The necessity of forgiveness

The necessity of forgiveness

Ambassadors in Sport bi-annual Leadership Summit

About 40 leaders from about 22 countries met this past week to share best practices and discuss our common vision to help evangelize the world through soccer. According to the internet, there are 196 countries, so we are now present in more than 10% of the countries of the world!
One of the leaders works with inner-city children in Pittsburgh, PA. It turns out that Pittsburgh is only about 2 hours from Twinsburg, OH, so when he learned about some of my adventures in Haiti, he asked me if I would like to come and talk to his teams.

On Wednesday morning I sent out an email to my prayer supporters asking for prayer for the Leadership summit and I also mentioned that I would be in Pittsburgh that night.

It turned out that one of my long-time supporters was also going to be in Pittsburgh that night, so throughout the day we communicated.

So on Wednesday night, we drove in very cold weather, to Pittsburgh and arrived at Northgate church in time to participate in a “soccer 4-square” tournament. I jumped right into the game with the teens while Lenny, my host, prepared for the meeting. Lenny told me that he has been doing soccer ministry in two locations in Pittsburgh for many years, and then a few years ago he learned about AIS and started to partner with them. This was the first Leadership conference Lenny had attended and it just so happened that he sat next to me! Now I was on my way to Pittsburgh to share with his players.

Since I could not show pictures of the ministry in Haiti, I had the children sit down and come close so I could tell them stories of Africa and Haiti. It turned out that many of the teens were from African countries, while others were from Thailand, Iran and Colombia.

I started out by telling the 50 or so children the story of a young man I met in South African prison who had kidnapped and killed a popular South African entertainer. Through the Ambassadors in Sport soccer ministry in his prison, he had trusted in Christ and asked forgiveness. Then I told them the story of how I was shot by a robber in Haiti. Some of the prisoners in the South African prison had shot people, and I was able to tell them that through Jesus, they could be forgiven.

After I told them I had been shot, one of the older boys asked me what I would say to the man who shot me if I had the chance. I said I would tell him I would forgive him because Christ had forgiven me. This lead into a discussion on forgiveness where I reminded the children what it says in the Lord’s prayer: “Forgive us our sins as we forgive the sins of others”

Later I learned that many of the children were dealing with anger and unforgiveness. One girl said “I never realized that God asks us to forgive others in the Lord’s prayer.” Another was very angry with his Father for certain things done in the past.
So I rejoice that God guided me to speak about a topic that touched the hearts of so many children.

Then I had the opportunity to go upstairs and share our ministry with adults who were there for the Wednesday night prayer meeting. These dear believers asked lots of good questions and then prayed for me and the ministry.

Then I went back down to tell the children a quick story about the earthquake in Haiti and challenge them to trust in Christ.

Later that night we went to see my friend at the house of his best friend who is a Pastor. It turns out that part of the church’s outreach is a bookstore. When I showed he and his wife the jewelry that Francoise makes from cereal boxes they purchased $135.00 worth to sell in their store!

Needless to say, I left Pittsburgh at 6 AM the next morning rejoicing in what God had done during my short visit!