The following is an excerpt from an email we received from one of our US-based reps who was able to attend a meeting with several of our reps from the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa: "Please pass along my thanks to all who helped organize the meeting and make it an invaluable experience. What an amazing team (staff and reps). I am humbled and honored to be associated with you all. I sat among obedient, risk-taking GIANTS and was humbled. It is time to "get in the game" 100%."
The following report is from one of our sports workers - a National who is also a Muslim Background Believer - living and working in his home South Asian country (edited for security and readability): "The ongoing wave of displacement in a certain South Asian country is the single largest population movement recorded in the country since it was created. Under pressure to tackle the militancy which has taken root in the country, the government has launched successive military offensives in the past months across several districts of the country. Recently the government decided to move all the Internally Displaced Peoples into one camp. There are more than 25,000 families and 107,000 people in the camp with the majority being women and children. There is a great number of orphans, child-headed families and woman-headed families in this camp. In an effort to engage the youth and provide an avenue for recreation to them, we partnered with the local government and other humanitarian organizations to conduct sport camps. The camps were a tremendous success! There were 100 boys and 100 girls involved in the program. In addition to the sports activities, all 200 children were provided with food and hygiene kits at the end of the program.
This inaugural event has laid the foundation for many more similar camps. If we work together we can continue to bring smiles to the faces of hundreds and thousands of these disadvantaged children and ultimately impart the Gospel Message to them through Sport!"
Last month, we were given the opportunity to go to an island of a Southeast Asian Nation that is unreached and hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the past few decades, the local government of this island prevented foreigners from even traveling there; however, due to a change in government, these restrictions have recently eased. That being said, five "intentional" families were recently deported from the country because of their affiliations with "M" organizations and/or motives. Praise God for the avenue of Sports that allows us access to these areas of the World! At the invitation of a high-ranking official, we took a team to conduct a sports camp for at-risk youth on the island. Our goal in doing this was that by conducting an excellent camp, respecting their culture, and expressing our interest in their country, the island officials would not only invite us back, but allow one of our sports workers to live on their island. Praise the Lord, this invitation HAS BEEN GIVEN - both for more short-term teams as well as long-term workers! Please join us in asking the Lord to raise up long-term workers to live on this island for the sake of His Gospel.
Our rep in East Asia has seen the Lord work in mighty ways during his time there. He knows first-hand the unique ability that sport has to penetrate normal social barriers and jumpstart friendships which ultimately lead to sharing opportunities. The following is an excerpt from one of his emails: "The Father is moving in the hearts of some of the weightlifters who live in this city. Two of them have recently decided to start walking with Him (one called me late last night, wanting to share the news of his new-found freedom), and we are hoping that they will have an influence in their teammates' lives."