Play For Hope

Do you have or know a sports team, youth group, classroom or community group that would be interested in learning how to dynamically engage the world in a fun and creative way? Play For Hope is pleased to introduce Teams For Teams, an exciting new way for people to get intimately involved with Play For Hope's mission.  We are looking for groups that would be interested in partnering with Play For Hope street kids teams to gain a broader understanding of how different cultures live and compassion for global poverty. US teams will receive updates and photos of their Rwandan partner team as well as opportunities to communicate with the team to build lasting relationships. Teams also are encouraged to think of creative ways to help their partner teams continue to have the opportunities to play sports, learning in the process how to serve those in need. For more information please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Play For Hope has been continuing to work and pursue our passions in Rwanda.  A lot of the work that is occuring right now in regards to Play For Hope is in regards to long term planning, government paperwork both in the US and Rwanda, and creating business plans.  That said children are continuing to be ministered to in Rwanda by Serieux and Christian and we are still raising monthly support for them in order that all of Play For Hope's plans might soon be pursued long term.

I had an amazing time sharing with 30 people this past Tuesday at Westport Church Play For Hope's past and future vision, which is ever growing and becoming more and more exciting.  Sarah Lucia, who worked in Rwanda with us this past summer and is continuing to work in helping us get estabilished in Rwanda on a long term basis, also took the opportuntiy to share her experiences with Rwanda and her passion for the children of Rwanda.   I am excited to have a few more speaking opportunities at local churches in Oregon in hope of stirring up passion for Rwanda.  Also I am hoping to  have some exciting news shortly.

Sorry for the delay in blog posts. Play For Hope has been hard at work in making future plans for Rwanda and our dreams and vision continue to grow. We have now had our first Board of Directors meeting will be turning in our tax exemption paperwork to the government and are continuing to run our offices in Rwanda. Right now we are also in development of a training course for Rwandan coaches that we hope will not only train coaches to be highly proficient coaching, mentoring, and providing wellness information to their children, but will allow coaches to actually be certified as competent coaches and have built in accountability. Often sports ministry in Rwanda has been based upon ministries coming into the country providing a training and then providing minimal follow-up or determination if their coaching training was effective in changing how coaches trained children. What has been left is coaches with lots of certificates of training and little knowledge of how to coach. Our deepest desire is to create an actual movement among coaches who will receive culturally relevant training largely developed by Rwandans that will bring their sports ability and their ability to raise the lowest children in society to the highest. This will initially lead to a decrease in some of the numbers of children and large events this summer, but rather be traded for real long term change that will deeply impact the lives of children that we work with. Please continue to stay posted with us as we continue to develop into these exciting opportunities.

Submitted by RJ Johnson

On Friday, March 26th, Matt Higbie and myself represented Play For Hope while attending Campus Harvest 2010 at King's Park International Church in Durham, North Carolina.  Campus Harvest is a conference at which college students gather from over 300 college campuses and multiple countries around the world to hear the gospel and become better equipped to lead Christian student movements at their individual universities.  While attending event, Matt and I set up a booth in order to promote Play For Hope and engage students and campus ministers alike in conversations about P4H's vision and activities.  It was an exciting event to say the least, and many heard about the ongoing work that we are doing in Rwanda.  Several people signed up for our newsletter and expressed their excitement for the future of Play For Hope.  It is our prayer that this excitement and life will never leave the P4H vision, and that God will continue to show himself strong and enrich the lives of youths in Rwanda as we bring them the gospel and encourage them to Play For Hope.

I wanted to help you to get to know who is working with Play For Hope in Rwanda.  Today I want to introduce you to the man who we are working with intimately to make this happen, Serieux Kanamugire.

Serieux with his one year old son Harmony

Serieux is 31 years old and is married to Francine. He has a one year old son named Harmony. Serieux has done street kids ministries with a focus on soccer for eight years. In that time he has owned and trained five soccer clubs the majority of which consisted of street children. He has successfully helped many of these children to get off and remain off of the streets. Serieux was the visonary of the Play For Hope tournament this past summer and set up many of the summer programs including the trainings and many of the clinics.

He has received trainings from Youth With A Mission (YWAM) both in Rwanda and in Texas and has been trained by Sports Friends in Ethiopia. In addition, he has assisted in teaching discipleship training at YWAM. He also has run a series of successful ministries including Harvesters and a streetkids drama and dancing program. He was also the Associate Producer of a film entitled Muyurangabou which was shown in the Cannes Film Festival. He has a passion for training leaders and helping children identify and develop their talents.