Stories From the Field
SPORTS CAMPS IN ASIA

It was hot and sunny out on the dirt field, and I was beginning to regret my earlier refusal to put on sun block.  This was the first year we had run a soccer camp.  In years past, basketball camps were our “thing” – an excellent way to reach the young people and also our main excuse for being in the country.  But this year, thanks to a last-minute arrival of a professional Brazilian soccer player, unqualified me – complete with my white high-tops and baggy basketball shorts – landed the job of translating and demonstrating drills on the soccer field.

The soccer camp drew a good 80 kids and the basketball camp another 20.  But the sidelines were often dotted with spectators, most of them either too young or too shy to join in.  Among them that day were sixteen-year old Li and his cousin.  And it was there on the sidelines that they got to hear about Jesus and His salvation.  By the time we had finished playing ball, Li and his cousin had decided to follow Christ and one of our team members had led them in a prayer to receive salvation.

Excited by their new life, Li and his cousin decided to join us that afternoon to visit a widow in town.  The widow’s late husband was one of the first believers in that area.  In fact God had healed him of paralysis and it was through his testimony that many later came to believe.  We prayed for the widow and then also laid hands on Li and his cousin, inviting God’s Spirit to fill them.  As we prayed, they began to speak in a new language that they had not learned.  Then they also began to prophesy.  “God is telling me that He loves me very much,” Li said aloud.  His cousin then jumped in, “And God is saying to me, ‘You must go out and tell others about the great news of Jesus.’”  Only an hour-and-a-half old, these new believers had heard their Father’s voice.  They had been assured of two things crucial to their new lives:  their value in Christ and His purpose for their lives.  Later that afternoon, they were baptized in a nearby river along with seventeen other young people.
Street Gangs and God's Gangs

Cai had started his own gang in high school.  “It started off as a way to protect myself from my enemies”, Cai told me.  “But before I knew it, things got out of hand and the gang took on a life of its own.”  What began as a couple of friends watching each other’s backs soon turned into a flock of youngsters with nothing better to do but smoke, drink, pick fights and patronize the local brothels. 

Then there was the vision.  It came during his sleep one night in amazing clarity.  In this dream Cai was standing by the river when suddenly a beam of light shone down from the heavens.  Curious, he jumped into the beam and began to dance and play in the light.  After the frolicking had ended, Cai remembers gazing up into the night and seeing a gigantic cross stretched across the sky.

The sound of someone bursting into the room startled Cai.  It was a good friend who had come to wake him.  “Look what I found,” the friend said, pulling from his pocket a necklace with a cross on it. 

Taken back at the sight of this symbol, Cai asked, “Where did you get that?”

“I found it somewhere,” replied his friend. 

“Wait, I know where you got it from!”

It turns out that Cai’s friend had in fact found the necklace by their town’s river.  The exact spot was only a stone’s throw from where the dream had taken place.  Unsure of why this ominous cross had come to him, Cai snatched the necklace and put it round his neck. 

A few months passed and Cai concluded that the cross was a good luck charm and with its help he would one day become a rock star.  But one afternoon while washing up after a soccer match, Cai misplaced his necklace.  Desperate and depressed over having lost his only hope for glory, Cai wrote about the message of this cross on the radio.  Determined to find the truth of why the cross had pursued him, Cai tuned in to a banned radio program broadcast from Hong Kong.  It was through these broadcasts that Cai learned the significance of the cross and also about the man who once hung upon it.  Everything began to make sense.  He explained to me, “God had sought me out so that I could be a light for him in this town and to the end of the earth.”

This was four years ago.  Today Cai has stopped fighting altogether and many of his gang brothers have followed in his footsteps.  Trading Bibles for meat choppers, they have even approached rival gang members seeking reconciliation.  As a result, those who were once enemies have become brothers in Christ.
Witchcraft to Christ

Life has been hard for old Mrs. Lee and her family.  Her husband lost an arm in a factory accident, one of her children is a mute and she lost another child twenty years ago in a fire that burned her home down.  Mrs. Lee survived the accident but the burns she suffered left her severely deformed.  Soon after the accident, she became a medium in order to support eh family – invoking spirits of the dad to speak with the living.

