2018 Ukraine Project Recap

Andrii Petrenko has been serving with SportQuest in Ukraine since 2011.  On a national level, he is one of the… Read more 2018 Ukraine Project Recap

Andrii Petrenko has been serving with SportQuest in Ukraine since 2011.  On a national level, he is one of the leaders in the Eurasian Sport Leadership School and trains many sport ministry leaders each year.  On the local level, Andrii runs a youth soccer club in Shostka where he coaches 3 teams and provides whole-life coaching that goes way beyond just soccer.  In 2016, we organized the first PWP Project in Ukraine in which a team from Belgium came to serve in Shostka.  This team included a German schoolteacher named Daniel Ringk.  Since that initial experience, Ukraine has remained on Daniel’s heart.  This year, Daniel and SportQuest had the vision to bring a team of Daniel’s students from Gummersbach, Germany to Ukraine to serve in Andrii’s ministry.

Five students from Germany participated in the project along with Daniel, Andrii, and SQ Belgium staff member, Meghan Bass.  As usual, the first several days consisted of a Training Camp to prepare the German team for the sport ministry project.  This training time combined team-building and experiential learning workshops to equip the team spiritually, athletically, and culturally.  This was a powerful time for the team that not only prepared them for ministry in Ukraine but also equipped them to make disciples as they returned home to Germany.

After Training Camp, the team began leading soccer clinics each day for Andrii’s three teams (U8, U12, U15).  In addition, they also gave presentations at two schools in Shostka and organized KidsGames at a local boarding school.  In each environment, the team shared their personal testimonies with the kids and then asked questions to discuss and get their feedback.  The Ukrainian kids loved having people from other countries come and share with them.  Especially in the small town of Shostka, most people rarely encounter people from outside Ukraine or the Russian-speaking world.  So they were especially interested and open to what the SportQuest team had to share.

The SQ team also saw God show up in a powerful way when one of the German students dislocated his shoulder.  He was in a lot of pain and unable to pop his shoulder back into place.  The team began to pray for him as Andrii called a friend in the medical field to find out how to properly treat the dislocation.  Suddenly the young man who had hurt his shoulder said, “It’s back in place.”  He wasn’t sure how it happened, but all of the sudden the pain was gone and his shoulder was in place like nothing had ever happened.  The team was greatly encouraged by seeing God’s healing power at work while they prayed!

Now Andrii and his local church will continue following up with these kids through his ongoing soccer program, church camps, and family Bible studies.  We are so grateful for the way God worked in and through this team and look forward to sending another team back to Ukraine next year!