Niddrie Football Academy!!

Niddrie Football Academy!!

By Andy Constable

We have been much in thought recently about how we are going to raise truly indigenous, disciplined young men as the future leaders of Niddrie Community Church. We need to have a long-term plan in place. Our aim is to try to grow men through a structured, football based outreach beginning at 5-6 years old and building an academy through their late teens and into manhood. Our aim is not to produce professional footballers (although that may happen) but to grow committed disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, this week we ran a 3-day football academy for young children on the scheme. We ran it in partnership with a charity called “Kids in the Street” managed by a local man. The coaches all came from a Christian organisation called “90+ Ministries” based in Liverpool. It was a great success and 32 children, mainly from non-Christian families, completed the camp.

On the last day we had an awards ceremony at the church and invited the parents/carers to come. Over 100 people turned up and we were able to give a short gospel talk. Lots of people who live in the area came into the building for the first time and heard the gospel! We were so thankful to the Lord.

Looking to the future we are planning to begin our football school in September. Please pray for us as we go forward with this endeavour. Here is a short video showing what we got up to!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRWZKgHo7Cc]