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by Rev Stephen Panya Baba
On Wednesday 30th April 2014, we had a visit from our SIM partners in Sports Ministry – Sportsfriends. The Sportsfriend delegation was led by Pastor Ishaya Inuwa, the Sporsfriends Nigerian Director. They have helped trained well over 700 EMS Missionaries in Sports Ministry and now we have an EMS Sports Ministry Coordinator in the person of Rev Emmanuel Ali. During the last Wednesday visit, they brought a donation of 41 white balls and 16 blue balls.
The blue balls are especially needed by EMS because of their ‘everlasting’ nature. They are specially made in such a way that they don’t get burst or deflated. Seven of these wonderful blue balls were allocated immediately to our seven rural Mission Field Schools, located in communities that cannot be assessed at all except on foot or are cut off from any access during raining season.
We are exploring the idea of developing Muslim Background Believers Discipleship Center, to take care of converts, including those converted through sports ministry. We hope to incorporate components of sports discipleship programme in the proposed center and so we are working with Sportsfriends Nigeria for their invaluable inputs.
This has become necessary because of converts from EMS Radio Ministry to the Core North who are facing persecution and also converts through missionaries serving in the fields in the Core North. Recently some Muslim enquirers in one EMS station which is doing sports ministry, asked for a place of refuge that when they accept Christ, they can run to in order to continue discipleship using sports ministry model. If it becomes known that they are even considering converting to the Christian faith, their lives will be at stake. They are up to three young people that through sports ministry have reached the point of making decision for Christ as Saviour and Lord in this station, with potential for more there and in some other places.
We also hope to facilitate SIM Sportsfriends training outreach beyond Nigeria through our various Churches in Togo, Cameroun, Gambia, Malawi, Chad and other new frontier missions fields we are opening up.
Kindly continue to give us the much needed prayer cover please.