A Surprise Visit!

A Surprise Visit!

One of the things I like about Haiti is that you never know who is going to show up at your door. The other day I had an appointment with Watneck, one of our long-time leaders. He told me he was coming with a few of his players who he was bringing into Port-au-Prince for tryouts with some first division professional teams.

Imagine my surprise when he shows up at my gate with 8 big, strapping (and hungry) players. At first I was a little overwhelmed by the numbers, However, my first thought was “What an opportunity this is to share Christ with these young men, and some life-experiences I have had that could help them as they launch their professional soccer career”!

So after I put on some water to boil for a big pot of spaghetti, I had them sit down and started to talk to them about how important it is to live a balanced life and not neglect our spiritual lives for the sake of soccer. I asked the 8 who had trusted in Christ, and only 3 out of the 8 said they had. So I had a chance to share the Gospel with the group using the testimonies of several Brazilian soccer players who are Christians. I also told them that you never know when you might die, and showed them my gun-shot wound. Then we talked about some of the trials they will face as professional athletes living among competitive players who will try anything to get ahead and win.

I decided to give each one of them a nice Leather-bound New Testament in Haitian Creole and as I handed out the first one, the young man named Jean Marie took the Bible and said “Merci”. Then I read Ephesians 2:8-9 and asked them what we have to do to receive God’s free gift of salvation. I reminded them of how Jean Marie had received the gift of the Bible. He took the Bible from me, and said “Thank you”. This is one very important thing to understand about receiving God’s free gifts. Of course I went on to talk about the importance of repentance, and asking forgiveness and many other concepts that are important to know in order to have a sincere, saving faith. But one essential is simply believing and receiving God’s good gifts.

Finally, I had them play a game. I handed them 5 Haitian bank notes and told them one of them was counterfeit. After they found the one that was false, I told them how police who are trained to detect counterfeit notes are not shown notes that are false, but only bank notes that genuine. Once they know what the genuine notes look like in detail, it is easy to spot false ones. In the same way I told them they need to study God’s Word so they know the truth so well, they will not easily be deceived by all the temptations a professional athlete might face.

Watneck then mentioned that his players had no equipment: no cleats, socks, shin guards, shorts, or jerseys. So I looked in my soccer depot to see what I could come up with. Imagine going to professional tryouts with no equipment! Of course professional athletes in Haiti are lucky to make enough to just support their immediate families, and the chances are pretty slim that many of these players will make it to the big leagues, but we want to do all we can to prepare them for life now, and after their careers are over.

I also helped him type up some letters he needed for a woman’s soccer tournament he wanted to do next week since March 8th is International Women’s Day.

I ended up spending most of the day with this group of young men who have so much potential, but who will struggle without a spiritual compass in their lives.