By Pranee Boonkliang, SF Thailand. Photo by Erin Kranz
When a group of Thai Christians got the vision for bringing young people to Christ through sports ministry, they partnered with ‘Psalm’ – a young Sports Friends-trained coach with boundless energy and passion for reaching kids with the Gospel. They prayerfully began by approaching one of the underprivileged schools in Chiang Mai where the majority of the students were without Thai citizenship and many came from very poor or broken families.
They explained openly to the principal of the school that they were Christians with a passion for sport; not only to teach it, but also to use it as a tool to help teenagers deal with many of the difficult challenges and choices that they face growing up. The school quickly supported Psalm and the other Thai volunteers in starting up soccer training there once a week.
They opened up their soccer coaching to the students, and 25 boys aged 13+ came along to the first session. Psalm explained who they were, why they were there, and agreed with the boys to have three basic rules within the team: love each other, never lie to your parents (like pretending you’re going to soccer training and then going to play computer games instead!), and respect the coach.
Each time they coached the boys they shared a little bit of the Gospel with them. They were able to share their personal testimonies and the stories of other Christian athletes. Then they began to pray before and after training, before matches, and soon the school was allowing them to share the Gospel freely.
They invited the boys to visit Psalm’s house so that they could experience and understand the lifestyle of a Christian – something quite unusual for Thai Buddhists. Over time they were able to build friendships and share God’s love with the team, and God became so real in their lives that many of them made the decision to receive Christ! Psalm took the boys to church with him and continued to invite them to his house for Bible study, praise, prayer, and Christian movies. They also built friendships with the boys’ families. Recently, many of them were baptized – Praise God!
One boy who never knew who his father shared how now he is never alone because God is always with him, listening to him. He said that God always answers his prayers on time and is never late. Praise God that he can now say with confidence that he has a real Father!