Participants, mainly teenagers aged 13 to 19, competed under four houses
Sports Fiesta, an annual youth programme organised by Foursquare Gospel Church, District Headquarters, Sabo, has combined sporting competition with evangelism as it seeks to reach teenagers with the Christian message.
The programme, which began in 2021, uses sports as an avenue to create relationships with teenagers while providing opportunities for worship, teaching, prayer, counselling and personal interaction.
Participants, mainly teenagers aged 13 to 19, competed under four houses representing the four cardinal doctrines of the Foursquare Gospel Church: Jesus Christ the Saviour, Jesus Christ the Healer, Jesus Christ the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ the Soon-Coming King.
The houses competed in team sports, track and field events, fun games and mind and social games.
Red House emerged as the overall winners with 12 gold, five silver and nine bronze medals.
Yellow House finished second with 11 gold, 15 silver and four bronze medals, while Blue House placed third with 11 gold, six silver and nine bronze medals.
Purple House finished fourth with five gold, nine silver and 13 bronze medals.
[Credit: Foursquare]
Beyond the sporting activities, the programme featured worship, teaching, prayer and an altar call. Pastors and counsellors were also available to engage with participants, listen to their concerns and provide guidance.
The organisers said the initiative was designed to create a safe environment where teenagers could connect with one another while receiving spiritual and personal support.
For the fifth edition, the organisers adopted a more direct approach to evangelism by taking teaching and counselling into the individual houses instead of relying solely on a single gathering involving all participants.
The approach provided smaller settings for interaction between the teenagers, pastors and counsellors, while the sporting programme was streamlined to create more time for prayer and evangelism.
Medical personnel were also available during the event, while meals were provided for participants as part of the welfare arrangements.
Since its launch in 2021, Sports Fiesta has evolved from an initial vision of bringing teenagers together on a sporting field to a broader programme combining competition, fellowship and Christian evangelism.
The organisers say the objective is not primarily to produce sporting champions but to use sports, which attract young people, as a platform for building relationships and creating opportunities to address their spiritual and personal needs.
The fifth edition, therefore, retained the competitive element of the programme while placing greater emphasis on personal engagement, counselling and evangelism.
