Talented footballer gives all to the 'boys of the street'

Two young boys stopped the young white couple as they were walking down the street. The boys were begging for the plastic Coke bottle that the young woman was swinging in her hand. Those boys could fill that Coke bottle with water and use it to wash cars - perhaps making a small bit of change.

There are so many boys that spend their days hanging around the market, trying to sell plastic bag, trying to make some sort of a living by doing so. There is so much daily poverty and despair that these boys face. But one man is giving his life to make a difference.

Meet Mupalo*, a native Zambian. Born in 1982, Mupalo has lived here all his life. Though he did not have a grand beginning, Mupalo was approached as a young man with a very unique honour. Mupalo is a superb footballer (soccer player) and he was approached with an offer to join a semi-pro football team. His family was impressed and delighted, as it would mean a very nice income contribution to the family. However, Mupalo turned the offer down for greater things. Instead he continued serving with what was Pro-Christo (now merged with OM) as a full-time worker.

Mupalo spends his days playing football with youths off the street, and men with no jobs or purpose for their lives - including those boys described above. When he is not playing football with these guys, Mupalo is sharing the life-changing truths of God’s Word with them, and teaching others to do the same. Mupalo has given up the chance to be part of a semi-pro football team so that he could spend his time with these people, and others like them. God has gifted Mupalo, and he has responded by giving his whole life to serve the downtrodden, hopeless, young men with too much free time and too little hope in Africa.

Currently Mupalo is preparing to join his life in marriage to a lovely young woman. Together they will reach out to the hopeless of Zambia while praying about and preparing for future work in Chad, the country God has laid on both of their hearts.

Marked by poverty, violence, and instability, Chad - according to the BBC - is the world’s most corrupt state. Many completely unreached peoples live there. The tensions between the Islamic North and Christian South are unstable at best. And though Chad has recently been enjoying an oil boom, poverty is rampant - 80 percent of Chadian people live below the poverty line. Risk of infectious disease is very high in this this country. Lack of infrastructure affects everything. This is the country that Mupalo hopes to one day serve in. He will minister there with his football to the very same kind of people that he has spent his life reaching out to in Kabwe, Zambia - the boys of the streets, the loiterers of Africa.

*name changed

OM’s role in the Church is to mobilise people to share the knowledge of Jesus and His love with every generation in every nation. OM pioneers and leads initiatives to redeem lives, rebuild communities and restore hope in over 110 countries.