Big News

As you may have read about, one of our academy boys Eric Phillips, committed his life to Christ just recently. As crazy as it is the amazing news doesn't stop with just him.

For a couple of years now Casey, Michael, Treswill and the likes of other volunteers like myself, have sought to pour into this core group of Academy boys with love and energy that originates from The Gospel. The Gospel, ultimately being what we long for our boys to come to a knowledge of. For each of our boys to have a life-giving relationship with Christ. And after two years of planting seeds into our Academy boys and watering them (http://ubuntufootball.com/team-players/) we're seeing those seeds start to grow!
The other Wednesday night we decided that it was time to give our boys the chance to respond to Christ for the first official time since we've begun with them. So after Wednesday night's devotion Treswill gave the boys a chance to respond to Christ if he was indeed calling them. And man was He calling them. Juan, Tauraq, Chadley AND Carl prayed a prayer inviting Christ to be their Savior that night! It was amazing! Juan and Tauraq are our two toughest Academy boys to work with and yet in all their struggles and pain they surrendered to Christ and allowed him to come into their hearts. Truly, it was a remarkable night. And as crazy as this sounds, there's more to the story. At our next Ubuntu training session (which was on Monday) Treswill gave our boys another opportunity to accept Christ into their lives and Lutho, Simxolisile, Siya, Robin AND Josh all prayed asking Christ to come into their lives! It all unfolded before our very eyes. We got to watch God call these boys into a relationship with himself which was amazing. They each have such different lives, home situations and backgrounds and yet that desire for Jesus to be in charge of it all was there, heavy on their hearts.
Since the beginning, we've been praying that all of our boys would enter into a saving relationship with Christ though. So after a couple of years to see God's faithfulness and goodness in calling them to himself is such a neat experience. It's humbling, thinking that God would use us as a part of his bigger purposes for their lives. And it's especially humbling for me that I would get to be here for this big moment in their lives as my time in South Africa is coming to a close very soon. I know it's just the beginning of a life-long journey but I look so forward to seeing where it takes them. One of the greatest things about it all is that we'll continue to be in their lives to walk out all the challenges and the struggles and joys that come with living for Jesus in this life. I do know it's going to be an incredible journey to be a part of as God has such a specific call on each of their lives and in such different ways.

I know you're all celebrating back home as God is moving mightily in the lives of these Ubuntu boys here in Cape Town, South Africa.
Know that we're all celebrating here as well.

Blessed to be able to write about such good news,
Austin Dietz
Intern at Ubuntu Sports Outreach

[To see the boys who gave their life to Christ click here: www.ubuntufootball.com/team-players/]