What does Onside Soccer do?

Onside Soccer is essentially a Christian sports ministry.  We concentrate on two main areas of work: a/ helping overseas churches develop football ministry as part of their outreach to the local community and b/ taking visiting groups to our projects and allowing them to get involved with the local community while taking them through a structured discipleship programme. 

Our overseas work is mainly concentrated on the developing world and working with churches in especially  poor areas.  We partner with churches and other organisations who have a heart for sports ministry and who want to use sports as part of their outreach programme.  In India, for example, we partner with a church in Chennai and also two other organisations (Christian Sports Fellowship and Dr John Joseph Foundation) and have established a project which runs every Saturday morning for local children.  The children are given free professional football coaching by Christian coaches who also go through a structured evangelistic programme with them, looking at Biblical principles which can be seen in sport and also developing a mentorship programme.  This project started with 20-30 children coming along and has now grown to over 90, all from different religious and social backgrounds.  Our next step is now looking at forming a team to play in local leagues.

In terms of the teams we take overseas, our overall goal is to encourage people to get involved with ministry and to challenge them to step out of their comfort zones in faith.  Each trip we organise is specifically tailored for the group, looking at the talents and giftings we have available and then figuring out how to put them to best use.  We feel that whatever it is you are passionate about, that's what you need to be doing and we endeavor to make that possible as much as we can.  For example, if you want to teach, coach a different sport, get involved in business development in the community, farm ,etc. we will try to facilitate that for you so that you can make the most impact during your trip.  We want you to return feeling inspired and as if you have made a real and lasting difference.  Once you return from your trip we then will keep in contact with you to see how we can help you move forward in ministry, either with Onside or wherever you feel you want to work.

Ultimately we provide two mission trips in one - a mission to another country and a mission to yourself!

How did Onside Soccer start?

The Rwandan footballers who started Onside Soccer!

Onside Soccer was started in 2009 by Paul Harbinson.  Paul was working for Compassion UK, the child sponsorship charity, at the time and had been helping lead a church group to Rwanda allowing sponsors to meet their sponsored children.  While there he met a group of kids playing football outside a church.  The ball they were using was made of plastic bags tied up with string, they had no boots or goalposts and their pitch was a patch of waste ground, yet they played as if it was the FA Cup Final at Wembley.  The idea came to Paul that working with local churches in impoverished areas to set up football training academies as part of the church's outreach would give children the chance to come and play football in a safe environment with proper equipment and proper coaching.  It would also allow a structure to be put in place for long term commitment to the area, to develop educational and mentoring programmes for the children and to reach out to communities that no-one seemed to care about.  Initially things started off very slowly after having the idea but by May 2011 our first project opened in Chennai in India.  Working alongside the Christian Sports Fellowship, the Dr John Joseph Foundation and Christ Church Chennai a summer camp ran for two weeks with local children coming along to receive free coaching, with coaching sessions held thereafter every Saturday morning.  The project in India continues to grow and we are now in the process of opening a new project in Uganda.

Cross Over Basketball fundraiser

On the 4th August Jamie from our partner organisation Cross Over Basketball will be taking part in the 'Thousand Free Throw Challenge', attempting to shoot 1000 baskets in 1 day.  All funds raised will go towards our sports ministry work in Kampala, Uganda.

Premiership Walk

Rob at Loftus Road, home of QPR

On the 5th July Rob and Paul went on their (now) annual sponsored walk, this year visiting the Premiership grounds of London.  Starting in north London at White Hart Lane, the guys then visited the Emirates Stadium, Stamford Bridge, Craven Cottage before finishing at Loftus Road, covering a distance of around 16 miles.  Thanks to everyone who sponsored the guys and if you have any (sensible) suggestions for next year's challenge, please let us know!

Welcome to the Onside Soccer UK blog-spot

The purpose of this blog is to keep you up-to-date with the latest happenings of Onside Soccer in the UK.  We will be publishing details of events, training courses etc. here and also information about sports ministry in the UK generally.  We will also be using this blog to explain a little bit about how Onside works, what we do and why we do it!