SOUTH AFRICA (ANS): Excitement has reached fever pitch as South Africa hosts the first football (soccer) World Cup to be held on African soil. Kicking off on June 11, the FIFA World Cup encompasses 30 days of football (soccer) played in 10 stadiums scattered over nine cities. More than 300,000 visitors from all parts of the world were expected to flood into the country for the event. This translates into 2.74 million spectators with a TV audience of some 40 billion watching 200 hours of football.
Half the world will be able to watch the final which expects to see 3.3 billion people glued to their sets. In addition a further 14 million visitors will be watching games on big screens at the fan parks.
And Christian groups and churches have been mobilised to take advantage of the opportunity for evangelism presented by the World Cup.
Tim Tucker, programme coordinator of the local organising committee of The Ultimate Goal (TUG) says, “This is our time and our moment.
“Never again in our lifetime will we have this unique opportunity. We need to seize the moment. We have the message and the vehicle to deliver that message. If we don’t rise to the challenge it will be gone tomorrow.”
Many churches have plan-ned special services and even mini football (soccer) tournaments. Festivals, including drama and dance, are being staged to involve local communities and share the Gospel.
With tickets to the major games being scarce many groups are planning big screen showings of the games which will also include special Gospel presentations and testimonies from local Christian sports stars.
A substantial supply of resource materials is available. This includes 140,000 copies of the Twenty10 Pocket Guide, which includes player profiles and testimonies, a full schedule of games and venues, numerous World Cup facts and figures and a presentation of the way of salvation.
Athletes in Action have produced a special DVD, The Prize, which features high profile Christian players such as Kaka, Lucio, Marcus Senna, Nicola Legrotalle and Tim Howard.
The South African Govern-ment has extended the normal school holiday period by two weeks to cover the World Cup period. Churches have taken advantage of this by planning holiday clubs with special resource material prepared for the World Cup.
A major programme called ‘Ubabalo’ has been developed to train 2000 coaches to present football (soccer) and life skills as well as spiritual motivation.
There is a comprehensive curriculum that will facilitate coaches and players to develop sound values.
