The Ultimate Goal - a World Cup 2010 story

Yes, it is over. The World Cup 2010, the way I experienced it in South Africa. The Lord called Christians for Truth and Doctors for Life to a certain work during the World Cup and for me it was an immeasurable privilege to be (sometimes) part of it. Our teams took the message of the Gospel to the big soccer fans, using tracts in English, Zulu, Portuguese and Spanish. The matches where I could go along were: South Africa- France (22.06.2010); Portugal –Brazil (25.06.2010); Semifinal Spain-Germany (07.07.2010) and the Final Spain- Holland (11.07.2010).
Two of the matches (Portugal-Brazil & Spain-Germany) were played on Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban . Therefore,
we could be there, close to the very heartbeat of the event. But even though I’ve been around 4 major matches, I can’t tell much about the World Cup at this stage, except for how the message of the Gospel was received or rejected by the different nationalities we offered our tracts to.
Being around the stadium where the matches were played or in a fan park where people watched the game on a huge screen, sometimes waiting for hours for them to come out of the stadium, I could ask myself many times, what is it about that ball that is able to unite 70 thousands people’s hearts into one beat and one accord to shout loud with the same excitement, the same anxious desire and the same explosive reaction. That is to count only those on the Stadium and not the millions watching it in front of some screen all over the world. For about a month South Africa’s blacks and whites knew no segregation. When “Bafana Bafana” scored against France, even grandmas ran up and down the streets of South Africa. Blowing vuvuzelas couldn’t express it anymore. For a second I thought they were going to throw themselves into the ocean. When they scored again, I even ran and bought a beautiful vuvuzela with the southafrican colors and I blew it myself with enthusiasm. I was happy for my South Africans. The ball managed to enter twice the adversary’s goal and that meant victory over France. And? I can’t really grasp the real importance of it…. But it felt like a great unifying event.. a revolution of some sort… or Christmas… people were hugging each other, singing or shouting, all vehicles were hooting. I think even the horses that the Durban Police were riding, neighed. The guards that were supposed to do the body and bags search to enter a fan park closed their eyes when they saw the hundreds of tracts hidden in our bags and simply let us in. You are not allowed to hand out any advertising material in the fan parks and according to the explanation of the third policeman that escorted me out of the fan park, Jesus Christ was a product like any other. What difference does it make that I’m promoting life itself and for no profit of my own? Isn’t it what “Nike” used as a slogan too, when they launched their new line of shoes?

Some of the lines I received when handing out a tract:
- Thank you very much, muchas gracias, ngiyabonga, muy amable ,obrigado, etc.
- What is this?
- Que es eso? (Spanish speaking people asking what is this)
- Es esta su testimonio ? (a lovely Spanish lady in MontRose where my bus stopped for 30 min, asking if that was my testimony)
- Do you sell tickets? ( around the Stadium gates)
- Do you want a ticket?
- Sim, falo muito bem português (at the Portugal – Brasil match both teams spoke Portuguese and we could hand out Portuguese tracts) ;
- No thanks, we have our own religion ( Jehovah’s witnesses)
- But I am Muslim! (his face lightened up when he was told that’s ok, he can still read it);
- No thanks, we are atheists and this is Christian stuff (a white couple watching the Final on the fan park screen in Durban)
- Nah, I don’t need it ( young boys smoking on the beach)
- No thanks, I’m driving! (white foreign man – German or Dutch, trying to be funny - maybe at the expense of his eternal life. I insisted I wasn’t selling beer and he eventually took it);
- Thanks, I already got one ( many of those who already met others from the team)
- I’ll read it and call you tomorrow.
- Can we go have dinner and you will talk to me about it?
- Can I please have another one?
- I thought I told you that you are not allowed to do this inside a fan park! (Oh, sorry… am I inside? I thought I was outside);
- I’m not buying anything!
- You came from Romania to watch the soccer or to give me this?
- Is it from God? ( a Zulu boy who seemed to be in a middle of a scolding from the Police officers);
- Maam, my religion is none of your concern (same policeman who told me Jesus was a product like Nike and I wasn’t allowed to advertise Him without a license. I can’t help wondering now whom should I have gotten the license from , in order to advertise Jesus)
- Miss, the FIFA president orders are to clear this zone and I have a career to look after! ( a fine police gentleman, chasing me out of the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban after the Spain-Germany match. I asked if I could take a picture of his nice colleagues, then I kept going inside the Stadium).
- May the Lord bless you and the work you are doing! (This lady had to really scream this into my ear so I could hear anything).
- Will you marry me? I’ll give you 14 cows as a dowry (this generous offer was actually made by a Zulu man to Anita, a white beautiful girl from the team, who can speak Zulu; she told him: “no thanks, the price for me was paid by the Lord Jesus Christ”).

Some of these are fun, some led to more serious discussions. We don’t know the fruit of this now, but we did what we could as we asked the Lord to go ahead of us and send us the people who needed the message. I remember that during the match South Africa against France, we walked to Life Place to meet with the Doctors for Life team and I gave a tract to someone who was crossing the street right in front of me. Later that man was with us at Life Place asking to speak with a pastor. He followed us there after reading the tract in his hand. He said he knew about Kwasizabantu for years from his sister and that he lost track of it and was not able to find it again… He was from Congo, speaking French... his English was terrible. We simply could not understand much. Marius loaded the Mission website on his cell phone to show him a little about KSB and its location. Then Doctors for Life organized to take him to the Mission the next trip they went to Durban.
The Lord knows the needs of each one of us. We could see how some took our good news and mocked it, throwing it away. Some even brutally hit our hands offering out the tract in front of them because it was just an obstacle they had to surpass rushing for the soccer game. Some were too drunk to try and decipher what was written on the tract and we prayed that they would find it in their pocket when they would have a hangover next morning. For some it could take years of nurturing and watering that seed to start growing. And some just bloom in front of you and you get to see the fruit quicker than you expect. To me it was an honor to be found worthy of this job and do it together with a Christians for Truth or Doctors For Life team. Because I also had a lot to learn, sometimes I found myself acting as if the outreach was my own battle which I was losing. So I learned to walk by faith, trusting the Lord for both practical arrangements and the spiritual outcome. And He was always faithful not only in using me for His Kingdom, but also holding my hand to teach me to walk with Him, giving me the words or sealing my lips sometimes. And, I just realize once more that my life is worth nothing unless I myself follow that which could be read on our World Cup outreaches t-shirts:

"Our only goal is to please GOD "

(2Cor5:9)