Sports Friends The Americas

Rewarding Rocky Roads

Rewarding Rocky Roads

God’s sense of timing is clearly different from ours. With just a few decades on this earth, we feel limitations press hard against our hopes and ambitions. Sometimes the many challenges we face in life and ministry seem to threaten the vision we trust God has given,...

Judged by Another

Judged by Another

One spring evening, a coach was kicking a soccer ball around after practice with a few of the Middle Eastern boys on his youngest team. They were waiting for the girls team to finish up, and monkey-in-the-middle was the game of choice for these seven, nine, and twelve...

Gospel Margin

Gospel Margin

According to our team working among refugee populations in the USA, the most profound opportunities to share the good news do not come during programs or presentations, but in natural conversations that happen on the drive home from practice, over coffee, and late at...

Arriving as the Stranger

Arriving as the Stranger

It is a common experience for refugee families to leave everything and everyone they know because the danger of staying home is greater than the danger of fleeing into an uncertain future. They are forced to walk forward in faith that there is something better for...

Showing Up, Part II

Showing Up, Part II

You’ve told us how things got started in the sports ministry work among refugee populations in the US, and it’s clear to see that God is moving powerfully! We love that perspective, how He is redefining the boundaries of peoples’ time and space so that they might seek...

Showing Up, Part I

Showing Up, Part I

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.  -Deuteronomy 10:19 In 2017, Sports Friends...

For Such a Time as This

For Such a Time as This

“Coach, you and the other coaches are different, and I love you guys so much!” Sumaya's* coach knew that despite her upbeat demeanor she was struggling with what was happening in her homeland of Afghanistan.  The coach joyfully responded and said, “We love you,...

Meet the Team: Andrea

Meet the Team: Andrea

What is your role with Sports Friends? Trainer Mentor with Sports Friends Peru. My role includes sharing the mission and vision of Sports Friends, developing sports and ministry programs, helping and coordinating doing follow up with church teams, coordinating and...

Letter From A Coach With COVID-19

Letter From A Coach With COVID-19

Coach Waldemar has been faithfully using sports ministry to pour into the lives of young people in Lima, Peru. Back in June, Waldemar contracted COVID-19. From his hospital bed in Lima, he wrote this moving letter to his team, his family, and his friends.  Hello, how...

Unclean!

Unclean!

One day, in-between soccer games, the boys on my team were annoying me a lot. They were not listening to the adults, they were messing around, kicking each other, saying unkind words to one another and acting out of control. On top of that, it was 100 degrees outside,...

Ripples of Reconciliation

Ripples of Reconciliation

“that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21) They call it the ripple effect: when an impact in one place begins a chain reaction that...

Pursued By Love

Pursued By Love

In central Lima, there is a community built up along the sides of a hill known as Cerro el Pino, the Hill of Pines. Home to around 20,000 people, El Pino is a densely populated area originally developed in the 1980s and 90s by people who fled from terror inflicted on...

Wonderful to be a Coach

Wonderful to be a Coach

“A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life.” — John Wooden A once-dead parking lot near an urban church in the United States has become a Saturday-night spectacle. It’s the weekly Futsal* gathering. The nets and goals are set up to beckon 30-50...

All Things New

All Things New

There is no question that Yahweh, the Living God, is greater than we could ever begin to comprehend. When we consider that He knows every leaf on every tree, every salamander under every stone along the mountain trails, the work of the mitochondria in our cells that...

Welcoming The Stranger

Welcoming The Stranger

I had the privilege of living and raising my kids in their early days of childhood in Malawi, Africa. My husband and I started the Sports Friends ministry through the local church and lived there for 6 years. The local churches are still running the ministry today and...

Meet the Intern: Matt Stone

Meet the Intern: Matt Stone

Where are you from and how did you find out about Sports Friends?  I’m from a small town in England called Shrewsbury, and I found out about Sports Friends after showing an interest in sports ministry, then sending a few emails, and subsequently finding Sports...

Are You Ready? 

Are You Ready? 

At 12,800 feet above sea level, in the little mountain town of Ayaviri, we stood shivering. Although we were chilled to the bone, the warm welcome we received from our Andean brothers and sisters was unlike any other and quickly strengthened our resolve. Surrounded by...

Meet the Team: Coach Jhon

Meet the Team: Jhon Ramirez Jhon has served with Sports Friends since 2015. What is your role with Sports Friends? Coordinator of Basic and Ongoing trainings. Favorite sport: My favorite sports is futbol. Favorite Bible verse: “ Then David said to Solomon his son, “Be...

Franco: A Day in the Life

By Charles Millette At the age of 12, Franco graduated from elementary school and instead of entering middle school he decided to choose another educational institution: the school of “hard knocks”. For 6 years he lived on the streets of Lima where he joined other...

Meet the Team: Charles Millette

On this month’s edition of Meet the Team, we’d like to introduce you to Charles Millette working in Peru! Role with SF: Trainer of Trainers, Communications Coordinator for SF Peru Favorite Sport/Team: Montreal Canadians, NHL team Favorite Bible Verses: 1 Jn 3:16 &...

Friendship First

By Chuck Millette, SF Peru My first visit to coach Franck was a joy. God has allowed for him to coach and minister to a community in a special location in Lima. The open field where he trains is located in a shanty town known has Pacifico, named after the nearby...

A Godly Commitment

By Charles Millette, SF Peru Getting to know a coach means entering into his world, getting familiar with his routine, his joys and his struggles, seeing his life and God’s plans for him. Every time I visit a coach, there is so much to talk about because each and...

A Stolen Court, A Priceless Opportunity

By: Lindsay Geverink, SF Peru You pay for the court, you play on the court. Right? Well, according to the boys in Coach Aaron’s neighborhood, the person with the loudest voice wins. For many of us, we would just get louder to prove the court is logically ours. But...

Carolina’s Perspective

By Brian Langley, SF Peru Tell us about yourself. My name is Carolina (name changed), I’m 8 years old, and I play on the Fire Eagles church soccer team.  I live in Lima, Peru. When did you join the Fire Eagles soccer team? I joined in November of 2015. Why did you...