A year ago, Kennedy, one of our Sports Friends leaders, asked me if Sports Friends would provide ten soccer balls for Wanyama, a Kenyan missionary serving in South Sudan. I was reluctant to supply the balls since Sports Friends is not working in South Sudan, I had never even met Wanyama and we rarely provide sports equipment. In the end, because of Kennedy’s persistence and our long-standing friendship, we decided to supply the ten balls for Wanyama.
Last month I received a call from Kennedy letting me know that Wanyama was in Nairobi for a few days. It had been a year since we had provided the soccer balls and Wanyama wanted to give me an update. During our visit, Wanyama shared his background and talked about how he has struggled as a church planter in South Sudan. During his first five and half years as a missionary he had only planted one church. He told me that a year ago, Kennedy had trained him how to use sports to plant churches and provided him the soccer balls. Wanyama took the ten balls and used two balls in each of five villages. He began to mobilize the youth and develop teams. As Wanyama shared the Gospel with the teams, he was thrilled that people began to have an interest in the gospel and be saved! One after another, churches were planted… until there were five new churches! Within each church plant, Wanyama was able to identify someone from the local village to lead the church. Now he continues to use the same strategy with many other villages in his region and is greatly encouraged.
Pray for the current crisis in South Sudan: that the leaders would be committed to resolving their differences peacefully rather than through violence; that the local Christian leaders would be able to care for those who are caught in the midst of conflict and violence. Finally, pray that the Gospel would continue to move forward through people like Wanyama who minister even in the midst of difficult circumstances.