Posted: 8/18/06
| East Texas Baptist University students Grace Curry and Jonathan Heflin entertain at a block party during the World Cup. (ETBU Photos by Allan Thompson) |
ETBU World Cup Team
shares gospel with soccer fans
By Mike Midkiff
East Texas Baptist University
East Texas Baptist University’s Tiger World Cup Team journeyed to Germany this summer—not to play soccer but to share Christ with fans from around the world.
Allan Thompson, director of ETBU’s Great Commission Center, led the nine-member student team, which served in Hamburg and Berlin with International Baptist Church and the Kickoff 2006 organization.
In Berlin, the team worked at a hospitality booth on the “fan mile”—a one-mile stretch of a road leading through the center of the city and into the Brandenburg Gate that was designated exclusively for World Cup pedestrians and vendors.
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| East Texas Baptist University student Christine Southard hands out gospel tracts to sports fans attending the World Cup in Germany. |
Volunteers distributed hundreds of gospel tracts that included the Christian testimonies of famous soccer players.
The student group also worked with another volunteer team from Australia to sponsor a block party.
Amber Ethridge, who attends Crossroads Baptist Church in Marshall, saw the trip to Germany as an answered prayer.
“I have been praying since I was in the 10th grade for an opportunity to go to Germany. I have known that I am called to be a foreign missionary. This trip was the perfect opportunity to get a glimpse of what the country is like, how the people are and what techniques might be most effective there for ministry,” she said.
“The time in Germany really renewed my faith. It was like living a dream. God just kept providing these awesome ways for me to talk to people about Christ.”
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