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Ed Houghton working with “Sport et Foi” (faith) an urban sports ministry project in Lyon.
Dear Friends,
With two and a half months of my gap year now behind me, I now feel well settled into “La vie lyonnaise.” My time here will come to an end on the 8th December, as I come home for Christmas before heading off to Paraguay for 5 months at the beginning of February.
The Last month has been packed full of activity….
The Sport et Foi leadership team is now made up of 5 people. Matthieu (The Boss), Joel, Daniel, Heloise and myself. They’re great guys and despite being a few years younger and a different nationality, I feel a real part of the Sport et Foi Rhone team. On a practical sporting level we now have 4 sporting activities up and running. Until this year the only activity running on a regular basis was Volleyball (very different from beach volleyball, taken a lot more seriously, and much harder I assure you!!) The other activities (Rugby, football and Basketball) are just beginning this year and therefore attendances are fluctuating. For example every Saturday afternoon we have an anxious wait on the Football pitch to see how many people will turn up. Similarly we planned to have a Sport et Foi weekend away, which was cancelled due to a lack of people signing up. Nevertheless in each of the activities, we have a core group of guys who come, although this group may be small at the moment I have no doubt that it will grow and I genuinely find it exciting to be involved in the first stages of a project like this, which has so much potential.
Sport et Foi does a lot of its work on a National level. We are planning to launch an evangelistic project for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, which is to be held in France. This will involve releasing a DVD and Magazine with testimonies from Christian Rugby players, and also a website, www.conversion 2007.org (get the play on words there!!) There will also be evangelistic events held in France throughout the World Cup. The amazing thing was that these ideas had to be presented to the one and only Agape Director Roger Vann (inhabitant of Knowle for those that don’t know him) and therefore my role was to translate all the documents into English. The organisation of the project in general involves a lot of contact with Anglophone countries, so as the only member of the team who speaks (good!) English I have also been of use in this area.
Aside from my work with Sport et Foi, although not yet officially a student yet, I have got quite involved with the Agape Campus Crusade for Christ project at Lyon University. The group is really alive and keen to spread the gospel, which is great to see especially considering that France is largely a country which tries to pretend there isn’t a God! Last weekend along with 50 students, I went on the groups’ weekend away which was great fun and a good experience.
On a more general note, one thing I have found very interesting during my time here is that working for a Christian organisation gives you loads of opportunities to talk about your faith. For example, having joined various clubs etc. outside of Christian circles, as soon as you present yourself and explain what you’re doing in France you have an opportunity to talk about Christianity. This is very exciting but it’s also a challenge to make sure I’m always enthusiastic about what I’m doing and that I can give a good explanation of what Sport et Foi is, because for most of them it’s the first time they’ve heard of anything like this, some people are interested but believe me from some I have had some quite strange looks….Sport et quoi!
It’s also been great to feel that my French has really improved, language really holds the key to developing relationships whether it’s within the Sport et Foi team or elsewhere. So thank you very much for prayer in that and every area, it’s been a great encouragement to know people are praying for me.
Other things it would be great to pray for….
- Thank God for a great couple of months, great experiences and meeting some great new people.
- The Sport et Foi Volleyball team is currently playing in the local league. Pray that they’d really be motivated to share the Gospel after matches, and that this might be even more important than the result.
- Pray that in the activities that are just starting up, mainly in Saturday afternoon football that the group of core guys who come would grow.
- We’re about to start Football coaching on Wednesday afternoons for younger Kids. Pray that this would get off to a great start, be well attended and that the children who come would understand that it is more than just fun and games.
- The University Christian group is currently doing room to room evangelism, pray for the success of this generally, and also I’ll be doing it this Wednesday night (29th). So if before then, pray that I could do it well, if after pray that what I say might make them want to find out more!
Many thanks
Hope you’re all well and God bless!
Ed
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