From March 7th to 10th, 2013 I visited with the Ambassadors Football Haiti’s two Regional Committees located in the Artibonite Department (think “state”) of Haiti.
First I visited the four teams we have in Archaie, where the “Betsy Ross” of Haiti came from, and where the first Haitian flag was sown. This committee did a great job with their first tournament last August and said they were thrilled that 60 people had trusted Christ as a result of this tournament. However, they reminded me that I had promised some Bibles for them to use in follow up. Now, thanks to some recent funds that came in, I can provide them with these Bibles.
The second visit was with our Regional Committee of Lower Artibonite in the town of Verrettes. This meeting went for a couple of hours as we talked about the challenges they faced and different ideas of how to resolve them. In the end we all left tired, but encouraged that we had a good meeting.
The following day we passed through Gonaives and picked up the president of the Regional Committee of Upper Artibonite named Nesly Gustave. He served as our guide as we travelled to Gros Mornes where we have 4 schools involved in the AFH program. The road to Gros Mornes is very bad, so it took us a little longer than expected, and unfortunately we got there late and couldn’t meet with all the schools we had hoped. In the end, we only met with one team and took their pictures for their ID cards. Nesly is going to have to go back on those rough roads to take the pictures of the other teams and collect their administrative forms.
Saturday we got up early to do a special training with our 8 teams in Gonaives. Players from 7 out of the 8 teams showed up little by little. When we got to the field we found half of it taken up by construction material and equipment. It seems like wherever you go in Haiti, roads are under construction! In addition, there were other teams training on the field. But next to the field was a park that had walkways that were actually just perfect for the drills I wanted to do that day, so God provided! We got some chalk and outlined the squares we needed for the training on the walkways, and at one point had 5 squares of 4 players going at one time. I showed the other coaches present how to do the drills and then had them supervise the players. When more players came, we sent the first group to a lesson about the dangers of dirty water and then related that to the importance of keeping their spiritual lives clean as well. Then when all seven teams we showed up we added a third activity because the team practicing on the field challenged us to a friendly game. They ended up beating us 2-1, but our players held their own! At the end we got all of the players together so I could tell them the story of how I was shot in Port-au-Prince and remind them that “today is the day of salvation” as we never know when our life will end.
After that, we visited an orphanage that is on the same grounds as a school that is in our program. I showed the boys a few things they could work on to improve their soccer, and also showed one of the girls a few things. They gave hugs and then we had to run.
Then I had lunch with 4 of the 5 members of the Regional Committee members. We talked about how the teams were going and also about how each team needed to take more responsibility for their finances. This lead to a discussion of different ways the teams could raise money locally like asking the players to contribute a small amount each practice, charging admissions to games, and asking local businesses for contributions. We also talked about how we can help players who show potential to get into programs that can help them possibly become professional players.
Our final trip that day was to the town of Ennery, the birthplace of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the “George Washington” of Haiti. There are four AFH teams there, and three of them showed up to have their pictures taken for identity cards. While they were waiting I had lots of time share my life story: The loss of my Father at age 11, how I started to play soccer, how I started Ambassadors Football Haiti, and how I was shot. Throughout the story I mixed in Bible verses and spiritual lessons. I also taught them a worship song I had translated from French to Creole. The words in English are “Jesus gives peace, Joy and love”. I had to change one word because the French work for “love” – “L’amour” sounds too much like “lamò” in creole which means “death” – it wouldn’t do for children to sing “Jesus gives death”!
So in one day I figure I spoke in Creole to about 180 of our players. Plus, I gave 200 nice evangelistic soccer booklets to the players on the team we played against. So I am praying that God’s Word will touch the hearts of all who heard me on this trip!
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