A small team from saddleback Church joined me on a trip to train 3 local churches in the Pure Game system. Our goal was to see if this modern, dynamic system of soccer combined with a character changing message could be replicated in another part of the world. The outcomes far exceeded the expectations.
 
Although we spent 17 days in country, only 8 were spent training the local churches. Three sessions were scheduled per day, a church in the morning, one early afternoon, and one early evening. We did this Monday through Thursday, with a weekend break in the middle to visit the villages we had previously worked with on a more traditional soccer program.   
 
A total of 18 church volunteers were trained and equipped to run Pure Game leagues for the children in the local church communities. Each day we would spend a couple of hours at each church walking them through the subtle mindset shifts required to focus on the children playing the game of soccer over coaching the game of soccer itself. We soon discovered soccer talent was never going to be an issue, but getting the coaches to create a positive, encouraging atmosphere verses trying to create the next World Cup team was a different issue.
 
As we taught and played with the coaches they started to see and get the difference, and suddenly we had a group of guys and girls who were uplifting, positive, and great to be on the soccer field with. This is when the kids started to have a blast and feel the freedom to play with all the creativity they could muster.  
 
This is when the fun really started and the success of the trip went well beyond any of our expectations. We thought we would introduce the program, hopefully gain some interest from one church and see where it went from there. Our target was clearly to low. All three churches couldn't get enough of the program, the kept asking for more material, and more time. The kids didn't want to stop playing, in fact more and more kids would turn up. On one field we had 58 kids playing with still more watching! Word was getting out and people wanted to learn more about this fun, positive soccer environment.
 
Then something happened none of us expected. As we were closing in pray after a great morning of learning and soccer, one of the coaches started to talk with the kids, a few raised their hands, and before any of us knew it the coach was praying over the kids. I went to our interpreter and said, "What is this all about?" "Oh, they are giving their lives to Christ" very matter of factly, "What!" I said, "This is great news!" and with a surprised look on his face our interpreters said, "Yes it is" conversation done. This then became a theme of things to come, after each session we would do a soccer equivalent to an alter call and boys and girls would come to Christ. We had a total of 52 children in the 4 the days this happened. We made sure the volunteer coaches followed up with each kid, so they would make it to church on Sunday, and we are now praying they will continue to go and grow in the Lord.
   
This was by far the best short-term international trip I have ever had the fortune to experience. The people were amazing, the soccer fantastic, the team brilliant, and the outcome nothing short of a miracle. I can't wait to see what God does with this.