TUG Conference

Recently I attended the TUG (The Ultimate Goal) Conference, which was hosted by the South Africa Sports Coalition (SASCOL). It was a gathering of church and ministry leaders to hear about the plans for reaching the world for Jesus while they are here in South Africa for the World Cup. The TUG committee presented the many ways that they plan to reach out to people during the World Cup.

The conference really got me inspired. Before, I wasn’t planning on us doing much with the World Cup. I felt like our plans here were really long term and that we weren’t here early enough to do much. But, I was really inspired with a few ideas that we can incorporate. Much of it is still storming around in my brain and will be determined by the things I learn about our community over the next couple of months.

A few of the early ideas are:

1. To use Oceanview Methodist (or Simon’s Town, our sister church) as a hosting location for an International Touring Team. Possibly that team would host a soccer camp or series of clinics for our players.
In the same vein there are other ministries in town with groups already scheduled to come. There is the possibility of one of those groups doing the same thing.

2. We have started asking the question, “What if Ubuntu created and organized a pre-World Cup community festival in Oceanview?” Oceanview, where we live, is a very splintered community, and no place worse than the Church. What if an outside group was able to get the community to work together to host a great festival for the community? It would be a great boon to our work here to have added so much value.

3. There was a presentation about futsal, which is small-sided Brazilian type soccer. This was both inspiring for something we can do now in our yard with the neighborhood kids (which IS in fact already happening), something that we can get our church passionate about doing to reach those kids, and something that could be incorporated into our festival.

4. There was a presentation about Ubabalo, which you heard about already.

You can find out more at: www.theultimategoal.co.za

All in all, a great experience. I’m really glad that I went. Also met and connected with some great people, even a few other Americans!

You can join us in prayer as we sort out how all of this will shake out. We need to see how God wants us to take these ideas and make them reality.

More "ubuntu" happening

A few months back a friend in Raleigh named Eddie Rogosich sent me some info of some people doing sports ministry in the Cape Town area. I checked it out and set up to meet the guys when we arrived. A few weeks before we left for South Africa a foundation we are involved with, The Barnabas Way, wanted us to be in contact with some partners of the same group. And multiple people on this side have referenced this same group of people. Even found out that one of our Board members, Chuck Neder, is good friends with the guy who started the ISC.

So, finally, about a week ago, I met with John Yip who represents the ISC-International Sports Coalition. They are simply a body of like-minded people who believe in the power of sports to share the Gospel and transform lives. They train people to do sports ministry all over the world. They also prepare specific programs around major sporting events (i.e. World Cups and Olympics). So, they are particularly busy preparing for the 2010 World Cup here in South Africa.

One of the major things they are doing in preparation, and that they hope will sustain long after, is a whole life coaching curriculum called Ubabalo eAfrica. Whole life coaching basically means that within the context of a team you would also focus on the emotional, intellectual, social, environmental, physical, and spiritual parts of life. Since you already have that child’s attention, you should use it. They want to train the coaches and provide the resources for that to happen.

That’s where their partnership could be particularly beneficial to Ubuntu Sports Outreach. It sounds like a great curriculum for our coaches to use. We could then be one of their “hubs” who are going to find partner churches in our area. We would then connect the churches to the local schools as they provide coaching for their teams. This would connect churches to schools, sort of like the Adopt-a-school movement taking place in Raleigh, and put the onus on the churches to provide a youth program for their kids. We were always planning on connecting churches and schools, but this will make us even more intentional about it.

We’re really praying through this right now. The values of the ISC seem to be perfectly in line with ours’. Please join us in praying through this partnership. John Yip is now in the States training people about these programs, so pray for his travels and influence.

It’s neat to see how “ubuntu” is happening here. We are all interconnected, especially when we are passionate about seeing Jesus made famous in our world.

This Saturday I’m going to a local gathering of Sports Ministries that the ISC guys invited me to. Hopefully more “ubuntu” will happen there as I find out about the other programs happening here and meet others like me.

Thanks,
Casey

Article about our Start

The Raleigh News and Observer did an article about our move to Cape Town and the process of starting Ubuntu Sports Outreach. It's crazy! Check it out at this link: http://www.northraleighnews.com/columns/teri_saylor/story/1502.html

Been interesting...

We've had a good couple of weeks recently for Ubuntu.  We've met with lots of great people: Lyston Peebles of Cherokee Gives Back, Renae Newmiller @ Edenton St. UMC, spoke at Crossroads Fellowship on Sunday morning.  

One fun thing is that our equipment drive really kicked off with CASL this past weekend.  This week there was even mention of it in the News & Observer.  Here is the link to the article it was included in: http://www.newsobserver.com/257/story/113598.html. 

The only problem with collecting all this stuff to ship is that we have to get it over there!  That's not cheap!!  If you know anybody that does shipping or wants to contribute towards the shipping costs, send them our way.

Together,

Casey

Another great event...

Last week Millbrook hosted another GOAL event for us at the soccer game vs. Wakefield.  This time we raffled off the ipod nano that BEST BUY donated to us.  Our buddy, Kyle LaCivita ended up winning!  He's the younger brother of Spencer LaCivita, the goalie for Millbrook, whom I train.
This was just another great night of getting to share about what God is planning with Ubuntu Sports Outreach. People there are excited and supportive of us. They are bringing their old equipment and buying their shirts and bracelets. Hopefully the story is getting spread throughout this city and beyond!

This last picture is of Sarah, my wife, and some of our support team members, The Latta Family! Chris Latta is on our Board of Directors for Ubuntu.

Big News!!

On Friday Ubuntu Sports Outreach received it's letter from the IRS giving it tax exempt status as a 501(c)(3) organization!!  This is a huge development.  All gifts given to the organization are now tax deductible.  It opens up opportunities to apply for grants from a few foundations that require this to be complete.  

It's an even more amazing development because about 3 weeks ago the IRS website said it was reviewing applications submitted in April and we submitted ours in July.  We were nervous that it wouldn't get done by the end of the year.  But it seems that if God was involved and got it reviewed much quicker!  (I just looked and the website still says April!)  We've known organizations that spent 2 years or more getting this status accomplished. 

So, this has been a big boost this week for us.  If you know of people, foundations, churches, or businesses that we should be sharing our vision with, let me know!!

Cheers,

Casey

Another successful meeting

We met this week with Sports Endeavors.  They own Eurosport, which is the nation's leading soccer equipment supplier.  Every serious soccer player in America gets the Eurosport catalog and probably orders A LOT of stuff from there.  They happen to be a local company.  

They were encouraging of what we are doing and offered to help through their Passback program.  
This is what the website says to describe the Passback program: 

The Passback Program, in partnership with Eurosport, and with the support of MLS and WPS players, is an initiative of the U.S. Soccer Foundation to help meet the soccer uniform and equipment needs of all communities, regardless of income, gender or location.

We are excited to start a relationship with this great company.