By Fostance Mtolo
To serve God is a calling and commitment, and at all of our Sports Friends trainings we emphasize that each person must count the cost of making disciples of Christ through sport. In December 2013, we had a training in Chikwawa, Malawi, with 36 newly elected sports ministers. Nearly all of them have gone out and initiated a church-centered sports ministry since that time. One of the coaches that we trained in December 2013 was Paul Mtopa. He is a school teacher and resides in a remote area of Malawi called Fatima East Bank.
After being trained, Paul went back to his local church and got the support of the believers there. They began a small team where the Word of God was preached weekly. Soon, many youth from the community began to ask questions about how they could join. In a year’s time, God had established a vibrant sports ministry through Paul. Many youth have joined the local church and have come to Christ! In December 2014, Sports Friends Malawi invited Paul and 31 others to the Ongoing Training where they took their leadership skills, coaching abilities, and, most importantly, ministry skills to the next level. Since that time, God has used Paul magnificently in the Fatima East Bank region.
Paul is a busy man with his teaching job at the local government school, but he has a passion to love young people and share the Word of God with them through sports ministry. He has discipled his players to walk deeply with Christ in the midst of great loss – many were affected by the devastating floods in January. Despite living and working in an incredibly poor area of Malawi, God has enabled Paul’s sports ministry team to travel all over the region to share the Gospel with the lost.
Many others with Paul’s teaching job feel they cannot go to the field to make disciples because they don’t have time. Paul is the coach that many want to learn from because of the way he is able to balance both his job and his ministry.
He says, “I love interacting with young people! Before I had no dream that I could be involved in such an effective kingdom ministry because my job demands lots of time to prepare. But, to my surprise, God used my job to shape me and give me skills to lead the sports ministry well. God is so good!”
Also, because of the way that he communicates with his local church and keeps them up-to-date on every person involved in the ministry and on how they can pray and help, the churches of his region just recently decided to appoint Paul as the area council sports ministry coordinator.
The Lord has impacted many for all of eternity through this man. Praise God for committed Coach Paul!