A team of 14 headed out to France for a ten day mission on the 18th June.

Our first game was against a new team – Charentay who have excellent facilities with their home pitch being a full size 3G.

An excellent game ensued with SportsReach creating openings early on but sadly falling a goal behind midway through the first half.  A Dan Tyrer thunderbolt catching the keeper off guard brought us level and again we had chances to take the lead but were hit on the break just before half time to go in 2-1 down.  Charentay started very strong in the second half and hit us with a few quick goals!  Louis Jones was performing heroics in our goal to keep the score down.  John Gorst with tireless running got on the end of a loose ball to give us a consolation goal midway through the second half but we ended up losing 9-2 which did flatter the opposition a little.  Their clinical finishing and pace making all the difference.

As Will shared after the game who we are as SportsReach and what we do – using our love for football to Reach the world for Christ through sport, and challenged them with the question “Who is Jesus?”  They listened very well and engaged in some good conversations afterwards.

We shared food and fellowship with them afterwards as we watched Uruguay eliminate England from the World Cup and received invites to return again to play them next year.  Praise God for seed sown and friendships developed and for an open door to return and share again.

SportsReach team – Louis Jones, Luke Gorst, Stephen Cornall, Sam Dennis, Olly Parkinson, Ben McNeill, Simon Chevassut, Olly Jackson, Will Marsden, Dan Tyrer, George Whitaker, Nic Hyde and John Gorst.  Ref – Richard Sutton