While professional baseball players competed this past summer for sports championships,
four Louisiana College athletes and faculty won something more precious than
a ball game – lost souls for Christ.
While professional baseball players competed this past summer for sports championships,
four Louisiana College athletes and faculty won something more precious than
a ball game – lost souls for Christ.
These short-term missionaries were among 500 sports missions volunteers the
International Sports Federation helped facilitate through the Southern Baptist
International Mission Board.
International Sports Federation is a network of coaches and athletes who work
with Southern Baptist missionaries to share Christs love where traditional
missions efforts often cannot go.
Federation Associate Director Sara Beth Fentress spoke to students about the
program during a morning chapel service last month at Louisiana College. Fentress
and the other six full-time federation staff members travel to colleges and
churches in the United States, with the goal of recruiting Christians who have
a desire to serve God through sports missions.
Though the organization utilizes the athletically-gifted individual, the International
Sports Federation welcomes non-athletes who have a love for sports missions.
“The 40 Days of Purpose (program) shows us that God gives
us passions and abilities,” Fentress says. “I love sports and, across
the world, have seen thats an easy way to break a barrier. To me, its
what God has given you that you love and how you can best use that passion for
him.”
“(The International Sports Federation) is a way to bring the nations to
Christ,” explains Lori McGaha, clinical education coordinator at Louisiana
College. “A volleyball can get you in a lot of places that other (missionaries)
cant go.”
Blaine Broussard is a member of the LC Wildcat basketball team. He spent his
summer in Moscow. He says one thing he learned was “its so much easier
to build relationships than just coming up to someone and saying hi.
“If you can sweat with them, you build relationships,” Broussard
notes.
Anywhere Southern Baptist missionaries are stationed, Fentress says the International
Sports Federation has a team in that country. In fact, the sports organization
placed teams in 120 countries last year.
Since the federation was formed in 1993, leaders say teams have reached more
than 20,000 people on six continents. The playing field has ranged from small
dirt courts to national arenas.
While Chris Vallery played baseball at the LC Billy Allgood Field during his
freshman year. However, this past summer, his playing field overseas was quite
different.
Instead of a freshly-cut grass field, he was accustomed to in Pineville, Vallery
played the game on asphalt on the Canary Islands. At night, he played beach
volleyball and shared Christ with other participants afterward.
“Sports brought down all barriers,” Vallery says. “Its
something beyond language and religion. It unites everyone and enables you to
build relationships.”
McGaha and LC Director of Athletic Training Janet Passman used beach volleyball
to build relationships with the Greek people. The duo also plans to spend next
summer at the Olympics in Athens and other surrounding communities in Greece.
“This was a groundbreaking event for the Olympics,” McGaha says of
this summers effort. “You look at the Olympics, and its people
from every nation being in one place at one time.”
Passman and McGaha say they hope to use their athletic training knowledge next
year during the Olympic games, one of several federation trips on tap in 2004.
This past summer, McGaha and Passman worked at a childrens camp in Calamos.
Although McGhaa coached volleyball, she says the children involved also participated
in face painting, balloon games and a worship service.
The two Louisiana College staff members also spent time in the Port of Piraeus,
distributing tracts to the citizens who fled the islands in August due to the
high temperatures prevalent that time of the year. As the citizens passed through
ferries on their way out of the country, McGaha and Passman distributed evangelistic
material.
“This trip with the (International Sports Federation) showed me how the
passion I have for athletics could give me a channel to use that desire for
him,” McGaha says.
Despite ones athletic ability, there was one consensus among International
Sports Federation trip participants – go.
“To volunteer to go opens the door to tell others about Jesus,” Passman
says.
“God will show you so many things,” Vallery adds. “It doesnt
have to be overseas. Step out on faith, and God will bless you and other people
also.”
Greece, Uruguay, Spain and China are just a sampling of trips the International
Sports Federation plans to offer after Christmas and during the summer months
next year. Accommodations are nearly full for the August trip to Greece during
the 2004 Olympics, so, interested individuals should contact the federation
as soon as possible.
The International Sports Federation may be reached by phone at (800) 999-3113,
extension 1512 and via the Internet at www.sportsmissions.com.