By Melanie Clinton

JOHANNESBURG — It’s not your typical Africa.

Kids – many of them Caucasian – run across a grassy soccer field, practicing their dribbling and goaltending skills. The wind is so cold it causes teeth to chatter and eyes to water. The hot chocolate served at break time is met with appreciation.

The children, grades 1 to 7, are participating in an Upward soccer clinic, a popular outreach event held at many churches in the United States.

But this isn’t suburbia, USA. It’s suburbia, South Africa.

The kids are playing soccer in Edenvale, a residential area to the east of Johannesburg. Home to 10 million people and one of the 50 most economically influential cities in the world, Johannesburg reminds many international visitors of Europe or the United States.

Edenvale is a middle-class area full of neatly-tended gardens, corner grocery stores, and early morning joggers. About 80 percent of the population is Caucasian.
Walking down a tree-lined residential avenue in Edenvale, one might easily think of being in the United States.

Also, the problems faced by children in Edenvale are the same as those in any First World, industrialized nation, like the United States.

Richard van Lieshout, youth pastor of Edenvale Baptist Church, which hosted the Upward clinic, said children and youth in this community are under a lot of stress because of school work and peer pressure. Yet they often don’t get much support on the home front.

“Families these days have to work long hours, they sit in traffic for hours, so [the kids’] parents leave them at like seven in the morning and get back like eight at night,” he said. “Parents are cranky because they’ve sat in traffic for hours, and so these kids don’t get a lot of quality time with their parents.”

Edenvale Baptist Church is working hard to reach out to these families. In the past couple of years the church has grown significantly, and many of the new participants are young families. The Upwards soccer clinic is one of many efforts to meet the needs of these new attendees, along with others in the community.

Warren Wakefield, who coordinated the skills training portion of the clinic, said regarding the children, “Our ultimate goal is to … connect with their parents more, and hopefully invite their parents to … a social event at the church and just get to know them and build relationships with these kids and also their parents.”

Van Lieshout said that out of the 190 children attending the clinic, only 40 of them go to a church of any kind.

“The kids need just love,” he said. “Love and just hugs [and] affirmation – affirmation after affirmation after affirmation. … We watch our coaches [and there’s] not a single word of any kind of putting the kid down.”

During the clinic, the students learned soccer skills like defending, passing and shooting. They also met in small “huddles” with a coach to talk about Jesus, learn memory verses, and receive awards and encouragements.

Ten-year-old Cole van Rooyen, who does not attend church, said he learned “about God and how He is wise.”

Austin Kemsley, 12, said, “We’re learning that He gives us wisdom, understanding, knowledge, basically everything. He gives us everything.”

The combined message of sports and Christ is exactly what Wakefield is after.

“My belief about sport is that sport is never to be by itself,” he said. “… I really do believe that it needs to come with a message. And what better message than the only true message, and that’s the truth that Jesus loves you.”

He continued, “I’m just happy if kids walk away from this and they know that Christianity isn’t about a religion, it’s about, ‘Hey, Jesus loves me, and He wants to have a relationship with me.’”

Melanie Clinton is a writer and editor for IMB. She has lived and worked in five African countries.