From August 17th to the 22nd we hosted a team of 5 Canadians who helped us finance and run a Futsal tournament on the island of La Gonave, which is in the bay or Port-au-Prince. (check out this link for more information about this fascinating island: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gon%C3%A2ve_Island)
Our purpose was to introduce the game of Futsal to the island and to train the 8 schools we worked with how to use sports as a means of evangelism. In order to accomplish this goal, we invited two National Officials with us on the trip to referee an 8 game tournament, and also train our leaders how to be referees themselves and spread the game throughout the island.
We organized a tournament between 4 teams from Anse-a-Galets, the main town on the island, and Palma, a major market up in the mountains. The team from the Wesleyan school at Anse-a-Galets won the tournament, with a team from Palma coming in second. Most important, however, was the number of people who responded to the Gospel: 48 indicated they trusted Christ and 86 asked to study the Bible with our local church partners.
Of course the players had a great time and many came to watch this new type of soccer (5-a-side with a goalie) that had never been played on La Gonave before.
