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Vital and Ketly

December 13, 2006 - Iglesia Bethel held its second annual soccer tournament and reached many wiht the gospel as a result.

Matthew 9:35-36 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Bethel Baptist Church held its second annual citywide soccer tournament this past month. The tournament ran from November 27 to December 13 and was held on Bethel Baptists Church’s soccer field. However, unlike most soccer tournaments, the main goal of this tournament was not to decide who has the best soccer team in Bluefields. Rather, the goal of this tournament was evangelism. This tournament provided a unique opportunity to reach many individuals who didn’t know Christ and normally wouldn’t have come to an event being held at a church. In the words of Vital, “a fisherman needs to use the right kind of bait to attract fish to his hook”. As Christians, we are fishers of men. In this case the members of Bethel Baptist Church used the bait of a soccer tournament to attract the youth of Bluefields to the church to hear the gospel message. We praise the Lord that ten soccer players accepted Christ into their lives during the course of the three-week long tournament!

Seven teams entered the tournament. Four teams competed in the 16-20 year old division (the juvenil division) and three teams competed in the 10-15 year old division (the infantil division). All of the youth who competed in the tournament had numerous opportunities to hear the gospel. Each game started out with a fifteen minute devotional in which different members of Bethel Baptist Church shared the good news of God’s plan of salvation with the soccer players. During the course of the three weeks, some of the teams participated in ten devotionals or more. Many youth who had never even opened a Bible before were given the opportunity to hear God’s word on numerous occasions during the soccer tournament. Church members also made themselves available to evangelize the tournament participants and spectators before and after each of the games.

During the Sunday evening church service on December 10, members of Bethel Baptist Church participated in a unique aspect of the soccer tournament outreach. Many homes are closed to the word of God because people do not want to think about God or listen to what Christians have to share. However, during this church service, Vital and the members of the church prayed over each of the trophies that was to be awarded to the first and second place teams in each division and the best goalie and highest scorer for each of the two divisions. They prayed that God’s presence would go with these trophies into the homes of those who were to receive the trophies. In this manner his presence will be in many homes that would otherwise be closed to the word of God. Perhaps someday in the future these youth will be drawn to God when the see the trophies and remember the message of salvation that they heard during the tournament’s devotionals.

Although the main purpose of this event was evangelism, there were also numerous exciting soccer games. A soccer team from Barrio San Pedro named Barcelona won the 16-20 year old division, with the team comprised of youth from Bethel Baptist Church capturing second place. In the 10-15 year old division, the team Fatima from the Barrio Fatima won the division, and the team from Bethel took second place.

BETHEL NEWS

New Church Planted

During the month of January 2007, the people of Bethel Baptist Church in Bluefields started a new church in Kukra Hill.

Roadwork Begins

The heavy equipment has begun moving dirt to pave the road to the church. This will make it much easier to get to the church.

Mothers Day 2006

This was a Mother's Day to remember as the young people put on a great program to a packed crowd.

A Daughter Given Back

Read this miracle story of a young lady who came back to health after the doctors had given up all hope.

Pray, Pray and Pray More

Read how the church in Bluefields experienced the power of prayer as God healed this young lady.

Internet Tower Raised

The new tower helps insure that the internet comes through more dependably

New Transformer

As the ministries continue to grow, the electrical requirements have exceeded the supply, but a new transformer is being installed soon.