The Beautiful Game

Well my friends,

The biggest sporting event in the world has arrived in South Africa. What an amazing opportunity I have been given to share the gospel through the greatest sport in the world -- whether you agree with this statement or not is irrelevant, because it is ;)

I am just kidding, but seriously...

Anyways, the opening WC game was last Friday, and South Africa played Mexico in Jo-burg to get things started. A group of us decided to go to down town Cape Town to watch the game at the Coke “Fan-Fest.” The Fan Fest is a free event where there is an enormous screen showing all of the 64 WC matches. It was extremely crowded so we could not get into the event. People were climbing trees and buildings all around the Fan Fest fence to try and get a glimpse of the match. We ended up in a local pub near long street to watch the game. Walking through the city streets with thousands of S.A. Fans screaming for Bafana Bafana, and blowing their vuvuzelas (of which I admittedly was blowing as well) was certainly one of the best sporting experiences I have been apart of. Watching S.A. score a glorious opening goal for the WC with tons of S.A. fans was truly a blessing. Ever since that first game took place I have missed about two games thus far. I may have to make a rule for myself to only watch two games a day.

Since I have watched all

three everyday over the past several days... Today was a good first step since I decided to go to the coffee shop and took a seat facing away from the T.V. so I wouldn’t get too distracted (although I must admit I am guilty of watching portions of it...) Tonight S.A. plays Uruguay at 8:30 and plan on going to the Fan Fest downtown to watch it with thousands. Should be a blast!

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let me tell you a little bit about the ministry I have had the opportunity to be apart of this week. Like I said in the last blog, last week we spent all of our time preparing for this week and the upcoming three weeks of the WC. On Monday we started Upwards Soccer. This is a program where the Ocean View volunteers along with volunteers from Samaritan's feet, WYAM, and a Women’s soccer team from Taylor University have

come in to run soccer and netball (a sport much like basketball, but for girls) clinics with a supporting message of the gospel. On Monday it rained so we had very few children come out. We ended up going inside and setting up netball hoops and small soccer goals to play with. Since we couldn’t really run the program due to the weather we just tried to build relationships and have fun with the children there by playing with them for a few hours. It was some of the most fun I have had since arriving here. There really is nothing like playing soccer with locals while listening to the WC theme song! It really was such a great blessing. On Tuesday the weather was slightly nicer, only a little bit of rain, so we decided to have the clinics outside. It was a little disorganized, but the kids didn’t notice and I believe most of them had a great time.

To help you understand a little bit more about what was going on I’ll try to describe the program to you briefly. We start out by separating the kids into different groups based on their age. This takes a long time... Then after this is accomplished we assign each group to a leader. I am one of these leaders and I had “control” of 7 kids. We decided to name our team Barcelona, after the club team. There were six different little ball skill stations, where at one, the kids would practice long passes, shooting, dribbling, or even tricks. Some of these kids are really really good. Not just saying that. I get embarrassed on a regular basis while playing them! Thankfully I am bigger so I’ll just pick them up and steal the ball from them that way! The kids are often hard to discipline but I am getting better and better at fulfilling that role and finding creative ways to get them to do the drills. I come with a certain amount of respect simply because of my skin color. After we do the soccer/netball drills we have a devotional period. Yesterday, Alister asked me to tell the story of creation to the children. I hadn’t prepared anything for this, since I had no idea I would be doing it. I had to tell the story of Gen. 1 to about 35 kids and try to hold their attention for 15 minutes! Lets just say it could have gone better, but it certainly could have gone worse! Thankfully for tomorrows devotion I have a little more notice and things should go much more smoothly! After the devotions we play just a little more soccer and then give the kids their food and send them home. Like I said earlier many of the kids come simply to get the food, but hopefully they will catch the message of the gospel while we are working with them.

Ok, I just got my next cup of bottomless coffee so I guess I’ll tell you a little more about the race issues here. As you may know the apartheid in South Africa ended several years ago, but there are still very serious problems with racism here. Many of the communities are separated by race. For instance, the community I am working in is generally occupied by colored people. It should be noted that here there is a difference between the blacks and the colored people. (By the way, I am trying to be as politically correct as reasonable here, so bear with me.) While I am certainly no expert on the racial issues here, there is a difference between the whites, blacks, and colored. The colored, I believe, tend to be more local to South Africa. The blacks are usually immigrants or descendants of immigrants from other African countries. There is often much animosity between the blacks and coloreds because of the living situations they find themselves in.

In the township of Masipumalele, for instance, a local colored person may own a piece of property and is looking to rent portions of that property out to make a profit. If a local wants to rent that property then the local property owner will rent them a normal rate of living. However, if a foreigner (who is generally black) wants to rent the portion of land they will be charged much more. And obviously, for the local property owner it is more beneficial financially to rent out to the blacks than to the local colored people. This can create dislike or even hatred for the black immigrants who are taking the colored living space. So the township of Masi is generally black and the township of Ocean View is generally colored. This is not to mention the unbelievable abundance of wealth just five to ten minutes away that is often owned by the white community.

I heard the other day that South Africa has the biggest differential in the world between the population of those in poverty and those in wealth. It is often said that there is no where else in the world where you can see the most expensive and beautiful living situations in the world next to some of the worst in the world. An incredibly sad reality the often fuels the fire of racism. Blacks, Colored, and Whites, for the most part all speak English. The Blacks often speak Cosa and the Colored speak Afrikaans. Speaking in the different languages is often how how the two distinguish between the other. In fact, as I was walking over here to the mall, I heard a colored person cuss out a black man he did not even know simply because of his race. I have heard several stories of threats and attacks due to racism here in Cape Town recently. I am safe walking down the street (in the day time) simply because of my skin color but many here are not in the same position. Please pray that South Africa can continue to mature in this area and that the blacks, coloreds, and whites can all live in relative harmony!

Wow that was a lot of writing, I hope I got all of the information above correct as possible. The WC is a great opportunity for this country to come together for one reason. When I cheer for Bafana Bafana to win a game, I am not really cheering so much as for the team to win, as much as I am cheering for the South African people to have something to celebrate together. It has been such a blessing to be here and to gain these types of experiences. I thank God for you and for your support. Please keep praying that God will use me in whatever way He sees fit over my next two months here!

Love you all,

Josh Sheppard