On Monday and Tuesday we had very similar routines. On Monday morning, the Wyatt family showed us the town market. We enjoyed seeing the vast cultural differences and interacting with whoever we came in contact with.
As we passed through the market we brought a couple soccer balls and started juggling the soccer ball with town market folks.
We then went to go pass out invitations to our Tuesday scrimmage against the local village team. The invitation read “kirabul” (meaning welcome). The invitation showed them an invitation to our game on Tuesday afternoon. We also learned a few other words to greet on this trip. Tyler, one of our team members, brought a huge bag of smarties from USA and handed them out to the local kids in the street. We went around screaming the Swahili word for candy in the streets. The smile on these kids face from American candy was amazing.
After this, we went to gas up our travel bus. As we were gassing up we all noticed a man selling coconuts. Turns out he only charges 1,000 shillings (less than a dollar) for a coconut. He almost ran out of inventory.
We got a quick lunch, changed into our jerseys at the church and drove an hour away to scrimmage a local village team. Even Brother Wyatt admitted he had no idea how many people were going to show up to this match. He had done a little bit of advertising such as bringing a big speaker on the back of one of his trucks and advertising a message about the game, and a few other invitations methods I am unaware of. However, we did not know how many people would actually show. We had a little under 2,000 people show up (counted up at halftime when the message occurred). At halftime, we started with a short 2 minute testimony given by a player and then we concluded with a message by brother Jerry. During the first half, the ministry team had passed out these decision cards and then collected them at the invitation at halftime. Over 200 souls penned to paper that they accepted Christ into their heart right here today! Amen!
After our game, we found a place to change and headed to brother Wyatt’s home. We were welcomed with an amazing Mexican style meal – tacos! We had another testimony time where people (who haven’t shared something) share what God has been speaking to them about throughout the week.
We returned to the hotel and awaited the next day.
The next morning was souvenir day. Brother Wyatt had invited several local tradesmen to the church grounds to set up their shop for us. So if you are one of those ones that are expecting a gift from one of our team members, I’m here to tell you they don’t have an excuse if they failed to get you something. We also went to the local market again to solely look at the “jersey store”. Us soccer guys were able to find soccer jerseys that would normally cost a fortune in the states for less than $4.00 here in Tanzania. We practically bought half their store.
We had a quick lunch as we prepared for our next match. Our next match’s field was a little bit of a hard surface to play on as you will see down below with the following photos. We had roughly 1300 people show up for this game where we did a similar style ministry outreach as to the previous day.
That night we learned the total salvation decisions indicated by a card for the entire week. Brother Jerry made it clear during the invitation to only fill out the card if they had made the decision that day. We had 1,358 people trust Christ as their personal Lord and Savior throughout the entirety of our outreach programs the past few days.
What a Mighty God! This week has challenged our team. We have seen the mercies of God in our lives. The grace he gives us everyday is clearly seen. We constantly take for granted the vast blessings we have. We have been challenged to minister to others in the game of soccer.
Galatians 1:4-5 speaks on the glory that should be given to God. It says we should give him glory forever and ever. God has shown us so many wonderful things this week. We have so many areas to praise Him for. To God be the Glory! Let us never cease to praise Him!
Thank you for your continual prayers!
YOM Staff/Eagles Soccer