Ambassadors Football Camp in PA

The week of July 14 to 18 I had the privilege of being one of 13 soccer coaches at the Ambassadors Football camp at Church of the Savior in Wayne, PA.

The camp was lead by John Boggs, who grew up in Haiti and is a really great camp director and story-teller. Our team of coaches consisted of three Brazilians, two from Northern Ireland, one from England, two from the Netherlands a Mexican, a Scottish young man and one from the Czech Republic.

The remarkable thing was how well we all worked together in a spirit of Christian unity even though we were from very different cultures.

I coached a team of eight 7 & 8 year olds: 6 boys and two girls. In my group were two players of Haitian decent! I was able to help assure two players of their salvation and share the Gospel with one who had not yet made a decision for Christ. So please pray for "J" as he thinks about the decision only he can make to trust in Christ.

Each day we spent time on the soccer field teaching soccer skills and playing games.

Then after lunch we would have a Bible study time and assembly time where we had some fun with our players, but also shared important Bible truths. The Bible character we looked at this year was Peter,and how he went from a coward to a pillar of the church after his faith was strengthened by the Master!

One of the highlights of the week happened after the camp was done for the day. We visited a Christian soccer outreach in Upper Darby which is a very diverse town near Philadelphia. It is estimated that in that township over 100 languages are spoken!

While there while the others coached soccer, I got to share the Gospel with several younger teams and later I shared how I survived the Earthquake and a gunshot wound in Haiti with older players. After I told how I survived being shot the older group actually burst into spontaneous applause! This was the first time this had ever happened to me, even though I have told the story hundreds of times. It touched my heart!

There also happened to be a team of Haitian adults practicing at the park and I was able to talk to them and give them some Gospel tracks. Later we played a short game with them.

During the camp we challenged the players to bring in soccer balls for kids in Haiti and they responded by bringing in over 35 balls!

Please pray for me the week of July 28 - August 1 as I lead the soccer portion of a VBS at another of our supporting churches!