Eric Philips is one of the more recent boys added on to our Ubuntu Academy (3rd row, far right-http://ubuntufootball.com/team-players/). And while he had been performing great, the past couple of months he has given us more attitude problems and issues at training than any other boy on the Academy. Little did we know this was all a part of what was going to happen later on. Recently, Michael Jenkins and Casey Prince had to sit down and have a very serious chat with him about his behavior and performance at practice. Even within their meeting, it was like it was it all changed for Eric. Attentive, respectful, he was practically hanging onto their every word. It was almost a new sense of maturity. I think part of what shook Eric that day was the picture Michael painted for him. He started at the end result Eric wants to be at--playing professionally for Manchester United--and then back tracked all the way to where Eric is now. Eric immediately realized the direction he's going won't get him there. From that day forward we already saw a huge transformation in Eric's behavior and performance on the field. 

A week later however, Eric approached Michael Jenkins and Treswill at practice about something even more major. It was about a decision he was ready to make. During their meeting the previous week faith in Jesus had come up and in the midst of that moment Casey and Michael figured it was best to have this discussion on another day. Well the Lord had stirred in Eric's heart from that previous week until that night at training and he wanted to commit his life to Christ THAT evening right there AT practice! So with much enthusiasm Michael prayed the prayer with Eric and Eric became a new creation that evening at practice.

To see one of our boys come to us wanting to give his life over to Christ, truly is an amazing thing. To see how God used these past few months of misbehaving in Eric's life as a part of breaking him down and leading him into a relationship with Jesus and to see how faithfully loving Eric and continuing to point him to Jesus was all a part of God calling him to himself. Truly, it is amazing to see! Eric is also the first of any of our Ubuntu Academy boys to invite Jesus to be his Savior and is something we've been GREATLY celebrating over here at Ubuntu. We spent Thursday morning's meeting celebrating God's work in Eric's life as we know it's the start of an amazing journey. A journey we're excited to walk out with Eric. Because while we're all about our boys becoming the greatest men, soccer players and people possible, this is what it's all about. Our boys coming to know the Lord and enter into a relationship that will change their lives.

It's been a pleasure to share such incredible news,

Austin
Intern at Ubuntu

Football Forward: Special Guests

Ubuntu Football Forward is a grassroots soccer program Ubuntu has started in January of this year. I'm excited to say the numbers of each age group have been growing significantly over the past months. With more and more kids attending each week, the program is really becoming a success. In even more recent weeks though, a local missions organization called All Nations has partned a college soccer ministry from the States (Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma) with Football Forward. They're a group of 12, very able-bodied, soccer-playing, Jesus-loving, college students assisting us each Monday and Wednesday at Football Forward. We've even been able to turn over the life skills and soccer lesson to them at each session which has been great. After months and months of hard work, they've allowed us to take a step back and look at the program we're running which has been cool. The kids at Football Forward have responded incredibly well to the college students as well as they've added tons of energy and really sought to elevate Football Forward as a program. All 12 of the Oral Roberts students are quite talented as soccer players so the kids have also loved that part of things.

The Oral Roberts students being here has also meant some other things. Because while Football Forward exists for many reasons, one of the main reasons is to love and invest in the kids of Ocean View. And more than just having extra hands on staff to make things run smoothly, having the ORU students with us has been such a blessing because of the way they love the kids. There are several kids, one in particular, who has just been tough to work with. He's had a lot of different hurt in his life and so despite our efforts to consistently love and be there for him he can be pretty resistant. But ever since the ORU students have been here he hasn't been able to help but smile and to be in a good mood as they've continued to love him (without even knowing this)! So that, among many other things, has been very cool for us at Ubuntu. They're also here for 3 more weeks which is a real treat!

Below are some photos of the kids with the Oral Roberts students from the other day's session!