Missionaries use sports to reach the world

Last week, booths and tables for missions organizations lined the walls of the crowded back hallway of DeMoss. In the midst of the chaos of students and representatives, missions organizations Push the Rock and Score International were furthering their passion of sports and Christ.

The two organizations have been introducing people to the gospel through sports in the United States and overseas.

Push the Rock

Eric Thuma, assistant to the missions director for Push the Rock, experiences the joy of devoting his life to spreading the gospel as he travels with the Philadelphia, Penn. based organization. They travel around the United States as well internationally to Costa Rica, Czech Republic and Zambia organizing and participating in sports camps.

“Right now we do a lot of stuff domestically but we are hoping to expand on the international side of things,” Thuma said.

Thuma’s experiences on a 2008 soccer trip to Costa Rica with Push the Rock was the experience that influenced his life for the cause of missions. The trip focused on playing street soccer with the locals of a town near San José. Push the Rock held a church service at the end of the week-long trip in a community center that a local missionary converted into a church building.

Thuma recalled a group of three young men that he and a friend bumped into throughout the week. Playing street soccer one day, Thuma recognized the trio.

“They were probably mostly there to watch the girls play but we didn’t care, you know, might as well take advantage of why they were there,” Thuma said. “So we just got to know them and we invited them to come to church.”

At the end of the week, as Thuma listened to the sermon presented by the Costa Rican pastor, he had the urge to turn around. His eyes locked onto one of the young men he invited to church who stood in the back of the room.

At the end of the service, the pastor invited people to the front of the sanctuary if they were ready to accept Christ into their lives. The young man made his way to the front of the church as the pastor requested that missionaries pray with the kids.

“I got immediately nervous because I felt God was saying, ‘Eric, you talked to this guy before. You need to go,’” Thuma said. “And I was like, ‘I don’t want to go.’ But then, (the young man) stood there for a couple seconds and no one seemed to be going up there so I got up to go pray with him.

“It was just awesome,” Thuma said. “Maybe God worked more in my life that day than even (the kids’). That experience reinforced what sports ministry is about.”

Thuma’s advice for students interested in any capacity of mission work is, “Go do it.” “If you never go, how do you know it’s not for you?” Thuma said.

Score International

Score International has also been using sports to connect to people in other countries. Score International began as a short-term athletic missions organization, playing sports with people around the world. A basketball coach wanting to use his skills and his team to further God’s kingdom founded Score International in 1984.

Over the past 10 years, the roots Score International planted and the connections they secured have allowed them to expand beyond only short-term athletic trips. They also plant churches, are involved in medical and dental work, construction overseas, build schools and minister to orphans, prostitutes and people in prisons.

Many of the staff members of Score International have taken a personal interest in orphaned young men and women in the Dominican Republic according to Vice President of Enlistment and Enrichment for Score International Dave Marvin.

“What happens is, they have to go back to family but most of them don’t have family to go back to or they wouldn’t have been orphans to begin with,” Marvin said. “And so consequently, there’s a time frame where if they don’t receive good education and good training and a good, solid biblical background. Then all they have to turn to is the streets. And we see that happen all the time down there.”

The teams working in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica build and operate transition homes where young men and women can live and receive an education and acquire job training so they can make a living and a difference in the world.

Both organizations offer short-term trips for those who are not interested in or ready for full-time missions.

More information about Push the Rock can be found at pushtherock.org. Information on Score International is available at scoreinternational.org.