Sports outreach in Namibia

 

10 churches and 2 Christian organisations worked together to hold an outreach from the 29 April - 9 May.  The aim was to reach all people, with ministry to women, men, young people and children.  This included men's and women's soccer and women's netball. 

 

Here Ben* reports back on the event (*names have been changed.)

 

"The outreach was a huge success. The Lord blessed us and the people beyond what we thought. Many people accepted the Lord as their Saviour throughout the week.  I was in charge of the soccer clinics and it was not easy although in the end it went well. We struggled to get the field that we booked because it was a holiday almost the whole week and some teams would just come and play at the field. Sometimes we would drive for an hour to get a field. We had between 80-100 boys at the soccer clinic everyday and more than 10 boys accepted the Lord everyday which was good. I had 8 coaches who helped me with the coaching and we could divide the boys in small groups which was very good to handle a small group. The Pastors were impressed with the soccer clinics and want me to help them start soccer clinics in their area.

 

We also did house to house evangelism which was the most effective at the outreach, because of the culture of the people. They believe that you don't reveal a personal matter in the public and that's why it was easy for them to accept the Lord on a one to one basis. I shared with a guy who believed in his ancestors and church traditions. He was very hard to convince about receiving the Lord as his Saviour, because of what he believed, but at the end he asked me "how can I have eternal life" We could not believe it, but we knew that the Lord changed him.

 

The evening meetings were great. Many people accepted the Lord and were set free from demons. I remember sitting near a lady and she said that I must pray for her, because she is feeling some pain in her chest. I prayed for her and white things were coming out from her mouth. It was the first time I saw something like that.

 

The highlight of the week was when a boy of 12 years who I have been discipling for the last 3 years shared with the people in the meeting. My pastor asked him to share with the people, because he saw him sharing with the children. That evening he shared about the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ using a flashcard and more than 300 people were listening to him. At the end of his message he made an invitation and asked the people to come forward to receive Christ. About 30 children and 10 older people stood up to receive Christ. No one could believe it and I never thought that this could happen . I give God all the glory for what happened on the outreach. I personally learned a lot from the outreach."