Baptists Reach Out to 100,000's at Cricket World Cup in West Indies

The Cricket World Cup 2007 is currently taking place in the West Indies, with hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the world gathering for the event. Christian evangelists have seen the event as an unmissable opportunity for outreach and evangelism.

The 2007 Cricket World Cup, which began on 10 March and concludes at the end of April, is the third largest sporting event and most viewed in the world, according to the Baptist World Alliance (BWA).

The event takes place every four years, and was last held in South Africa - drawing more than 625,000 spectators to the region; which Christian missionaries now in 2007 have seen as a great opportunity to share their faith.

The Caribbean Baptist Fellowship (CBF), one of the six regional bodies of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), has said that it views the Cricket World Cup as an opportunity for evangelism and ministry.

CBF, in partnership with several groups including the Baptist General Association of Virginia and the Baptist World Alliance, is distributing both water bottles and tracts that "bear messages that will call attention to those attending the games of their need of salvation," according to CBF's report to the BWA Executive Committee in early March.

CBF is also setting up prayer tents that allow volunteers to minister one-on-one to the thousands visiting the area.

BWA's Division of Evangelism and Education contributed $5,000 to support the evangelistic efforts of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship during the Cricket World Cup.

Currently the competition is in the Super 8 stages, with Australia and New Zealand emerging as the teams most in-form till now. Hosts, the West Indies, had hoped to be the first nation to win the competition on home soil, but are now all but out of the competition following a heavy defeat to South Africa this week. England on the other-hand is teetering on the verge of crashing out, with vital games against South Africa and the West Indies now becoming must-win games for them to reach the Semi-Finals, following defeats to New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Australia.


For more information on the BWA, please visit: www.bwanet.org


[Source: BWA]