Last week Bob Dyar (Founder and President of The Sports Outreach Group (SOG)) and Bob Schindler (Executive Director of CSO) visited Brad Wos (International Vice-President of The Sports Outreach Group) in St. Louis to support the sports ministry there to immigrants and refugees.
Brad came to The Sports Outreach Group 
after 12 years in South Africa with MTW (Mission to the World, the mission arm of the PCA). His role as The SOG International Vice-President is to support and direct the international work of CSO and SCN (Sports Chaplain Network – the other passion of The Sports Outreach Group).
God is bringing the nations to the US and St. Louis plans to be the fastest growing immigrant city in America by 2020. St. Louis has the largest Bosnian population outside the country of Bosnia and Latinos, Iraqis, Afghanis, and Nepalese will also contribute to this international city. I find it very interesting that, while God was at work bringing the nations to the US, at work preparing St. Louis to welcome this flow of people, God was also at work placing Brad Wos and his family in St. Louis while bringing him to our ministry.
Because of this convergence of the work of God, the international work for CSO is focused primarily on ministering to those immigrants and refugees through the existing churches in St. Louis and church plants targeted toward those people groups. This work currently includes:
- Starting and overseeing a high school/college age futsal league on Sunday nights at Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church (a suburban church) for 125 immigrants and refugees from 24 nations and 15 teams from the city. 40% of the players are Muslim and 25% are Hindu. Six small group Bible studies have started out of this ministry. (Pictured to the right are the two teams in the Champions Futsal Final – Africa and Afghanistan.)
- Serving with four immigrant/refugee churches in St. Louis –
- The Well Community Church, pastored by Ethiopian Worku Geremu, is a congregation made up of African and Nepali refugees.
- New City South (PCA), pastored by Kevin Van De Brink, is a congregation of a mixing of all the refugee nations.
- Emmanuel Evangelical Free Church, pastored by Todd Brooks, is focused on reaching Bosnian refugees.
- Midtown Community Church (PCA), pastored by Mark Tucker, is targeting international students at St. Louis University and Harris Stowe University.
Brad supports each of these church outreach efforts through sports by equipping sports leaders in each congregation and helping them organize teams to play in the futsal leagues.
The vision of this work with immigrants and refugees is to disciple the nations by developing reproducing disciples from these immigrants and refugees. The first fruit of this vision is already being seen with some of these refugees and immigrants within the St. Louis model training leaders who will multiply to other US cities with significant immigrant and refugee populations.
In addition to the work with immigrants and refugees, Brad also casts the vision of Gospel Centered Sports Ministry to other churches in the St. Louis area. During the recent trip, Brad, Bob, and Bob connected with Grace Church, PCA, which is building a soccer field to be opened this summer, and First Baptist Church, Arnold, MO. The three also held training on Outreach Dynamics for sports ministry volunteers from Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church, First Evangelical Free Church, Congolese Fellowship, and New City South.
As an organization, CSO supports Brad’s work with trips like this one, with resources and tools to help all these churches move to greater Gospel centeredness. CSO also connects these churches to a broader national network of Gospel Centered Sports Ministries in local churches through the CSO Network.
Beyond the work with churches and CSO, Brad also gathered together 25 leaders (in spite of the bad weather) from around the city to discuss the possibility of holding a Game Plan for Life Outreach Breakfast in St. Louis. Bob Dyar and Derek Crawford (Executive Director of Game Plan for Life) cast the vision for this breakfast to reach non-believers in St. Louis through Coach Joe Gibbs’ life story shared with those invited and then follow up was provided by those who invited them.
It was quite a trip. Imagine – an international trip within the United States!
