When we first began thinking about doing a short term mission overseas we looked into doing some kind of sports ministry. Unfortunately none of the options we found were suitable. After we accepted our current placement in Cambodia we were still hoping to somehow use our love of playing sport in our ministry. So we packed into our bags half a dozen deflated footballs kindly donated by Zachariah and Nathanael’s football club – the Marrickville Red Devils Academy.
At the end of our first week in Phnom Penh we were busting to get out and find some open space to kick a ball around as a family. So we went in search of grass. This was not an easy task. First, we tried the Olympic Stadium but the grass field was only open to professional players. Eventually we found a sports centre on the road to the airport that had half-sized football fields with artificial grass that were undercover. Perfect! We had a great time as a family playing together, stretching out our legs and scoring some goals.
We then thought that this would be a great thing to do regularly with the youth. When we told the church about our idea they were delighted and said that they had been praying before we had arrived that a football competition like this could be started. So far we have had at least half a dozen youth sometimes more join us each week on Monday and Friday afternoons. Some of the younger children from the morning program have also come along and played and even our tuk tuk driver Dina.
Making connections with the locals is difficult because we can’t understand each others language but playing football with them has really helped us to make those connections more readily. We hope and pray that this will help us as we minister to them during the program in between matches.
Howdy Blairs!
This is fun to follow. Loving the Pirate stuff. Great to see your whole clan involved!
Football sounds like a smart move for everyone involved. Do you have any translation ‘resources’ (people) around at football time?
Take care,
Lewis
Not really…but we have enough language between us and the youth to get by.
Hi Blairs,
The Williams are back from the Qld holliday. Julia read your emails and blogs in the car at various points on the trip. Very encouraging… and entertaining. I had to laugh over your ‘Road rules? What road rules?!’ post. Reminded me of India.
Love the soccer story. Also encouraging.
Praying for you at church and in Bible Study.
Great to hear your news.
Its is so encouraging to read about everything God is achieving for his kingdom through this short term mission trip. We will continue to pray for you, the people you are working with, the cambodian kids and that Lilly gets better soon. We miss you here!
That’s so fantastic !! What amazing ways God works 🙂 very happy to hear that the kids can have their soccor fix and it’s helping build relationships too!
Is everyone okay health wise at the moment?
Yes, everyone is relatively ok at the moment. Thanks
Hi everyone,
We hope you are all fit and no more tummy wogs. It’s wonderful to hear you have been able to get together for some soccer…sport is certainly a great leveller (don’t know if that is such a word but you know what we mean).
We guess you all enjoyed getting into your pirate outfits, we know how much Malakai likes being a pirate. You seem to be getting on very well with everyone even though you can’t converse in their language. We are sure by the time you get home you will be able to speak a little Cambodian, and maybe Vietnamese also.
We look forward to your next piece and what you’ve been up to.
Love to you all,
Grandma and Grandpa.