Ready to serve? This team was! A Revolution of Missional Athletes (AROMA) recently served with Sports Friends on a missions trip to Kenya for Messiah College student athletes. The AROMA program seeks to develop students' athletic excellence and Christian...
God loves people, loves justice, loves unity, and loves to use acts of loving service to overcome the challenges of this suffering world… Even in the case of waste management in certain areas! One of the first churches in Nigeria to work with Sports Friends has been...
In Nigeria, young people face incredible barriers. The economic, political, religious, and tribal divisions within the nation threaten their identity as young men and women made in the image of God, who are born to bring refreshment and renewal to their land....
Serving changes our lives. Surrounded constantly by all kinds of needs, we’re all daily presented with the opportunity to either give our lives to others, or try to keep them for ourselves. Our Sports Friends staff in Nigeria know firsthand the struggles of life in a...
Sports Friends has been present in Nigeria for 14 years. Currently there are 8 full-time national staff facilitating the training and ongoing support of nearly 3,700 active coaches. There are almost 75,000 young people playing on soccer teams around the country,...
In northern Ghana, West Africa, there is a town called Tamale. Fifteen-year-old Sherriff grew up on the outskirts of Tamale with his family, who are subsistence farmers. When Sherriff was about ten years old, his parents noticed a growth developing in his...
The northern part of Ghana is home to a population that is widely resistant to the gospel. As national director Ben trains coaches and seeks to reach out to young people in this region, he reports: “That is the power behind sports ministry. God is actually using it to...
We who walk with Jesus know that placing our full trust in Him for forgiveness of our sin introduces us to a new life that is as powerful and profound as resurrection from the dead. Learning how to walk with a new stride, as a man or woman reconciled to God and gifted...
Sports Friends has been present in Ghana for 7 years. Currently there are two full time national staff plus two volunteer trainers facilitating the training and ongoing support of 283 coaches. There are around 2,900 youth playing on soccer, volleyball, and netball...
Training coaches is an integral and expanding part of the Sports Friends ministry. While it takes many forms and is an ongoing work, the Basic Training is the foundation. Churches send men and women who would like to voluntarily run a local sports ministry team to a...
"From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not...
“A coach will influence more people in one year than the average person will in an entire lifetime.” - Billy Graham Kallu was a typical teen growing up on the Kenyan coast, spending most of his time hanging out with friends and playing pick-up soccer. He had finished...
How would you like playing your favorite sport when the temperature is 118°F? Blistering heat is just one of the challenges that coaches like Mary face in the remote villages of southern Malawi. Other Sports Friends netball coaches might get 15-20 girls at every...
17-year-old Suzeni is in some deep waters: persecution from her own father. Suzeni’s father believes in African traditional religion. His daughter follows Jesus, and she knows that she is a daughter of the most high God. But her earthly father is angry about this...
I have wanted to travel to Ethiopia for as long as I can remember. Even before I was a Christian I felt drawn there. So, you can imagine my excitement when that opportunity finally came. It was not a difficult decision to say yes to going to Ethiopia – I knew that is...
Patrick is an 18-year-old young man in Malawi’s northern region. He was an excellent student and was at the top of his academic class with high hopes for a promising future. Because of this, his parent and teachers loved him. Despite being an outstanding student,...
Being young and wanting to change the world seem to be synonymous these days. Young people want to make a difference, and they long to see the world better than they entered it. Repha, a 26-year-old woman born and raised in rural Kenya, is no different. Eager to be a...
“How can God be a good and loving Father if he took mine from me?” These were the words of 17-year-old Rachel from Malawi. After her father died, she was raised by her mother who worked hard washing clothes, fetching water, and cleaning pots to earn enough money...
It’s often in the hardest and darkest places of our world that we see the gospel flourishing. When civil war broke out in South Sudan, many were forced to flee their homes to the refugee camp of Kakuma in neighboring Kenya. It’s in this place of more than 50,000...
Sports are a universal language. Whether you are a player or a fan, sports have a way of breaking down barriers and bringing people together. For our Sports Friends-trained coaches, it is an incredibly simple yet powerful tool that allows them to connect with the...
Abigail Mbungwa is a 16-year-old orphan who lives in Balaka, Malawi with her grandparents. Three years ago, Abigail was invited by her aunt to live with their family in the city of Blantyre so that she could start school. But once she moved, things didn’t turn out...
A few months ago, 100 very excited girls descended on Blantyre - a city in the south of Malawi surrounded by beautiful mountains. These girls traveled from far and wide, some even came from the neighboring country of Mozambique, to participate in a four-day...
What a trip Kenya was… I am still trying to process everything that we saw the Lord do and all that we experienced. This is a trip that I can truly say I returned with a full heart and greatly encouraged by the work that is going on in Kenya, specifically through the...
By Shane Smith, Sports Friends Kenya God often allows us to go through hard times so that we may grow and, like a rock being tumbled and polished, become shiny and smooth. His goal is for us to become such a reflection of Him that He and others can see Himself in us....