SportS outreach InStItute

International Headquarters: P.O. Box 11855, Lynchburg, Virginia 24503

Phone: 434.528.2516 www.SportsOutreach.net Info@SportsOutreach.net

OUR OPPOR TUNIT Y:

O ur methodology is based on an incarnati onal and relational model that affords us the oppor tunit y to
ser ve others by equipping, encouraging and walk ing alongside those with whom we work . O ur goal is
not to gain recognition and credit for ourselves but rather, to be a ser vant in the true sense of the word,
modeling Christ at ever y turn. While we are a resource, ownership must always belong to the nationals
and final decisions rest with the leaders we ser ve.

May 2009
GOOD NEWS
. . .Opening DOOrs tO gO HOme
 Go Home! ... To What? ... Where?
Go Home! ... To Wha?...Where?
B y r O D n ey s u D D i t H

Lunch had been served, classes

were dismissed and the soccer
practice had ended. Yet very
few of the children were headed
home. They just lingered with the
Sports Outreach staff enjoying
their company. Several times,
Arthur Lumembe, a staff member,
announced, “Time to go home!
Children, you need to go, it will soon be dark.”
All the children heard Arthur, but very few
moved. One boy, Simon, spoke up and asked
Arthur, “Go home, and go home to what?”
Unfortunately, my experience told me just how
much that question revealed…
The above scenario reflect the plight of many
to whom Sports Outreach ministers. To put
it in context, recently a traveling team from
Charlotte was on the field playing soccer with
a team of young men from the Koch Goma
Internally Displaced Person Camp in Northern
Uganda. During the game I visited with the
camp leader John Oliyo. He shared with me how
the families in Koch Goma Camp were forced
to move here years ago by the government of
Uganda due to the civil war that ravaged the
land. Rebels would raid the villages, looting,
killing and abducting children. In the past few
years, by God’s grace the civil war had slowly
began to dissipate. There have only been a few
scattered incidences of violence over the past
few months. It appears that peace is slowly
returning to Northern Uganda. Now, John told
me, the government of Uganda has ordered all
of the people in the camp (over 18,000 people
who live in Koch Goma) to leave the camp and
return to their home. Unfortunately, most of
the people in Koch Goma have no home to go
to. Their villages were burned to the ground,
the wells poisoned or destroyed and the once
productive farm lands are now overgrown with
tall grass, scrub brush and small trees. In fact
most of the children have never even seen their
“home” as they were born in the camp. Now
they are being told to go home … but where’s
that? How will they survive? There is no water ...
many have no skills or knowledge of farming ...
they have so little.
Over the past few years Sports Outreach has
learned that before people in Northern Uganda
can successfully leave the horrible IDP camps
and return to their ‘homes,’ four key questions
must be answered.
1. Is there safe, clean drinking water?
2. Are there trained people to assist them in
their transition from life in the overcrowded
IDP camp to life in rural Northern Uganda?
3. Do the people have agricultural or vocational
skills? If not, who can train them?
4. Is there a way to get them the basic
things they need to start over with: clothing,
household articles, seeds for planting, etc.?
Remarkably, Sports Outreach Institute has
recently been blessed with four matching
grants that meet each of the needs expressed
in those four questions!

Now they are being told to go home … but where’s that? How will they survive? There is no water ...
many have no skills or knowledge of farming ... they have so little...
 matcHing grants Opening DOOrs tO gO HOme!
Sports Outreach is blessed to have recently been
given four matching grants. Each of these grants
is directed towards particular needs within our
ministry and each grant, if matched, will enhance
the quality of life for those who live in the slums
as well as assist those who must move out of the
IDP camps. The powerful thing about each of these
grants is that each dollar given is matched by the
donor—a gift of $5.00 is immediately turned into
$10.00 or a gift of $50.00 becomes $100.00. Please
review the four grants and if you are willing and
able, please indicate the one you are would like to
support.
1. Is there safe, clean drinking water?
Gifts for Gulu ‘Water for Life’ $5,000.00 Matching Grant – In
March, we received word that an individual from
Pennsylvania will match up to $5,000.00 for wells
in Northern Uganda! If matched, this grant will
provide two wells for the villages that people are
returning to. This ‘Water for Life’ grant will bring
the most basic need for health and sustainability to
people who are just beginning to pull themselves
up out of the despair and hopelessness of life in an
IDP camp. Your support will help provide water for
hundreds who otherwise would be forced to drink
from unsafe contaminated sources.
2. Are there trained people to assist them in their
transition from life in the overcrowded IDP camp to
life in rural Northern Uganda?
Sports Outreach Ministry Team in Gulu $10,000.00 Matching
Grant – The Sports Outreach Ministry Team in Gulu
is in the third and final year of a matching grant
to help cover the cost of training and salaries. The
staff in Gulu recently completed two and a half
years of training and is now being assigned villages
and communities to which thousands of people
will soon be returning. Each staff person will assist
the villagers with discipleship, training in farming,
vocational training, and public health as well as help
to build schools and churches. Your support of this
grant will ensure that as people leave the camps
and find their way “home” they will be greeted by
a trained Sports Outreach Ministry Team member
who will assist them in their transition.
3. Do the people have agricultural or vocational
skills? If not, who can train them?
Tractor & Seeds for Northern Uganda $5,000.00 Matching
Grant – In mid-March, the Ugandan Minister of
Agriculture visited the Sports Outreach farm in Gulu,
Matching Grants!
Northern Uganda to ask our staff leader, Aloysius
Kyazze, if we would be the official demonstration
farming and training center for that region. In short,
would Sports Outreach help to train and equip tens
of thousands of people to farm and return to their
homes on the fertile, but long neglected, land of
their ancestors? To help us help the people there a
friend of Sports Outreach has offered a $5,000.00
matching grant for tractors and seeds. The tractor
will make it possible for our staff to turn the soil and
prepare it for planting, a task usually done by hand
with sticks and primitive hoes. It takes four women
weeks to prepare an acre. The tractor will prepare
over four acres in an afternoon! In addition to the
tractor, the grant will provide enough seeds to
help no fewer than five villages plant and harvest
enough to sustain them and make a profit to buy
more seeds for the future. What an empowering
and effective grant!
4. Is there a way to get them the basic things they
need to start over with: clothing, household articles,
seeds for planting, etc.?
Sportsbridge $10,000.00 Matching Grant – Sportsbridge is
the arm (literally) of SOI that partners with Gleaning
for the World to send new and gently used sports
equipment, clothing, shoes, household items and
basic medical supplies, by ocean container, to those
we are blessed to serve. For many, the clothes and
equipment sent by you are the only items they have
to wear or use. If we are able to raise the necessary
funds to match this $10,000.00 grant, two containers
with an assessed value of over $800,000.00 of goods
and supplies will reach the “homes” of those who
are in desperate need.
Would you prayerfully consider if you can help
with a special gift to one or more of these grants?
We at SOI understand the economic situation we
are all living in and the tough choices that we must
daily make. However, these grants have the ability
to double each and every dollar that you are able to send and
will indeed help many people find their way “home.”
Thank you and may God bless you.
 From the Executive Director “Unleashing Our Greatest Power!”
“Unleashing Our
Greatest Power!

