If you grew up in the church, you probably made a salvation bracelet at a summer camp or vacation Bible school. Some might have heard or even presented the gospel with the bridge illustration. These are common tools that serve as conversation starters and a tangible way to share the message of salvation with others. But have you heard of the gospel soccer ball? Fifteen-year-old volunteer Tr’Vaughn Williams has heard of it. He shared the gospel soccer ball every day at this year’s Citylight Soccer Camp.
Citylight's annual soccer camp is a place where kids, grades 1st - 6th, come to learn basic soccer skills and sportsmanship values, make friends, have fun, and hear about Jesus. The focus is to meet more youth in the Midtown Walnut Hill neighborhood and build connections with the families living nearby.
Tr’Vaughn has lived in the neighborhood and has attended Midtown for years. God has used his church, specifically Club and Student Ministry in Tr’Vaughn’s life and faith. After accepting Jesus as his savior, Tr’Vaughn stepped out and publicly proclaimed his faith last year by getting baptized.
Since then, he’s been thinking on how he could give back and serve his church. After an invite from his student ministry leader, Tr’Vaughn signed up to volunteer at Soccer Camp.
“I wanted to serve to get integrated in the Citylight community,” Tr’Vaughn shared, “and in the community around Citylight of Walnut Hill. I wanted to teach the gospel to the children and be a leader and an example to the children at the Walnut Hill soccer camp. I feel like children should be taught good things and they should have good role models. I wanted to be a good figurehead for them. Someone that they can look up to and someone that they could take values from and learn life lessons from.”
Before the soccer camp, volunteers were taught a tool to share the gospel with the kids. After learning how, Tr’Vaughn was all in and asked if he could lead that during soccer camp.
“We used a soccer ball to demonstrate the gospel,” Tr’Vaughn exclaimed with a smile on his face. “The soccer ball had different colors: gold, black, red, white, and green. The gold stood for God in Heaven. That’s where I would start. I told them everything begins with God. It starts with Heaven and that God created everything. Black stood for sin. I taught them on what sin was and how it’s in the world and makes the world not as good as it should be. Red meant God’s love and the blood of Jesus. I told them about the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. All of us have sinned and Jesus forgave us for the sins we made. If you believe in Jesus, you get to Heaven by His grace. White stands for purity. I taught them that Jesus’ blood washes over our sin and God ignores the sins that we have made if we believe in Jesus and the sacrifice He has made for us. Green stands for growth. We can grow in Jesus and inspire to be like Jesus. No one is perfect but we should try to be like Him. We should have moral values like Jesus had like loving your neighbor. Finally, we have gold. Gold is God in Heaven again. Everything ends with God as well as it starts with God. The end there will be God. We can all go to Heaven by the grace of Jesus’ sacrifice.”
Each day at soccer camp, over and over, Tr’Vaughn would pick up the soccer ball and share the gospel with each small group of kids after they played and went through a soccer drill. Each time and with each group, Tr’Vaughn noticed growth and understanding in the kids.
“This was my first time telling the gospel,” Tr’Vaughn admitted. “The responses from the kids were my favorite part. One memory is when I first told this to the kindergarteners who were my first group. I would always end sharing the gospel with prayer. I would pray for all the children. Two girls, who were twin sisters, came up to me at the end and gave me a hug. They told me “Thank you for sharing that story with us. It meant a lot. And thank you for praying for us.” That moment made my heart explode and melt. Just the beauty of how they were participating and raising their hands when I asked questions meant a lot to me.”
Tr’Vaughn was thankful for the opportunity to share not only what the gospel is, but what it has done for him.
“The gospel has helped me a lot,” Tr’Vaughn confessed. “It has helped me in my life knowing who Jesus is. It’s pushed me to be a better person. To share my faith with others and share the gospel whenever I can. I mention God’s grace and love. It’s always been in my life. I got baptized (in February) to proclaim my faith to Jesus Christ. The gospel means everything to me. Jesus saved me from anger. Over the years I experienced a lot of anger and being an angry person and lashing out on others. Now, I have realized anger is not the way to go but you should love everybody and treat everybody with the respect and kindness.”
When asked “What would you say to the kids if they were right in front of you now?” Tr’Vaughn declared with joy in his heart,
“I would thank them for showing up to the soccer camp. They chose the option to go to camp. They made a big step by participating in their community. I am thankful for the respect they showed. I’m thankful for their participation and how they listened as I was sharing the gospel to them. All the kids were really nice.”
Jesus declared in the great commission in Mark 16:15 “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” As a church, may we GO into our homes, neighborhoods and workplaces and proclaim the gospel to those around us. God’s gift of salvation is for everyone. If you need help sharing this good news, there are tools ... Even a soccer ball.
