While football often brings the highs of winning trophies, it can also be difficult for those who are forced to travel away from family, face injury or are cast aside.
Bostock, like many, has experienced all of the above. This season, while welcoming a return to the UK, he’s found himself on the fringes of the first team meaning he’s not been able to play as much as he’d like. While that does still get him down, he says he’s found a new perspective thanks to his work with BiG.
“One player said to me, ‘John, if you didn’t come to Nottingham Forest, and I didn’t come to Ballers In God – I would have given up football this year’. That really hit me because I realised that it’s not about me playing week in, week out. I realised that there’s a bigger purpose than just playing. I was able to invite one guy to this movement and he started to get clarity about what he’s supposed to do in life and grow in confidence and ignite his faith in God. To hear somebody say that he made a life changing decision just through being around the movement and receiving encouragement that for me is better than scoring any goal.”
With so many footballers finding themselves at home at BIG, the network is now looking at ways of how it can help others and bring others to faith.
“We now want to come alongside charities, plant churches, come alongside orphanages, and just be a light in communities. We want to host football tournaments and go into schools. We realise that as footballers we have a huge platform and if you use it wisely, you really can have a huge impact.”
Bostock is aware they won’t be able to achieve all this alone and is keen for Christians to stand with them as they use their platform, especially during a time of uncertainty both inside and outside of the sport.
“Pray that we keep our eyes on Christ and even in the midst of this time we can be a light. We live in a strange bubble where footballers are idolised and feel untouchable. For a lot of players this is the first time they’re actually saying ‘I can’t put my faith in football, even that’s been shaken’. So please pray that footballers around the world would realise that they need Jesus and he would use us to really encourage them and win them. That would be awesome.”
Source: premierchristian.news, Author: Marcus Jones
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