Ukhanyo & Marine Clinics

The whole experience with the clinics taught me a lot. One thing it taught me is that you can never know what to expect!

At Ukhanyo, which is in Masiphumelele, a black township, we started the clinic with about 9 kids, quickly grew to 13, and then 15. We were having a great time and kids were getting lots of individual attention. All of a sudden, about an hour into the clinic, 40 or so kids showed up. Now what are we supposed to do!?!? Thankfully the coach at the school took the really young ones to another area to play and we integrated the older ones into what we were doing.

We were blessed to have the help of China with this clinic. China is a guy that plays on the Newcastle team that I sometimes play with. He is just finishing 10th grade and his help was crucial because the younger kids in Masi struggle with their English. He was able to translate the instructions for the drills and for our teaching time.

I also got some time to connect with the coach there at Ukhanyo. He teaches the P.E. classes and tries to coach teams for the school. He definitely needs help, though. Hopefully we can provide him with some great coaching mentors.

At Marine the next day there were no students on campus. The younger ones were on a field trip and the older ones just didn't show up. We had a smaller crowd of about 15 kids, but it was a good time to connect there at Marine. I imagine that when we repeat the clinics in January, during the first week of school, we'll have a much bigger crowd.

All in all, it was a good week. We introduced ourselves to about 100 kids through the course of the week. These kids will probably make up a portion of our first Ubuntu-coached teams next year.

Kleinberg Clinic

After the 1st clinic was cancelled on Monday at Simon's Town because only 9 boys in Grade 4-7 showed up for school, we had our first clinic today at Kleinberg Primary in Oceanview. It was a great start. We had good energy with what we were doing and we learned some things on how we could make it better. We started with almost 30 kids, but some must have thought it was too hot, so we only finished with 20. Those 20 were energetic and excited. This first clinic at each of the schools is focused on the individual and their own self-confidence. So, we focused on individual skills like dribbling and juggling. Our 'lesson' was on us believing in ourselves because we are a child of God. But that if we put our confidence in external things like soccer, grades, our families, etc, then we will eventually be left disappointed. We need to put our confidence and trust in God. We looked at this verse:

But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

We had a juggling competition where the winner won an Ubuntu Sports Outreach t-shirt. And, at the end of the clinic, the kids got a South African 'freezy pop.'

We are blessed to have the open door into this school. Pray for our influence and opportunity there as the principal and many of the teachers are Muslim. Tomorrow we will be at Ukhanyo Primary in Masiphumelele, one of the black townships.

Juggling Competition Finalists

It begins here...

This week we are starting the official 'work' of Ubuntu Sports Outreach. We're having a clinic each day in our 4 startup schools: Simon's Town, Kleinberg Primary, Ukhanyo Primary, and Marine Primary. We expected to do the clinics after school, but the schools have asked us to do them during school, b/c kids stopped showing up the last couple of weeks b/c they did exams a few weeks ago. (Don't ask me why it's done that way.) We're really excited about the opportunity to 'introduce' ourselves to the communities, schools, and kids. Please be praying for our influence there, our relationships with the schools, and that kids would be excited to be with us. You can follow up on all that happens here on the blog! Casey

Thankful for Partners

Today I met with a few guys from Ambassadors In Sport. AIS is an organization that has been around a while, and is using soccer as tool to reach people for Christ. I first became aware of them as a college student when I almost went on a tour with them. My little sister-in-law, Lauren, actually did an AIS tour of South Africa when she was in collge.

When we were here in 2008 we met with Ambassadors and it was good, but not like today. Mark and Bruce are two great Englishmen with great hearts. Mark has been here a while, but Bruce has only been here about 6 weeks longer than us. They are doing a whole host of things. They to a lot of coaches training to raise up well prepared Sports Ministers. They do great prison ministry where they have all started a soccer academy. AIS has a women’s professional team, and they have teams playing in a local league from U11 through adult men. So, they have their hands full. They will be hosting lots of teams during the World Cup.

Ubuntu Sports Outreach and AIS definitely share a similar heart for training up local leaders and providing opportunities for the best kids. I know that we will be doing ministry in some form in the future. They are much further along in this process than we are. (And have offices around the world.) And, thankfully, they want to offer their wisdom and experience to others. I’m excited to have AIS as a partner, and mostly to have them as friends with similar hearts to see the Kingdom advance.

I'd like you to meet...

We want to introduce you to our first international volunteer. We’ve had many people helping us in the States, but this is our first volunteer in South Africa.

His name is Andy Chenlo and he is the son of Mauricio and Sara Chenlo. Andy was on the soccer team that I helped coach at Millbrook High School. He had a desire to do a gap year after his graduation in June of 2009 and he felt our plans for Ubuntu Sports Outreach matched his heart. Andy arrived in late October and will be serving here until July 5.

Andy was born in Argentina and later lived in Ecuador while his parents were missionaries. They moved to the US when Andy was 11 years old. They have been in Raleigh ever since and attend the Raleigh Mennonite Church.

Andy will be completing his college applications while here in South Africa and hopes to study International Relations and Conflict Resolution.

Here are some more things about Andy:

Why did you come to Africa: To put my beliefs into action and try to return some of the love that Christ has given me, gaining perspective for the next step of my life while I’m at it.

Most inspiring scripture for you: Isaiah 41:13

Add to Mt. Rushmore: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Favorite thing about South Africa so far: The natural beauty “The oceans and the mountains being seconds away from you.”

Favorite Book: Harry Potter

Favorite Soccer Player: Zinedine Zidane & Riquelme

Favorite National Team: Argentina

Favorite Club Team: Boca Juniors

Favorite Soccer Coach: Matt Edwards and Casey Prince J

Nike or Adidas: Nike

Favorite Food: Steak Ravioli

Thing you miss the most about home: family and friends

Favorite band or musical artist: John Mayer & Shania Twain

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