The prayer of IMB urban missionaries in South Africa is that God would use the soccer World Cup to draw attention to the lost people of the nation’s cities.

IMB missionaries minister in five cities that were hosts of the 2010 World Cup: Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth.

Wade Coker, the lead IMB strategist for southern Africa, said the Gospel was shared with thousands of people across South Africa, and hundreds made decisions to follow Christ. In Cape Town alone, Coker cited 287 people receiving Christ.

“To me the most critical work and sometimes the most difficult work in these types of events is going to take place now in the coming month or two,” Coker said, “and that is following up the decisions and … gathering the people together in Bible studies and in new outreach groups.”

Kurt Holiday, an IMB missionary who oversees strategies to reach South Africa’s urban centers, reported that a church has been started in Dobsonville, an area southwest of Johannesburg. “We did Holiday Bible Clubs and soccer clinics, witnessing and handing out tracts, and greeted people up and down the streets,” he said.

Now a small group of new believers regularly gathers in Dobsonville, forming the nucleus of a new church. “I think that is going to end up being the result of the World Cup, and that is great,” he shared.

Over 35,000 pieces of evangelistic literature were distributed in Soweto, including Gospel portions, a Christian sports magazine and tracts. “Every contact that we have will be followed up within the next month. We have an immediate plan,” Holiday reported.

“Using sporting events to get the Gospel out, we’ve shown that it can be very effective and is a way to plant churches, as long as there’s a strategy beforehand and follow-up afterwards,” Holiday said.

Both Coker and Holiday credit the efforts of volunteers in helping to carry out successful World Cup strategies.

“They were essential,” Holiday said. “There’s no way we could have done what we did, accomplished what we accomplished, without their help. As good as [the] missionaries are that we have, we just can’t cover that much ground that quickly.”

Thanks for walking with us on our journey through South Africa during the World Cup.

You can continue to read up-to-date stories about Africa at www.africastories.org.
Learn more about missions in Africa at www.imbafrica.org.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The stadiums now stand silent; the vuvuzelas packed away. Tourists are boarding planes, heading home to jobs and families. Media outlets are unplugging computers and loading up gear, ready to move on to the next big event.

Spain may still be celebrating their historic World Cup victory, but 31 other nations are already more focused on 2014 and how to do better next time.

With an anticipated cumulative global television audience of over 26 billion, it seems practically the entire planet has been soccer-obsessed for the last month. A question lingers in some believers’ minds: Does God really care about the World Cup?

During the tournament, countless ministries shared the Gospel throughout South Africa, and we know God cares about the many souls who entered His kingdom, as well as those still searching.

But does He care who wins the World Cup?

I say yes. But not because He wants to bless a particular nation, or because one team’s fans pray harder than others, or because a specific athlete gives credit to God when he scores.

God cares who wins the World Cup because He cares about His glory. In an event of such global magnitude, God’s glory has opportunities to shine in many big and small ways.

On a large scale, some African Christians claimed an African team would not win the World Cup because ancestral spirits, instead of Christ, would gain credit and praise. Many African players consulted witch doctors and spirits in an effort to gain victories.

Of course, one can’t really take that argument to the opposite extreme, claiming the team who prays to God should win. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such fervent prayer as that coming from athletes during the Ghana vs. Uruguay quarter-final. Men on both sides imploringly raised their hands to heaven or bowed faces to earth, pleading for teammates to score enough penalty kicks to move forward in the competition.

Whose prayer is God supposed to answer? It can’t simply be the team with the most Christians; if so, the U.S., Brazil, South Korea and Ghana all should have won the trophy.

A team full of Christians who think God will bless them with victory simply because they’re Christians has too much of a “prosperity Gospel” slant for my taste. God often seems to allow defeat, even for men of faith, so He can test and sharpen their characters.

For God, winning isn’t really the point. In his classic devotional “My Utmost for His Highest,” Oswald Chambers said it well:

“We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end. … It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.”

When it comes to sports, maybe God is a little like me – not so much into the event itself as He is into the people participating in the event.

For example, I don’t particularly care about the English Premier League, but I do like Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey and other Americans who play professional soccer in England. So if an EPL match comes on TV, I’ll probably watch it, just because I want to watch those guys play.

During the World Cup, God probably was more concerned with how Brazilian superstar Kaká, a well-known Christian, handled what many deem an unfair red card, and later his team’s defeat in a quarter-final, than in making sure he won the golden trophy.

For God, victory often comes in how we handle defeat, even if it’s just a quiet whisper of victory only He knows about, rather than a confetti-infused triumph on the world stage.

It comes down to the individual. Maybe God allowed Spain to win because 20 years from now, after the glory of winning his country’s first World Cup title has faded, a Spanish athlete will realize any worldly victory is hollow without Christ.

Maybe today, a Christian from the Netherlands realizes something similar – a loss isn’t devastating, because his real identity is in Christ.

So does God care who wins the World Cup? Definitely. Because He cares about people.

Based in South Africa, Melanie Clinton is a writer and editor for the International Mission Board’s Global Communication Team.

Please continue to pray for South Africa.  Particularly remember the urban centers, where problems of unemployment, poverty, violent crime, racism and human trafficking demand urgent attention. Intercede for new followers of Christ, for whom learning to walk with Him is particularly challenging in a country with these issues. 

Stay connected to South Africa, and learn how God is at work on the African continent by visiting www.africastories.org and www.imbafrica.org.

DURBAN, South Africa — Partially-clothed children of all ages dart between people and cars, playing in the streets and alleys. The children are a mixture of European, Indian, African and Indonesian descent, and their eyes are striking, ranging from bold blue to jaded green to the deepest black. Playing outside all day trails dirt and mud across their faces, hands and legs, leaving decorative swirls on their bodies.

