TREC Training: Topics that were addressed and special visitors

The two main topics addressed at the TREC training from Dec. 26 to Jan 4th were how to start and train an evangelistic soccer team and how to use soccer for Evangelism.

Thanks to no less than 7 soccer coaches from the US and Brazil, the Haitian participants got great coaching and are well-prepared to work with their teams.

In addition, they got to see first-hand how soccer can be used for evangelism because we organized a game between the Haitian Coast Guard and a local radio station called Megastar. Because the sound system did not work until the middle of the game, no one knew about the game at first. But by the time the game was over and we were doing the drawing for the prizes there was a crowd of about 200-300 people.

However, there were many other topics addressed at the seminar including Strategic Planning, Budgeting, Christian Stewardship and Fund Raising, Basics of Health Education, Managing a tournament and Conflict Resolution based on a book called “Peacemakers”.

There were also 3 special guests who visited us during the seminar:

1. Roger Derpilus, a Haitian who is being sent as a missionary to Senegal by the first ever Haitian missionary society called “Vision d’Antioch”. We want those who are influencing the next generation of Haitians a heart for the unreached in other nations.

2. Dan Carl who is the country director for “Book of Hope” Ministries in Haiti. The “Book of Hope” is a comic-book like booklet that reviews the life of Jesus and presents the Gospel. There are several versions of the booklet geared for different aged children and youth. Their goal is to put a booklet into the hands of every student in Haiti. We are helping them by distributing these excellent ways to share the Gospel with children in the schools we are working with. (www.bookofhope.com)

3. Antoine Craan works for the Haitian Soccer Federation and is in charge of training and supervising all the referees in Haiti. He was kind enough to review the most difficult rules of soccer with our participants.