A traditional church-based youth club can be a place of transformation through sport when effective relationships are built with children, young people and their families in the community.

Bob recently shared this story with us about Esther (aged 12) and her brother Matthew (aged 9) who first heard about Jesus while playing table tennis and other activities at a local church.

"Esther and her brother Matthew come from a broken family, which is the same for a number of children who come along to church on a Sunday afternoon. They came to our sports club on a regular basis, and slowly Esther began to open up, to make new friends and to ask questions about God. I encouraged her to come along to Youth Alpha and it is really great to see that God has done some remarkable work in her heart and now she is talking about getting baptised."*

In Liverpool a traditional youth group was changed and transformed through using the Scripture Union Decathlon sports resource. Conversations around faith were developed through using the resource. For example one session explored how it was possible to follow an ‘unseen’ God while the young people played Goalball. Another night a 2-hour continuous sponsored Dodgeball night saw the youth group attendance more than double as they played sport, raised money and thought about Christian mission as part of a Sports Relief evening.

*Ages, names and image have been changed