The children of the Northwestern Ohio District score 1,000 goals with the GOL2010 evangelism soccer ball.

This year the children, children’s pastors and Nazarene Mission International (NMI) leaders are partnering to raise enough money to purchase 1,000 soccer (called football in most other countries) balls to help Children’s Ministries International (CMI), JESUS Film Harvest Partners, Nazarene Youth International (NYI), and Global Mission (formerly World Mission) meet their goal of distributing 10,000 evangelism balls worldwide through 2010 in conjunction with the World Cup event being hosted in South Africa in June and July next year. (Read more about the GOL2010 strategy.)

Each year the children of the Northwestern Ohio District embrace a project as their own, raising $10,000-$12,000. The kids are excited about the evangelism soccer ball project because they can identify with it. They play soccer at school, in the park, on a team, and in the backyard with their friends. Being able to use the game and colors on the soccer ball as a focal point to share the gospel is something anyone can do, especially kids.

The project was kicked off this year at the District NMI Convention. Pyramids of evangelism balls flanked the platform of the convention while children dressed in their soccer uniforms ran down the aisles dribbling soccer balls led by their “coach,” Jon Spyker, the District NMI Children’s Coordinator. Jon explained the project to the convention and invited everyone to visit the project display during the convention.

Each church was invited to take an evangelism ball home with them to use as promotion for the project. Several churches are making plans to hold soccer clinics using the soccer balls and at next year’s NMI convention, children across the district will be taught how to use the evangelism ball to share the gospel of Jesus Christ while participating in a convention soccer clinic. The soccer balls will also be used to engage children on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina in the gospel of Jesus Christ during the district's Work & Witness trip the summer of 2010.

For more information about GOL 2010 visit www.GOL2010.org. For resource information and ideas on how to raise money to support GOL 2010, visit www.JFHP.org.

-- Kristi Payne serves as the Northwestern Ohio District Nazarene Missions International (NMI) President.