So everyone once in a while I get to brag about my awesome wife. Below is a story that she wrote about one of the female Sports Friends coaches that went through one of Nicole's training. This story was recently publish in SIM magazines in the UK & New Zealand. It is also on the SIM international website (http://sim.org/index.php/content/sports-friends-ethiopia-tigist). Ok, enough about my wife, read below to see how our great and mighty God is using sports to transform the lives of youth around the world!

Tigist loved to play football (soccer) with her friends. Nearly every day after school she worked hard to develop her foot skills by playing pick-up games in the streets around her home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

One day she was invited to play in a tournament at an evangelical church in the area. Her parents were hesitant about letting her attend a church other than their own, but they agreed to let her play.

During the course of the competition, she met a man by the name of Alebachu. A trained sports minister, he coached football teams as an evangelistic outreach. Alebachu invited Tigist to join his team. After a while, she started attending the evangelical church and began wrestling with the conflict between its teachings about grace and salvation and those of the church in which she'd grown up. When her family started to put pressure on her about attending, she left the evangelical church. Though she continued to play football on Alebachu's team, she focused on the family religion.

One day Tigist became seriously ill, and her family took her to church for a healing ritual. But Tigist's health deteriorated. She remembers overhearing her parents say, "Surely, this is the day she will die." Then one of her neighbors, a woman with a strong Christian faith, came to visit Tigist. She asked if she and her pastors could pray for her. Feeling hopeless, and on the edge of death, Tigist accepted the offer.

Tigist was healed, and knowing it was God who healed her, she committed her life to him. She returned to the evangelical church, kept playing football, started studying the Bible with Alebachu and began proclaiming the gospel.

Her family did not believe that the Christian woman's prayer had healed their daughter. When Tigist refused to stop attending her new church and speaking about spiritual truths, they told her to move out. During this time her coach helped build the church community around her.

After awhile, Tigist's mother invited her to return home. Her parents tried to control her behavior by forbidding her to attend the new church and the football training. But Tigist's zeal for the Lord would not be thwarted, and she continued to attend both in secret.

In the last year, with the help of Alebachu and the local church, Tigist made the transition from player to coach. She selected 16 girls, aged 13 to 16, to play on her team, and then decided to give them a test. Tigist gave each member a piece of equipment to be responsible for bringing to training sessions. To her surprise, the girls arrived at the next session with all of the equipment.

Tigist enjoys leading her team and teaching them about integrity, discipline, responsibility, trustworthiness and stewardship. Asked why she chooses to coach, she responds, "When we were created, God made us for a purpose and right now I am fulfilling my purpose."

Building relationships takes time: it requires patience, perseverance and diligence. Tigist played on Alebachu's team for more than four years before she became a believer. Since then, he has spent three years discipling her and equipping her to use sports to share the good news of Jesus Christ with her team.

Thank God for men and women like Alebachu and Tigist who are impacting lives for eternity with the help of a futbol.

This year Sports Friends tried to raise 2,000 scholarships to send kids to camp in Africa & Asia. Many of those scholarships are for the kids who came to Camp Langano this summer. We are excited to thank all of you who helped surpass that goal and raise scholarships to send more than 2,500 youth to camp around the world! Check out the video below. Nicole shot all the raw video and someone in the US pieced it together. Thank you for the support, please keep these kids in your prayers!

At Camp Langano, our campers come from all walks of life; some campers arrive with a backpack full of soccer gear, while others come with only the clothes on their backs. But regardless of their socioeconomic status, they all come as sinners in need of a Savior. Over the week, as the youth open up and share the stories of their lives with us, the injustices in this fallen world bring tears to our eyes.

Meet Frey, a 16-year old girl, who has been living on the streets for the last three years. Orphaned and abandoned by family and neighbors, Frey has no place to call home. Since she was thirteen, she has carried around the shame and guilt of being defiled by men. Frey came to Camp Langano blaming herself for the sins done to her. As she built trust with our staff, they were able to explain how the blood of Jesus was shed so that we could be redeemed and made clean.

Meet Hana, a vibrant 16-year old girl, who puts on a strong façade as her life crumbles around her. During her week at Camp, Hana put on the ‘tough guy’ act. Despite our efforts to gain her trust, she refused to let down her guard. On the last night as we are celebrating the week, Hana asked to address the whole camp. She proceeded to tear down the wall she had put up brick by brick. She confided that her older brothers have disowned her and her mother, that they are homeless, that her mother is seriously ill and needs an operation, that they do not have enough money for food and shoes, and that she is afraid. After we prayed for Hana and her family, one of the staff took her aside and spoke of God’s provision for the birds of the air and how much more the Lord cares for her.

Meet Jamal, a lanky 16-year old boy, whose biggest fear is death. Jamal lives in constant trepidation that someone will find out the secret he has been harboring for years, a secret that will most likely kill him. On her deathbed, Jamal’s caretaker gave 8-year old Jamal the news – like his mother and the rest of his family, she was going to die from HIV/AIDS and that he too suffered from the disease. Though at the time he did not understand what she was taking about, he understood the gravity of the situation. Three years ago, Jamal gave up hope of living because he knew that AIDS would eventually take his life. So he thought, “Why prolong the inevitable?” and he stopped taking his medication. This summer, unaware of his condition, Jamal’s coach selected him to come to Camp Langano for a week. As our staff and the firenjis (foreigners) showed Christ’s love to Jamal, he began to ask questions about the God that we serve. Hopeless, alone and ashamed, he sought out the reason for the love and the joy within each member of the staff. Feeling comfortable, he shared the secret that had been weighing on him for years. Our staff pointed him to Jesus and explained that through a relationship with Christ, he does not need to fear death because it is through death that we can live forever with our Heavenly Father.

Oh how sweet the good news of the Gospel is to those who have experienced the depths of the harsh and sin filled world we live in. Regardless of the magnitude of our despair and shame, God can redeem us. What a sweet melody to the ears of youth who have been crushed by the wickedness of others. Each week youth come to Camp Langano hurting and searching for a reason to hope. Each week there are more youth with stories similar to Frey, Hana, and Jamal. And each week our staff preaches the truths found in the Scriptures. Continue to pray for our staff as they pour into the lives of the campers. Pray that the hearts of the campers will be open, that our staff would boldly proclaim the Gospel, and ultimately that the Lord would save the youth of Ethiopia! 

We have been blessed in many ways living here, but there are some things that you tend to miss, just some small comforts from home. One of those small comforts is Girl Scouts. Well, not exactly Girl Scouts, but their COOKIES! I remember the days they would go door to door pulling their little red wagons overflowing with all kinds of chocolatey goodness. What a treat it was to get a box or two, even if they only lasted one afternoon ;) But now you can buy them in many stores, all be it, fewer cookies for a higher price. Somoas & Thin Mints, what a beautiful thing. Fortunately for us, we just had our very our “girl scout” door to door delivery! Thanks to my mom, Marge and the team from Columbia Bible Church, we are now stocked, at least for a few days, with those delicious treats :) Yum, Yum, Yum

So I am currently in the process of trying to hire another Ethiopian staff member to help out with the operations side of things at Langano. That means, among otherthings, interviewing a number of candidates. This can be a challenging process, but one that can be fun too. One of the great things about interviewing people here is that you can ask all of the questions you were never allowed to ask in the US. For example, I can ask about their faith and spiritual life. Questions about financial management, people skills and Christian discipleship call all be asked right in a row. It makes me grateful to live here. Now just to sort through all of the resumes and interviews and find the right choice (prayers would be much appreciated)!