Sports department
Soccer
It is hard to imagine childhood without a ball, and a boy without a soccer ball. Small players turn every yard of a multi-story building into a football field and try to make competitions. Often, instead of soccer goals, they put simply two bricks, and the marking on the field is made with an ordinary stick. The parents of these children work a lot, and therefore cannot or do not want to pay enough attention to their children, and the boys grow up on the street among the same restless peers. The youth, who grew up without any values being instilled in them, is gradually degrading. Then the parents usually blame the school and their children’s friends or even admit their mistakes, but it is often too late.
The goal of the Sports Department is to involve children and youth in eternal values through sports and to form them with a Christian worldview.
Thus, in September 2004, the Christian Soccer Club Nadia started its work in Rivne. The CSC NADIA aims to train children and teenagers based on Christian values through participation in the educational and training process.
Currently, the CSC NADIA consists of six teams, in which children and youth of different ages (5 to 22 years old) are trained. The total number of club members reaches 100 people. Practices are held three times a week, an important part of which is the study of God’s Word with an emphasis on practical application. Often this application takes place on the soccer field. Here the boys learn to practically apply the lessons through their attitude towards their opponents and each other. While improving their sportsmanship, they have a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the learned spiritual truths to others.
Almost 90% of the boys who attend the club have never read the Bible or heard about God before in their families. When they accept the truths from God’s Word and apply them in their lives, it excites and inspires them to work further for God’s glory. On Sundays, most of the boys of the CSC Nadia are present at the morning service and the youth club. Over the years of the club’s activity, about 50 young men accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and became members of evangelical churches.
The experience of CSC Nadia is successfully implemented in other cities of Ukraine. We wish to share the knowledge we have already gained with people from other churches in order to create similar clubs for boys. To do this, we offer people, who are interested in it, to join our work for one or more weeks to carry out a practical discipleship. We are also ready to personally visit churches to help them organize sports work on-site and/or take part in soccer camps.
During the war, the soccer club continued its work, and this is a good testimony to the children and their parents that the Lord gives hope for the future! Among the former players of the club are soldiers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who are now at the frontlines defending their homeland.
