Play For Hope

The Play For Hope team has spent the first couple days gaining a grasp of where we are as a ministry. I am so pleased at the progress of the ministry since my first trip here. We now have 11 Play For Hope teams, 8 soccer teams and 3 basketball teams. Each team has equipment and scheduled practices every week. The large majority of the children on these teams are former or current street kids. Many coaches have given testimonies of the change they have seen in their children as they have truly used sports as a way to teach the love and hope found in Christ. I observed one of our teams practice and it did my heart so good to see God’s work. We have our own office in town where we can have coaches meetings twice a month along with storage space for our equipment. Also, we have more experienced Americans coming to Rwanda as our December team includes three professional soccer coaches.

But what most excites me about the growth of Play For Hope is that we are still very much dreaming and praying for God to do some amazing things in the future. Team members have various aspirations such as a discipleship retreat for the coaches to connect with God on a new level, adding more teams to our organization as the Lord provides resources, and how to meet the material needs of the children we work with. As the Lord provides, we will build.