August 2017
New Starts…New Believers grants have been awarded by the district to help congregations carry out a number of projects this summer.
One of the grants provided up to $5,000 for soccer balls – not just to play soccer, but to be witness tools that will help convey the Gospel story via colored bands that signal God’s plan of salvation for all people. The colors represent God’s creation of a perfect world (yellow), the fall into sin (black), the Savior Jesus who died on the cross for our sins (red), to give us rebirth and renewal in our relationship with God (green), and a home with him for eternity (yellow).
Pastors and principals have been stopping in at the district office to pick up one or more balls to use in summer outreach, chapel services, VBS sessions and the like. A brochure prepared by NID Mission Facilitator Mike Mast explains ways the balls can be used to tell the Gospel story and also ways to teach children to share the story themselves, as they use the colors to guide their conversation. Some churches will give children a soccer ball to take home into their own neighborhoods.
“Every time children play, they will be reminded of what God has done for them in Christ Jesus,” Mast said. “This is one of the more fun opportunities we’ve uncovered for connecting the Gospel to kids. The different ways to use this soccer ball have caught people’s imagination all across the district.”
The soccer balls come from an outreach organization called J3•16, which has matching wristbands and other colored witness tools for sale online as well. Hundreds of children across northern Illinois have already heard God’s message through these soccer balls – more will hear as district Lutheran schools begin to use them this fall.
Other Recent Grant Awards: St. Paul, Aurora, for a summer youth basketball league that had 120 community youth involved; Good Shepherd, Elgin, for preschool outreach; San Pablo, Aurora, to prepare a center that serves school children from the nearby middle school; St. Mark’s, St. Charles, for a cooperative work space presence; and St. Paul, Chicago (Austin), for their summer children’s program.