Coming from broken homes and distracted parents, the children are often left to roam the streets, learning how to live on their own. The “broken homes” in South Africa are often unlike the traditional American definition in which parents have split up; here, “broken homes” mean broken circumstances. Crime, drugs, alcohol and prostitution are only a few of the coping mechanisms many of these young people employ when trying to deal with physical and emotional abuse, rape, grief and parents who are drug dealers.

The situation is serious, as an entire generation is growing up on its own, with no guidance on how to approach life in a healthy, positive way.

However, God sees their pain and has called workers to begin impacting these young people. During the World Cup, Westville Baptist Church and its youth hosted Holiday Clubs for the children, where they played games, sang worship songs, and learned about who God is and how much He cares for them. Soccer was played all afternoon, since it is an integral part of the African culture, and the children loved having real soccer balls to play with.

The Clubs also served as a way to keep the children off the streets and prevent them from getting involved in many of the harmful alternatives (alcohol, drugs, etc.) that wait for them outside the walls of the school complex where the Holiday Club was held. At night, World Cup games were shown in the school to create a “safe zone” for the kids.

Pray for Westville Baptist Church and other congregations reaching out to broken homes and communities throughout South Africa. Pray the children of South Africa will realize how precious they are to their Creator God.

Evelyn Adamson is an intern writer for the IMB Global Communication Team. She is working on a degree in communications and travels as much as possible. She grew up on the mission field and is passionate about God and working with wildlife.

Read more about this outreach effort

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Bruce and Sheri Erickson were missionary kids who met in boarding school in Kenya. After college, they married, had two children and were public school teachers in California.

Almost five years ago, the Ericksons felt God leading them to work with foster children. One family in their church had just taken in a foster baby girl, Madison, whom Bruce and Sheri began spending time with.

Unsure of God’s purpose for them in the three-month-old baby’s life, Bruce and Sheri prayed how they could be obedient to what God might be leading them to do. After one week, they decided to become foster parents, taking in Madison when she was six months old.

Their older children quickly bonded with “Madi” and 11 months later, Bruce and Sheri were officially granted adoption of Madison by the state of California.

A new addition to their family was not the only thing God had planned for the Ericksons, however. An opportunity opened for Bruce and their son, Bryce, to serve on a volunteer mission trip to Tanzania.

After one week in Tanzania, Bruce felt a stirring in his heart that God wanted him back on the mission field.

“At times it was an overwhelming feeling inside,” Bruce said. “But the second week I really had a peace about it.”

Upon returning to California, Bruce shared his heart with Sheri and she in turn shared how God impressed her to pray for this very thing while he was in Tanzania.

Bruce and Sheri shared with their kids what God had placed on their hearts and asked them to pray about it as well.

“We told them God had put it on our hearts and that He’s got to be doing something in their hearts, too,” Sheri said. “There were lots of emotions at first, but God began softening their hearts.”

The Ericksons are now serving as IMB missionaries in Cape Town, ministering in township schools.

During a recent extended school holiday, Bryce, 17, Sheraya, 14, and even five-year-old Madison were able to help their parents minister alongside a volunteer team from North Carolina during a day camp at one of the local schools.

“The youth we work with really relate to our kids because they are the same age,” Bruce said. “It’s kind of fun to have them out there with us.”

Jacob Alexander is a writer for IMB’s Global Communication Team. He enjoys sharing God’s stories from all over Africa and is becoming more of a soccer fan from being in South Africa during the 2010 World Cup.

Other churches intentionally planned outreaches with a World Cup theme. They organized events that would keep children safe and happy during the long school break. Big screen showings of the matches enabled churches to draw in community members and share the Gospel with them.

When the World Cup is over and life returns to normal in South Africa, pray for churches to have a new vision of how to meet the challenges of sharing their faith with those who don’t know Christ, of discipling new believers, of trusting God to provide and stretch meager resources, and of tackling social issues in the communities around them.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — He was a missionary kid from Ethiopia and Kenya. She was also a missionary kid from Kenya. Now, Bruce and Sheri Erickson are missionaries ministering to young people with their three kids in Cape Town, South Africa.

Bruce was born in Ethiopia and lived there until he was 10, when he and his family returned to the United States for a time due to unstable political situations in the country. After two years, they returned to the mission field to serve in Kenya, where Bruce met his future wife in boarding school.

Sheri was just a teenager when her family left the U.S. for Kenya to serve in medical missions. Her father, a dentist, served for one year in Nairobi, then worked at Kijabe mission hospital in the Rift Valley and travelled many times to the Central African Republic (formerly Zaire) with his family to do dental work in rural areas.

After dating throughout high school, Bruce and Sheri took a break from their relationship upon returning to the U.S. for college. Sheri served one summer with Athletes in Action playing volleyball in South America and Bruce spent one year back in Kenya with his parents. The two had little contact during those years.

“It was a great time for us to grow independently and see what God had for each of us,” Bruce said. “He brought us back together at the end of [Sheri’s] college years, we were engaged six months later, then married six months after that.”

Bruce and Sheri have always had a passion for ministering to youth and over the years, God has nurtured a passion in them for missions. For much of their marriage, they had only two children, Bryce and Sheraya, and were happy with the dynamics of their family and their life in Murrieta, California.

God’s plans, however, would bring much change to their lives.

Come back tomorrow for the rest of the story …

As special as these firsts are, none of them compares to the life-changing experience of first trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior. We have hundreds of new brothers and sisters in Christ because they took that first step of faith during World Cup outreaches. Praise God they have come into His family. Continue to pray they will grow in their relationship with Christ and that they will lead others to take that first step of faith in Him.