I met Mrs. Lee for the first time on our trip last year.  We told her about the hope we have in Jesus and she was very eager to accept this God:  a God who, unlike any other, could bring her true peace and blessing.  However, I remember leaving her home that day with a hundred questions running through my mind.  Does she really understand who Jesus is – that He is the only true God?  Who will continue to teach her and pray with her?  Most importantly, will she be willing to stop invoking the spirits of the dead?

This year’s visit was full of surprises.  I was overwhelmed by God’s goodness as she began telling us about her experiences since turning to Christ:

“My family is very poor.  We often can’t afford to go to the market and so sometimes all I eat is rice.  But your God has been blessing us.  Since you visited last year, there have been some people who visit our house and bring us food.  I don’t even know who many f these people are!  Also, customers still come to my house asking me to invoke the spirits of their dead relatives but I turn them away saying, ‘I don’t do that anymore.’  Most of them don’t understand why I would give up our family’s only source of steady income, but I truly believe in the God you told me about.”

It wasn’t until half way through our visit that she told us about the dream she had received just the night before:  “I saw eight people coming to visit me and I thought to myself, ‘these must be those foreign people – they must be coming to see me tomorrow.’ When I awoke, I told my husband to expect some guests today.”  Sure enough, when Mr. Lee saw us approaching his house from afar, he ran back to tell his wife, “You were right, the dream has come true!”

I was humbled and convicted of my lack of faith in God to take care of His own sheep.  I realized that Mrs. Lee not only understood the Gospel, but she was willing to risk the livelihood of her family for the sake of it.  Now, instead of listening to the spirits of the dead, through dreams she hears the Sprit of the living God.
Healing Power

We had been in the house for almost thirty minutes already.  The whole family had just accepted Christ and the dark, oppressive sense we felt was only now beginning to disperse.  When we first entered the doorway, the heaviness in the air screamed poverty, despair, and death.  We were in a village about two hour’s walk from the town and this home belonged to one of the poorest families in the village.  The mother had already lost four babies to sickness and malnutrition.  Her fifth child, born with many complications, lay quietly in her arms.  But now as the grandmother began praying in the new language that she had just received, the atmosphere began to change.

We were praying for their health – both the mother and grandmother suffered from all sorts of aches and pains from years of hard work in the fields.  I remember thinking, “Jesus came for the sick and those in need of a doctor and if anyone fits that description, it’s these people.”  So in faith and obedience we laid our hands on them, praying that God would touch their bodies.

“My toes are not as numb now,” Grandma said after a while.  Then a couple of minutes later she interrupted us saying, “I don’t feel any pain in my back anymore.”  Finally after we had finished praying for her, Grandma took my hand and began to thank Jesus.  She said to us, “Before you prayed for me, I had problems with my eyes – I couldn’t see very well.  It was always as if I was looking through a layer of clouds.  But now, after you’ve prayed for me, my eyes are better and I can see very clearly!  Thank you so much!  I am a poor woman and so old.  I never imagined I would have guests in my home, but today you have come to visit me and you have brought me Jesus.  Thank you!  I now have hope and a new confidence.”
In God’s Timing

“I remember what you did for Coach O, and the kind of love that you showed to him.  This is what we need in this place, this kind of love.  In the past we were not sure why you kept coming to our village, and we were suspicious.  But now we are friends!”  These are words spoken by a policeman in the mountains of SW China.  We have sought to bless the youngsters and the needy in that place over the past eight years
“Our town is now the Gospel factory Town!”  These are words spoken by a young lady in this same area.  She was one of the first believers eight years ago and had been through many difficult moments answering police questioning as she sought to share Jesus with her friends.

