Rwanda and the start of One Ball

“If you give me one ball, God can change an entire community.”

Those simple words came from Moussa, one of our FCA teammates in East Africa. He believed something that, at first, sounded almost too simple: a ball could become a tool God uses to transform a community.

His words stuck with our leadership and eventually became a challenge to our entire team:

How can we equip our teammates around the world and help make this vision a reality?

It Started One Bag at a Time

At first, the answer was impact projects. Faithful supporters generously donated soccer balls, gloves, cones, jerseys, and other sports equipment. Then our FCA goers carried it with them to Africa—piece by piece, bag by bag, 50 pounds at a time.

Slowly but surely, equipment began reaching the hands of our teammates who needed it most. At the same time, supporters back home began seeing something bigger. A soccer ball wasn't simply a piece of equipment. It could become an opportunity to build a relationship, enter a community, and ultimately point coaches and athletes toward Jesus.

Then came an idea that would change everything.

What If We Made Our Own Ball?

Instead of only collecting and transporting donated soccer balls, what if we could create one specifically for ministry? What if we could make a match-quality soccer ball, durable enough for some of the toughest fields in the world, and put FCA's gospel-sharing tool, The FOUR, directly on it? We could give our teammates some of the best equipment available while putting a simple gospel-sharing tool directly into their hands. That question led to the creation of the first FCA One Ball.

But before we could dream about sending them around the world, we needed to know if they could survive where they would actually be used.

So we took them to Rwanda.

Put It to the Test

On our first trip to Rwanda with the new balls, we carried 17 FCA One Ball soccer balls to the fields of Kigali.

We had one mission: Try to destroy them. The fields weren't manicured grass. They were rugged, hard-packed dirt covered with rocks—the kind of environment that can quickly tear apart a poorly made soccer ball. We handed several balls to a local team and told the players we would return in four days. Until then, we wanted them to play with them as much and as hard as possible.

Four days later, we came back. The balls were dirty. They were scuffed. They had clearly been played with.And they were still going strong. We knew we had a ball that could handle the fields. Now came the part that mattered most.

More Than a Soccer Ball

Before we brought out the FCA One Balls, I looked at what the players were already using.

The older, more experienced players had the team's best soccer ball—a worn black-and-white ball that had already been patched from previous holes. The younger players were using a ball that couldn't even hold air anymore.

And the youngest children?

They were playing with a homemade ball made from twine and burlap sacks. Some of these kids had never had the opportunity to play with a brand-new soccer ball. Some had barely experienced playing with a ball that was completely round.

Then we brought out the FCA One Balls.

Suddenly, the same object they had been improvising, repairing, and sharing became something more.

It was a quality soccer ball they could be proud to play with.

But printed on that ball was also a message far more valuable than the equipment itself.

The FOUR.



Four simple symbols that tell the story of the Gospel. That is when the vision behind FCA One Ball became real. We weren't simply delivering soccer balls to Africa.

We were putting a tool into the hands of our teammates that could open a door to a relationship, create an opportunity to share the Gospel, and help them make disciples through the universal language of sports.

Maybe Moussa was right all along.

Give someone one ball, and God can use it to change an entire community.