SOCCER CAMP UKRAINE

June 2005

A Samaritan's Purse team of twenty soccer coaches from England, Wales and Ireland recently completed a successful six-day tour of the Kiev and Chernihiv regions of Ukraine. The team coached local children in city stadiums in and around Kiev, in the youth offender prison in Pryluki and played exhibition matches against local youth, girls and veteran teams.

The invitation to go to the Ukraine was received jointly from Victor Kulbich (General Secretary of the Baptist Union in Ukraine) and Valentyna Chevchenko (ex-Prime Minister of Ukraine).

The team worked tirelessly in the very hot temperatures to bring fun, laughter and joy into the coaching programme. They lavished praise on every child involved, irrespective of their level of skill, making each child feel like a star. Coaching the girls was a particular joy, as they flung themselves into the programme with eagerness and delight, but without the more determined competitiveness that was characteristic of the boys!

After each coaching session, the participants were presented with diplomas and with the Gospel. Hundreds of children sought autographs and begged for souvenirs from the team. One boy was heard to shout to his friend as he ran past, “Get as many autographs as you can, because no-one will believe us when we tell them we've played football with an English team!”.

By their example, the British and Irish team taught Ukrainian soccer veterans how to lay down their macho and competitive approach for the sake of relating to the children. It appeared to revolutionise the thinking of some of the men, who by the end of the session were as exhilarated as the youth. Mrs Chevchenko (Chairperson of a national children's sports charity) spoke of how important this Samaritan's Purse programme is to Ukraine.

“I'm very impressed with the team's flexibility. You adjust so well to the different situations we've put you in. Having watched you interact with the children this week, we will use your example to try to get veteran Ukrainian professional footballers involved in the positive future of our children”.

At Pryluki prison, after a very cautious welcome from 200 teenage young men, who are serving 2 to 6 year sentences for violence, murder and rape, the team soon got the prisoners acting like innocent teenage boys again, as they ran, laughed, squealed and cheered at everything that was happening around them.

One delighted prisoner said, “From time to time other people come and do demonstrations of their skills for us, but you have got us all involved.”

The prison Orthodox Priest said wistfully, “I wish I had the freedom in God that you boys have”. Our prayer is that some of the boys will have come to know that freedom through our ministry and the continuing ministry of our local church partners.

- Alan Cutting

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