North Greenville players and coaches recently visited Mexico.The subject of American tackle football doesn’t normally come up in Mexico, but for eight members of the North Greenville University football team, the sport became the medium through which they were able to share the gospel with children in Quer?taro, Mexico.
Eight Crusaders players – along with Jim Bates, NGU associate campus minister, and Jamie Farnham, an assistant football coach at Blue Ridge High School who is a junior education major at NGU – made the journey south of the border March 5-13 during their spring break. Players Mark Smith, Jordan Floro, Richard Harb, Johnathon Moore, Mychal Cannon and Jamarius Robins also made the trip to Quer?taro, which is located nearly 200 miles northwest of Mexico City.
The NGU mission team worked directly with an American Football Club in Quer?taro. known as the Zorros, which has teams for children ages 6-18. On the agenda were coaches’ clinics and practices for the Mexican teams. Each morning, the NGU group went to public schools and led seminars on how sports and education intertwined. A select squad of the Crusaders players led students in football drills outside, while another group led the seminars inside.
The football players spoke at the Autonomous University of Quer?taro. Other activities the athletes took part in included going to an orphanage and meeting with the parents of the Zorros organization during which they shared more about football as well as a gospel presentation.
North Greenville’s football missionaries also attended a house church at the home of Steve and Laura Young, IMB missionaries in Quer?taro. They were also able to be part of a college Bible study at the Youngs during the week.