OUR STORY
A livelong passion
LIVING KIDS SPORTS ACADEMY was born from a God given gift to work and interact with children as well as a sincere passion for sport. Since we’ve met, my wife, Karien and I had been involved with children’s ministry on some level. In 1997, while we were still dating as young adults, we saw the need to keep bored children off the streets of the very small town of Ogies in Mpumalanga in order to keep them out of harm’s way. The “Extreme Youth” nights were born where we played volley ball to popular gospel music inside the huge church hall on Friday nights. It was instantly very popular, simply because it gave the children a save place to go to and a fun sporting activity to do. From there we were involved in youth caring groups at Moreleta Church for 8 years and I had been involved at the Doxa Deo Kids Ministry on Sundays for the past 11 years. Even though we were involved in children ministry all this time, we had fulltime jobs and it was only recently that we got the opportunity to start living our purpose and move away from the corporate world.
at cross roads
During 2017 we start praying about making a difference in the world by living purposefully and by December 2017 we found ourselves at a crossroad after our biggest client terminated their contract with our small company. We could either keep on fighting desperate for survival in the corporate world or we could seize the opportunity to start living the purpose that was stirring within our hearts for all these years. We knew this was the time to change our focus, but it was only after spending a year seeking God’s guidance and Will for our lives that I could identify His precise calling of sport ministry in schools, through my gift of working with children and my passion for sport.
A God inspired meeting
In March 2018 I met Franna Cilliers from Livingball Ministry and I immediately knew this was the place to start our new journey.
We joined Franna and his wife, Charmaigne, on a number of outreaches over the next few months to schools all over South Africa. It was during these outreaches that I saw the desperate need of children for coaching and sport equipment in public schools, together with sports programs at these schools. So many of the schools we visited did not even have one single ball to play soccer with, let alone any other sport equipment or any sport related opportunities to offer the children. I truly believe all children should have a chance to learn some kind of sport through the public school system, but I left many schools heart broken because of their lack of equipment, coaches and sports programs. Children are deprived of their right to play and to excel in sport, simply because of a lack of equipment, facilities and coaches. Many teachers are willing and very eager to be coaches in order to help small children exploiting their talents to become great sports men and women, but because of the lack of equipment and coaching from a young age, these children never get to live their dream and South Africa are loosing great sports men and women as a result.
A Vision is born
By the end of 2018, my vision was crystal clear: Establish a company that can dedicate it’s finances and recourses to reach out to children - school by school - and to change their future by training willing teachers to become coaches, establish a proper sports program at each school and by supplying sport equipment to enable these children to play a variety of sport and to give them the opportunities they simply do not have now. It is therefore our vision to reach 100 schools per year to establish a sporting program and to supply sporting equipment to enable all children to play sport.
Living Kids Sports Academy NPC
During October 2018 the registration of Living Kids Sports Academy NPC was submitted and on the 2nd of February 2019 Living Kids Sports Academy NPC was born.
It is our dream, hope and prayer that, through the support of companyies, banks, and the private sector, Living Kids Sports Academy will be able to reach our vision of bringing change to 100 schools and thousands of children every year.
It is the responsibility of every citizen of a country to make that country great by applying your individual talents and gifts. Many South Africans have left our country and are applying their gifts and talents in making other countries great, but we were not born in SA to move away. We were born here to make a difference here. We want to apply our gifts and talents, together with many other South Africans, to bring hope, change and greatness to our own country! We love this country and care very much about what happens to it!