“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”
Dear Friends,
Over forty years ago the Lord connected Al Lotz, Jon Ortlip, and me through our love for Jesus and love for soccer—to pioneer a new form of ministry: soccer/football ministry. Little did we know that all these years later He would reconnect us through our love for serving in Liberia.
Lord willing, this Saturday, April 19th, I will connect—through two days of travel and six airports (my new record for most airports to a single destination 😳)—with Jon and his Ambassadors Football staff and our Surge Soccer staff in Liberia.
We will be assisting Ambassadors in training 60 new leaders from 20 areas of Liberia. As the Ambassadors theme verse says (paraphrased), we will help these leaders teach God’s love to the children of Liberia through Saturday Football School and Biblical lessons.
REACHING THE NATIONS (Ambassadors theme)
“DT6 refers to Deuteronomy 6, where God commanded Israel to use every opportunity and method to teach children to love and obey God. This instruction guides Ambassadors Football in partnering with churches to fulfill the Great Commission. Football provides a unique context and method for children to grow up grounded in the Word of God. Church leaders increasingly notice this and ask Ambassadors Football for help in establishing DT6 in their nation.”
Ambassadors now have 150 team members in 35 nations, serving 13,000 children alone in East Africa.
EQUIPPING THE CHURCH TO LEVERAGE FOOTBALL IMPACTS NATIONS
(AmbassadorsFootball.org)
“In Rwanda, Ambassadors Football partners with ADEPR, a denomination with over 3,000 churches across the country. Ambassadors has trained 150 coaches from 52 church and school locations. Every Saturday, 6,000 boys and girls are playing football/soccer and learning to know, love, and obey Jesus. Church leaders, headmasters, government officials, and the football federation are celebrating the program’s impact on the nation.
Within these first five years of ministry:
- Over 500 children have professed their faith publicly through baptism
- Over 200 were reintegrated back into school
- 74 were given football scholarships
Several parents and other family members have come to faith in Jesus by seeing the change in the children’s lives—and the Church grows.”
