Last week I had the privilege of attending the baptism of
five Afghan men our team and ministry partners have been working with for a few
years now.
Please pray for these guys. Though they do have more security and church around
them that they probably would not have if they were in Afghanistan, they can still
face harassment or be cut off from their community. It's not easy and bound to become more
difficult as some received threats even before they made a commitment to Christ
and were only attending Christian outreaches out of curiosity.
One of the men came up to me after the baptism and
thanked me for giving him a Bible and putting him in contact with one of the
culturally-sensitive outreaches we work with.
It was a humbling moment, because I don't actually remember giving him
the Bible and my conversations with him always seemed so short and truncated, I
assumed that none of it made much difference.
A good reminder that many of the big programmes and events that I think
are so important and clever (and might be a bit proud of) may not be the main
thing for God.
The other encouraging aspect of being at the baptism was
seeing many different streams of ministry come together. All of these men have been involved with one
of our ministries or team members, but all at very different
points of their journey to faith. All of
the guys had been to football on Friday at some stage. Though this, they met other Christian guys
and met some of our teammates or other outreach workers in Glasgow. Then they started attending a seekers' Bible
study or culturally sensitive outreach.
Now all are finding a home in a church -- not all the same one, but
places where they have found a community.
For these guys, this journey to faith in Christ took over
three years. Many of the people who were
in the room had played important roles or helped to show the signposts on that
journey.
If I'm honest, as much as enjoy it, I
sometimes get fed up with the football ministry. I'd rather be at home with Emma and Niamh
with my feet up, especially as the weather gets colder and wetter. I get annoyed when the guys fight, or just
seem disinterested. Often I feel as if I
should be doing something more with Friday nights. It's a casual programme and has become more
so as volunteers have had to leave due to other commitments. I often feel like I should do some more
explicit Christian outreach to justify the programme -- I have done such from
time to time, but something every week?
Should I stay longer and engage in more conversations, when in reality
I'm just tired after a long week and want to get home?
Being at the baptism was an ample reminder that God has
used the football outreach greatly simply because of what it is. Stressing about doing more, more, more, with
it actually blinds me to the good that it is already doing, and continues to
do. Many of the guys tell me that they
are happy to bring their Muslim friends to football because it's non-threatening,
casual, and they will be able to meet Christians and see that they are all
right. Others tell me that they've
learned that they've been able to get over prejudice through meeting people at
football, comments like, "I never knew any
Scottish/Arab/American/English/Iranian/African people before, but you know,
they're really nice and are a lot like me." If I was to over-programme football, it would
lose what it currently is: a non-threatening place where relationships can be
made in a casual, normal way. This kind
of social outlet is something that many young asylum seekers don't normally
have access to.
Though most of the young guys who have attended football
have gone on take part in a Bible study or church meeting of some sort, this is
not a conditional requirement of attending football and shouldn't be. People quickly see through these ulterior
motives and feel betrayed or resentful if they are 'baited' to attend church,
instead of attending out of their own initiative. The football is a good thing
to do in of itself, in that it breaks down barriers, helps newly arrived
refugees to make social contacts, keeps these young guys off the street, and
promotes good health. I hope that this
bears witness to some aspect of the Kingdom. Clearly, that is not the full picture and I
want all the guys to encounter Christ on a real and personal level. But perhaps more programmes and leaflets is
not the way to do this. Rather, it's
being deliberate about what we're already doing through football: opening
ourselves to relationship and simply "being there" week-in and
week-out to offer some stable form of relationship.
This of course takes time. Had I been told which five guys were going to
be baptised, I probably wouldn't have believed it. They definitely weren't the guys who seemed
most "open". But at the
baptism, all the guys let me know how important football was for them as they
came to faith in Christ.
It also seems that these things go in cycles. One of the more recent football participants has
just contacted me by text telling me that he wants to speak with me one-on-one
about Christianity and how to read the Bible.
He also wanted to let me know that he would be stepping away from
football (he's a very skilful player who also plays with the Saturday league
team) for a couple of weeks so he could attend a Bible class at a local church!
Being a good friend to some young men or hosting a Friday
kick-about seems pretty basic, maybe not that exciting. And for as much as God can use big exciting
outreach events, he also calls me to be faithful in the day-to-day. It took over three years for the five Afghan
guys to get to a point where they could be baptised... as we chatted over a celebratory meal afterwards, the guys didn't credit any special concert or talk from a Christian
celebrity preacher as what was most important to them. It was things like: "Thanks for letting
me have that meal at your house."
"Thanks for letting me come with my friend to football, even when I
didn't have any money to pay."
"Thanks for giving me that Dari Bible and telling me where was a
good place to start reading."
"Thanks for giving me a lift to sign on at the Home Office when I
was so scared." "Thanks for
visiting and calling me when I was in the detention centre." "Thanks for inviting me to that Bible
study." "Thanks for the lift
to church."
Yes, let us plan and think of great new strategic programmes
that will reach the lost. But let us not
forget the importance of being faithful to the things that God calls us to in
the everyday.
