Uganda | A Different Kind of Soccer Team
AVA Mission Africa, serving Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Kenya, have a focus on young children up through young adults in the early 30s. They’ve seen amazing growth—342 new DBS groups and 281 new disciple-makers in just one quarter! They’ve trained 99 schools in DBS this year (many of those schools are Muslim), and have 2200 DBS groups going.
One of their thriving ministries is the Sports Mentorship program, with over 60 soccer academies. In one area where soccer players started taking prayer home and calling more young people to engage in Discovery Bible Study (DBS), the elders of the area began witnessing significant behavior and character changes in the soccer players. So they notified the county chief of the area, and he was so amazed at the changes he saw that he contacted the AVA leaders to discuss how they could take the mentoring and DBS programs beyond the town council sports teams into other areas. The county chief gave AVA coaches the honor of forming a team of soccer players to compete in the Mazasa Cup sports tournament, a big deal in Ugandan soccer. AVA was so excited at this opportunity to share Jesus on a bigger stage in the sports community.
Through attending DBS, AVA players have been introduced to the world of experiencing God in their lives as soccer players. In the past, every game had been preceded by acts of witchcraft (under the guise of taking spiritual authority over the area). Now the team participates in prayer mapping, and prayer-walks at home grounds and away games. They never start a match without prayer.
During the Mazaza Cup matches, the AVA team was attacked over a small misunderstanding. The opposing team’s fans began physically beating the AVA team and fans. Police were called and had to fire bullets to calm the situation down. At the next match, the opposing team’s fans were fearful of revenge, and had police and security in place. They were shocked that AVA’s fans and players never acted against them. Instead, they said, “Our God is a God of peace.” After the match, officials approached AVA’s director, Faisal Katayenge, and asked what was so special about his team. They exhibited maturity that had never been seen in the history of the Mazaza Cup competition. Ugandan football has a mix of indiscipline and ungodliness in its history, and AVA mission thanks God for this opportunity to reach out to this unreached group of young men and their fans.
Read more of the history behind AVA Mission in this blog post.
