evening football coaching session for a similar age group at the local school premises. This is run by some of our own Sports ministry team and we are encouraging those that came to the Ambassadors weekend to come along to the weekly sessions.

Barry Rouse