Soccer tournament offers chance for global outreach

FRISCO—For 19 years, youth soccer teams from all over the world have been drawn to the Dallas Cup soccer tournament, now held in Frisco. Throughout that time, North Texas churches have sought to make the most of an opportunity when the world comes to them.

Dallas Cup participants enjoy the relaxed and welcoming atmosphere of the hospitality center staffed by North Texas churches. (PHOTOS/George Henson)

First Baptist Church in Frisco houses the hospitality center, where teams and their coaches relax and refuel between matches. They play ping pong, pool, foosball and video games, as well as eat and just sit and talk.

In addition to First Baptist in Frisco, other churches helping this year included Shiloh Terrace Baptist Church, Kessler Park Baptist Church and New Creation Bible Church in Dallas, North Irving Baptist Church in Irving, Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Garland and Prestonwood Baptist Church in Prosper. The staff of Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment also helped. The churches rotate staffing the center half a day for each of the five days it is open, and they provide a meal for the teams who visit the center.

This year 1,413 players and coaches visited the center, and 560 attended a chapel service. Ninety-six people prayed to receive Christ as Savior. Eighty-three others asked for individual prayer. About 500 New Testaments and Bibles were given away.

Jana Jackson, family and community director of Dallas Baptist Association, hopes at least 10 churches will assist in running the hospitality center next year.

"The challenge is that the ministry has grown so much," she said. "Years ago, if we had 75 people come through, it was a good day."

Churches usually bring a team of seven to 10 people, and their investment in food generally is about $500, Jackson said.

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David Balyeat, associate pastor of missions and ministries at Shiloh Terrace Baptist Church, said churches should remember they are getting a chance to experience foreign missions for less than the price of a single plane ticket.

"The international flavor is especially attractive to Shiloh Terrace. The ability for a church to minister to a community of people from all over the world for at least one day a year is something that is difficult to put a price on," he said, noting many of the nationalities represented in the tournament also are represented in the Dallas area.

"It's an opening for us when we seek to minister to the people from those countries who are now living here to say, 'We met a team from your part of the world earlier at the Dallas Cup.' It's a connection point for us," Balyeat said.

Glen Jolley, the longtime chaplain for the Dallas Cup, said the tournament presents an opportunity to begin a work that God alone probably will see to completion.

"All we can do is sow seeds while we have them during that week," he said. "Our prayer is that they go back to their country, to their city, and find a church where they can continue to grow. We tell them it is like soccer where you have to continue to work to grow and become better. We tell them it is important to find a church, to read their Bible, to pray."

Because of his longevity in the ministry, he has seen youth who made a profession of faith at age 12 return years later.

"They come and give me a big hug, and I find they are still growing in their faith. That makes it all worth it. That's what's really exciting," Jolley said.