Community Soccer Field
Just how did a baby home get involved with a soccer field you ask? I have always been prompt to say, “We are a baby home with programs for Babies and Mothers only.” It is amazing that when God has a plan it is going to happen whether you are on board or not! A few years ago one of our sweetest donors advised us to buy property adjacent to Neema Village which was for sale. The property had been dug out and was pretty much destroyed by moram diggers (diggers of volcanic ash used for roads). He said, “You need it for the future, I’ll buy it and I would like to see a soccer field there someday for young people in the community.” “Paul, we don’t do soccer,” I said.
A few months later I was on the couch holding a baby at Neema Village when a young woman walked in and said, “I’m with a company called True North and we build soccer fields.” My jaw dropped. We had been talking about what to do with that useless piece of property we had bought for some time. Sometimes God just has to hit you over the head, right?
Put that together with t
he young woman from True North (which is now called Northbound) sitting in a soccer game in New York where she met a young woman who had lost her husband suddenly. Her husband’s dream had been to build a soccer field for young people in Africa. Over the next year these two women together raised the money to haul in over 400 truck loads of dirt to even out the field, build the great wall of Neema to keep the balls from going out into the road, bought grass, bought more grass, built soccer goals and bleachers for the spectators and yes they even built a bathroom.
And today almost daily either young girls teams, nannies teams, young boys teams and older mens teams practice and have games on the Furaha Field. Furaha means joy and it is the perfect name since a lot of happiness happens on that field. We have hired a couch and care taker to monitor and set up the matches and make sure the field is watered and kept clean.
We love the beautiful mural outside on the wall which leads into the field.
It has been an amazing project, one that we never dreamed of, but God is always good at going beyond our dreams! Many of our soccer boys and girls have learned about Christ in the bible classes offered after the games and many of them have now given their lives to follow Jesus. Neema Village has had 87 conversions to Christ this last year! It has truly been amazing and a total unexpected gift of God!
An interesting statistic, “Women who play soccer are abused less and make more money!” Who knew!!
With the solar lights the field can also be used by the community for meetings at night and used for large seminars that Neema Village plans for men’s conferences and large church revivals. The possibilities are endless!
When you come to Neema Village please take time to visit Furaha Field and watch a game with us. You will be glad you did.