The Lord put in the heart of missionary Jeff Demarest a desire to reach the country of South Africa during the World Cup soccer tournament in 2010. The project was dubbed “True Victory” and I was privileged to be a part of it. This would be an opportunity to impact not only South Africa, but also the world. Bro. Demarest contacted Bearing Precious Seed and shared his idea to sow more than one million John and Romans Scriptures in the ten major cities where the games would be held. Bearing Precious Seed committed to print the Scriptures and have them assembled with the help of more than thirty Seedline churches. BPS committed to raise all of the money needed to ship the Bibles in three large sea containers, and Bro. Demarest took charge of working with over forty churches in South Africa to coordinate the distribution.
When I arrived in South Africa, it did not take long to realize the magnitude of the tournament. The airports and streets and restaurants were fi lled with more than one million soccer fans from all over the world who were there from over one hundred countries to cheer their team on to victory.
I had the opportunity to hand out Scriptures in three of the ten cites where games were being held: Durban, Johannesburg, and Cape Town. Although all three of these cities are in the same country, they all have their own distinct cultures. Everywhere we went, we saw the Lord do great things. The locals, as well as the visitors to the games, were very receptive to the Scriptures. I saw the American missionaries and many of the South African Christians alike leading people to the Lord on the streets!
... it did not take long to realize the magnitude of the tournament.
People came from all over the world to see their teams play at the World Cup, and most of them left disappointed by their team’s eventual defeat. Many people, however, for the first time in their lives heard or read of the “True Victory” that can only be experienced in Christ. At the end of the month-long tournament, in excess of one million John and Romans had been distributed and an entire country had been impacted for the cause of Christ.
