SOCCER, SINGING, AND YOUTH

by Bill Wilken

THIS “HAT TRICK” BRINGS  KIDS TO WORSHIP  
During a September trip to Eastern Africa, a group of members from Shepherd of the Valley and surrounding churches had the chance to visit three of our sister parishes in Tanzania—Makifu, Tungamalenga, and Usolanga. These parishes are among those with whom SOTV, as part of the Saint Paul Area Synod’s Bega Kwa Bega program, has shared a partnership for 23 years. Together with these partners, we joyfully sang together, worshiped together, ate together, visited and, yes, even played together.  

Our final scheduled visit along Tanzania’s dusty, bumpy back roads was with the Usolanga parish, a growing congregation that is led by Pastor Patrick Chaula. Pastor Chaula has been active with this parish for over 15 years, a track record unheard of in this part of the  world. Because of the vast distance barrier, meetings between the SOTV Tanzania Partnership Committee and the leaders of the different Tanzanian parishes are often conducted by Zoom. However, here was a chance to meet face-to-face with partners halfway around the world. SOTV Pastor, Julie Wright, led these partner meetings. She later commented that she felt the consistency and stability—and growth—of this parish could be directly attributed to the longevity of Pastor Chaula’s tenure and his strong leadership. It was reported that the Usolanga parish had grown to a total of 602 members, no small feat in this part of the world, in a time when Christian church attendance and membership is dropping in North America.  

So, how does this parish accomplish its stability and growth? A couple of reasons were given. Part of the meeting agenda, at each parish partnership meeting, was to follow up with their anticipated immediate needs. One of the preaching-point evangelists in the  Usolanga parish offered that they needed soccer balls and sound-system equipment (for singing, a large part of their worship ministry). Now, you would not necessarily equate sports equipment, for example, with a tool for Christian evangelism. But lifestyle and mobility options for Tanzanian youth are much more limited than we are used to in the western world. Although they do not have access to all the options and amenities that we are used to, they do have access to, and pride in, their national sport—soccer. A specific request for new soccer balls and net balls was made a priority. How could a request so simple and small be that important to them? Pastor Julie called it a pivotal moment for her. She had come prepared with a few hundred dollars, authorized by the SOTV Tanzania Partnership Committee budget, for immediate needs. She realized this was it! This was something we could do immediately that could have a big and important impact on this parish. So, we loaded into our Land Rover to head back to the base camp in Iringa while stopping along the way to buy the Usolanga parish eight soccer balls, eight net balls and the air pumps to go with them.

So what do soccer balls, youth, singing, and evangelism have in common? The evangelists know it’s about meeting young people where they are, providing a place at God’s table, building a sense of accomplishment with challenging music, drama (sports is modern-day drama), and service  activities. In this case, we were honored to supply them with new soccer and net balls to gather in fellowship, around a common interest, and glow with a sense of pride, while joyfully singing the praises of God. Don’t we wish more of our problems could be solved this simply? Maybe we can, with God’s help!  

Members of SOTV traveled to Tanzania with the Saint Paul Area Synod’s choir trip, led by Kirsten Levorson, BKB Director, and Mark Ertl, Choir Director in September 2024.