On young man said, “This is the happiest day of my life!  Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord!”  as we returned from a trip to a remote village.  He, and a whole group of new, young believers had been sharing the Good News with the poorest family in the village.  Why was he so happy?  Together with other tribal young people, they had prayed for a granny who was physically healed by the Father!  God used him to bring the Kingdom of light to this dark place…for the first time!!

“When I first told my family I had believed in Jesus, they were very upset.  But that is because they were not sure of what I was speaking.  They had not heard about Jesus before.  They wondered if He was connected to the cults they had been warned about.  My family asked several people in the town about Jesus.  They were told that following Jesus was good!  Hallelujah!”

“The police asked me about Jesus and why I believe in Him.  I told them about my dream and they were amazed.”  This was spoken by a young man who several years ago in response to his heart cry to know the true God, received a vision from the Father.  He is now the key leader in this place.

Where there was no church eight years ago, there is now a church.  A body of believers meeting together and reaching out to serve the poor!  This summer a total of 17 young people were baptized in the river!  The kingdom of God has come to this place.  God is indeed doing a sovereign and supernatural work in this place!
"Taking the Word to the World through Sports"
How Effective is Sports?
How Effective is Sports?

In one town where immigration has had mission workers thrown out of the country, I became somewhat of a local celebrity after holding sports camp coaching programs for students and coaches from the surrounding villages.  The coaching camp made the TV news and was written up in the paper.  Now every time I return to that town, it takes the local sports officials about 5 minutes to spot my parked car.  My cell phone starts to ring, and they all want to know where I am – will I come for tea and lunch.  They have begged me to move to their town! 

           I was invited to attend a big sports tournament in a tightly restricted territory.  The minister of sports was at the tournament, and he had heard about my sport development work in a neighboring country.  He asked me if my sports organization could send me and my family to live and work in his state.  Sports opens doors. 

God has “enlarged our territory” through sports opportunities.  Sports work has taken us to some of the last unreached people groups in the world – deep and high into the 10-40.   Sports have taken us to developing countries where there are people who still live in a 17th century world – where roads have yet to reach – where people in remote villages have never heard the name of Jesus.  We have felt the joy, the awe, and the privilege to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with many young people, to celebrate the baptisms of new believers in rivers, and to disciple many persons to be Jesus followers.  The sweetest part of our work is the fellowship and friends from far places who will go with us into eternity – and being able to help them run their race well in this life.

Right now we have opportunities to bring short term volunteers to help in the work & share in the joy.  We need coaches to come to our region for 1 to 2 weeks and teach workshops.  Are you willing to enlarge your playing field?   As a short term volunteer you can support our long term work and help us maintain one of the most effective platforms for opening doors to closed places.
My Colors Made Clearer

My name is "Darren".  I live in Hong Kong and I am 16 years old.   I play basketball on my school team and I have always wanted to go on a basketball trip.  The trip into China was God's blessing.  He enabled me to do something I really enjoy and use it to spread His love.

The most meaningful part of the experience for me was being around Christians my age who truly love the Lord.   But besides this, being able to play basketball in front of thousands, experiencing people coming to Christ left and right, baptizing believers, helping to make an orphan's day special and having fun all at once were all bonuses.  Jesus really taught me more about what His plans were for me. I caught a glimpse of God's heart for the Chinese people and really how BIG He is.

Looking back on the trip, I am still awestruck at the type of work Jesus had planned for a bunch of ordinary teenagers to do.  He even told us at the beginning of the trip that He had great things in store for us and we should expect them.  The Lord followed through with His promise and among other things, I have learned over the three weeks that the Lord is faithful in all we do, yes, even basketball.

I expected the trip to be great but it turned out even better.  My faith has been boosted, my spirit strengthened, my vision made clearer, my basketball improved, my heart stretched larger and "my colors made clearer".
"As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country." - Proverbs 25:25