Thomas Nunes Confederations Cup Report

I came to South Africa not being sure what to expect. I thought it might be like preaching at 5 points in Atlanta. But it was different. When I started handing out tracts people were very receptive  to taking a tract. Then others would come and also want tracts. Most of the people that I asked if they would answer the most important question at the back of the tract were willing to answer.

 

 

One morning after dropping Bill Adams at the conference that is strategizing for the outreach  during the 2010 World Cup soccer we drove past Loftus Stadium where we had been witnessing a few days before. I asked brother Gary if we could stop or walk around the stadium. Gary as is his usual self graciously stopped in front of the Stadium. Now that the games in Pretoria were over we could get right close to the Stadium. I didn’t know if the Lord wanted us to walk around the Stadium and claim the attendees for  the Lord or we were just there to see what the Stadium looked like as a type of tourist. 

 

Well, there were many security guards at the gate and I started talking to one  young woman named Sonia, she was probably in her early 20s. I gave her a tract, and asked her if she thought she would go to heaven if she died today. She gave me a solid ‘yes’ but didn’t have a good answer as to why. She said she was a good person. So, I proceeded to give her the good person test from the back of the tract. She soon realized that she has broken God’s laws many times. She soon realized that if she was to be judged by God based on the few commandments we had gone through that she was guilty and would in fact go to hell. This was a big turn around in just a few minutes. Knowing she was not defending her sinful position I proceeded to explain the gospel to her. She could now see why Jesus had died on the cross. She could see that he had paid the fine for the sins she deserved. I explained she needed to repent for her sins before God and commit to walk after him and read her bible as a thank you to God not to try to pay for her sins. Jesus had paid for it and she needed to acknowledge and receive this gift and turn from her own self sufficiency. She seriously said she would read her Bible and consider all we had talked about very seriously.

 

 

I turned around and saw brother Gary talking to another security guard named Simon. I went by and listened to Gary explain to Simon the same things I had done to Sonia. Simon who was jovial at the beginning started pondering the things that Gary was telling him very seriously. He began to agree that he had sinned and that Jesus had died for him. After Gary had completed he smiled and sincerely thanked Gary for sharing with him.

 

 

Just then Wilem returned from the main office where he had sought permission for us to go into the Stadium to look at the soccer field where all the action had taken place a few days before. Well they turned him down. Simon hearing this said, no, we could go into the stadium. He directed the 3 of us to go around in a different direction so that we could actually go into the Stadium and even onto the soccer field. Well, so we did. Along the way Willem spoke to lady that I thought might try to prevent us from going in. She took the tract and had a bit of a chat with Wilem about the tract and did not voice any objections to us going in.

 

So, we went into the Stadium and onto the field. We praised the Lord on the field and took some photographs of each of us standing and ‘monkeying around’ under the goal post. Blessed be the name of the Lord, the most high God. We were able to share tracts with many of the security guards and we were able to go inside the Stadium just as little extra blessing for our human side. 

 

 

 

It is a privilege to talk to many who are willing to talk and listen and to admit they were wrong and misinformed about whether they would go to heaven or not.