“We take for granted,” wrote Oswald Chambers, “that prayer is preparation for work,
whereas prayer is the work.” (Christian Discipline, vol. 2, p.57)

The humanitarian aid elements of Sports Outreach Institute—in the form of feeding programs, digging wells, medical supplies,
micro-finance loans and help to HIV/AIDS heads of households—is vital not just because it saves lives, but because it keeps
people alive longer so they can have the opportunity to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Few things in this world can be known with certainty. Even some of our theology comes under the heading of what the
apostle Paul described in Romans 14 as “disputable matters.”
One thing, of which we are assured, however, is that God answers prayers.
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know
He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.” I John 5:14-15
Many of you have called or written to me to ask about SOI’s field staff in Uganda and Kenya. As many of you know Franklin
Shelimba, our leader in Nairobi was diagnosed with testicular cancer and operated on in March. Franklin has healed from the
surgery, is currently taking radiation treatments and the doctors are optimistic for a complete and full recovery! Many of you
have been praying for this situation and Franklin asked that I share the following with you:
“Brothers and sisters, your prayers were not in vain. God visited me mightily through your prayers when I desperately
needed Him. I am feeling fine and know that God is going to heal me completely. In fact I am enjoying work again and
celebrate God’s goodness in my healing every day. Thank you for being concerned enough for me to pray.”
“Putting feet to our prayers,” may be an overworked cliché, but it’s true. Prayer and practice are what SOI is all about! The
foundation of our ministry is intercessory prayer. In response, God answers prayers by providing food, clothes, seed, wells,
tools, sports equipment, Bibles and tracts. His answers show us where to drill for water or place our limited funds. He uses our
prayers to move the hearts of men and women to abandon their own dreams and ambitions to serve as shepherds for the
growing numbers we serve in His name.
In the last month prayer has provided more hands to help build our ministry site in Gulu, Uganda, built a school and provided
resources for three new wells! And prayer is bringing the light of truth and hope into the lives of so many others.
God is doing His redeeming work everywhere we labor and pray. Please continue to pray for the soccer crusade in Mexico,
June 1-8, as well as our on-going work in Uganda and Kenya. Yes, there is a lot of bad news coming out of Africa and Mexico.
But where sin increases, grace increases all the more (Romans 5:20).
There is darkness, but in the beginning, when the earth was covered in darkness, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was
light (Genesis 1).
Pray then with passion, faith and confidence, for the Light to shine throughout the nations
we live in and serve – especially into the hearts of the government leaders.
“I urge, then,” Paul wrote to Timothy, “first of all, that requests, prayers, intercessions and
thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live
peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
And the Psalmist declares: “They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from
their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their
chains.” (Psalm 107:13-14).
Blessings,

Rodney Suddith
News from SOI

¾ SOI’s Aloysius and Esther Kyazze are in the United States! Aloysius and Esther are travelling across
the country through May 9th visiting a number of churches and supporters:
April 30-May 2 in Charlotte, North Carolina May 3-8 in Lynchburg/Richmond, Virginia
May 9 - SOI Staff, Rodney Suddith and Morgan Allen, accompany Aloysius and Esther on their
return to Gulu!
For specific information about where Aloysius and Esther will be visiting and speaking please visit
our website (SportsOutreach.net). For further information contact Morgan Allen, operations &
communications director, at our Virginia Headquarters office at (434) 528-2516 or MAllen@sportsoutreach.net.