Ethiopia vs. Somalia Soccer Match in Dadaab, Kenya at refugee camps

When you talk of Somalis and Ethiopians the next thing that comes in mind are enemies that cant see eye to eye. This is worsened by the recent war that was in Mogadishu (capital of Somali) in which the Ethiopian troops helped to remove Islamic courts that had ruled Somali for a number of months. Around that time, we had a lot of influx of Somali refugees to daddaab refugee camp.

I have trained quite a number of Ethiopians on how to do evangelism and discipleship. We needed something that would bridge the gap between these refugees who are neighbors and yet enemies. Having talked with a refugee from Ethiopia who is taking care of the church in the camp, we decided that a match between these groups was going to be the bridge to use to share the love of God to them.

We hade two categories of matches: under 15 years and Adults.

Saturday 10th match: Ethiopians under 15 beat Somalis two goals to nil. We had about 1,200 Refugees watch the match.

Sunday 11th: It was a match of the adults between Somalis and Ethiopians. At the end of the 90 minutes they had equal goal aggregates two versus two on each side. They went on penalty and both scored three more goals. It became dark and a deal was made for the match to continue the following day. About 1,500 Refugees watched the game.

Monday 12th: They decided to have full match again. Somalis emerged the winners having beat Ethiopians two goals to nil—it was real celebration time for the mammoth of Somali supporters who had cheered their team all through. About 1,600 refugees watched the match.

As I think about it, I realize that adopting relevant strategies in reaching out to the hurting world is going to go along way in bringing people to the Master —sharing HIS Love in multifaceted ways is something we need to boldly do.

Giving smiles and joy to faces of some of those people who have seen death so close is something I would not trade with anything.

Here are a few photos so you can have a taste of what happened:

Look at that—Somali players (in red) with Ethiopian Players (light blue)

Ethiopians holding the two cups that were being “fought” for & Ken holding the cups before giving the leaders

N/B: most Ethiopians who played are from Gambela region—they are called Anywak—they are river-Lake nilotes. We also have other Cushitic Ethiopians in the camp (I have trained quite a number of them) only that it was tricky involving them also. Thanks for being apart of this !