90+ academy team was drawn in group A this morning and without enough time to settle in the team found themselves losing the first game 1-0. With some lacklustre play from all the team, they picked themselves up for the next game with a 1-0 win. The games were difficult to win, with the goals small and many teams setting up to play defensively to try and frustrate 90+, but with some good footwork, fitness and quick moving of the ball, the team eventually started to pick the sides apart.

In the third game of the tournament 90+ pinned back the opposition and eventually broke through with a goal. Finding it hard to find a way through the wall of 7 standing in front of the goal, 90+ dominated and kept possession for the rest of the game and with a few quick counters were able to test the keeper. At every opportunity Cameron would break forward like the Sol Cambell of old and created many opportunities. Bob coming back from injury managed to see some game time and was the Maestro in midfield, picking the passes. Vinni, finally finding his feet started to show his dominant presence upfront.

During the fourth game, 90+ Academy team put 6 past their opponents. Bob Milton with the goal of the game, was slipped through by Vinni only to sell the keeper who on his way down, found Bob loft a ball over his head and into the back of the net. Vinni, starting to pick up his game, began to show his ability to turn defenders and leave them for dead. The team dominated for the rest of the game notching up some much needed, goal difference. During the game, 90+ sustained some injuries which lead to a couple of the guys missing out in the last fixture of the group. This showed as the team was beaten 3-1. Not to worry as 90+ had qualified for the next round.

90+ continued their dominance in the tournament progressing successfully to the final, to win the trophy.

90+ was given the opportunity to share with churches about sports ministry, the impact it can have on peoples lives, the church and communities. Some of the academy were under the spotlight as they shared their own testimonies and how God has brought them to such a place. It was a great chance to hear of the amazing work that God has been doing within the recruits lives.

The evening was concluded with a short message about the importance of missional living, and using sport as an example, of how we can reach out to our communities to share the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

The academy guys later that evening were able to share more intimately with the young people their testimonies.

It was a great evening and 90+ due to the great response of people and the desire to know more, 90+ will be holding another evening similar to Real Lives in August to give a more in depth look at the work, the workers and the message we proclaim. Stay tuned for more info.

The Academy joined in partnership with the Besom Project to help renovate a house for a needy family on the Wirral. The family are expecting a new born child within the coming weeks and the house in which they lived, with 3 other children was in need of some renovation to help with the upcoming changes. So 90+ took to the house as if it were the 90minute makeover!

The academy recruits are here on the Wirral not just to train but to serve the local community and to be a light to all they come into contact with. The recruits started at 10am and finished at 4pm. We managed to undercoat, paint and gloss 4 rooms for the family. Throughout the day, we were able to have a huge impact on the family by sharing the reason that we were there.

The Besom project has recently emailed saying,

Dear James,
I just wanted to drop you a line to thank you and all the guys for your wonderful involvement in the project on Saturday. It absolutely would not have happened without you - I found it extremely uplifting just the few minutes I spent there on Saturday - it was great to meet you all. The family were all really delighted - when I popped round this afternoon they were telling me that a family member is coming with a van to take all the old furniture away and that they are ordering carpets later this week. I think that with your help they are beginning to get back on their feet.

I am certainly convinced that Besom gives us the opportunity as Christians to go to parts of the Wirral with the gospel that we would never otherwise have an inroad into and that is very exciting - to be able to share God’s love with people who have never known much love in their lives. And you and the guys were certainly great role models for those young boys.

So please do pass on my thanks to everyone on behalf of us all here at Besom.

We continue to pray and hope that the family will have seen just a glimpse of Christ at work in our lives, and we praise God for the opportunity we had to serve this family.

Afterwards we managed to get a kick around with the young kids from the family.

Each Tuesday, the 90+ Academy invite local Dads and Lads to come and test their skills against the 90+ recruits. The evening starts with one of the recruits sharing a thought for the day or a short testimony. After this we play a full sided game and get to see some of the local talent in action as they pit their wits against the academy squad. The evening is really fun and is open for all to attend. Please do pray for this work as we seek to be a light in this community. Pray that the young people in particular will begin to see something different on and off the field and Christ working through the Academy Recruits. Pray that relationships will continue to grow and God would do amazing things in the lads and dads lives. 

This summer the 90+ Academy aims to be in local community and churches using sport as a tool to engage with the local youth and share the gospel One way is by using the cage as pictured above. The cage folds down and is transported in a trailer. So it can be taken anywhere and set up in 20 minutes and its ready to go. Recently 90+ took the cage into St Andrews Primary School in Bebington, the children were able to play small sided games 2v2 and 3v3 in a tournament style fixtures. During this the academy recruits were able to share a short testimony with the kids and begin to build relationships with the young people.

Please do pray for this outreach, pray that lots of fun would be had but ultimately as the gospel is shared many would come to a realisation of the need of knowing Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. 

On the 16th January Josh was interviewed along with academy recurit James Leck and NCFL Youth Chairman about their faith and football. What it is like to be a christian football player. Josh was able to share about 90+ plans for the upcoming academy starting in May.

You can listen by following this link and fastforwarding to 2hr 9mins.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00czw3m/Emma_Philpotts_Norfolk_Christian_Football_League/

On the 18th December 90+ Hosted an outreach weekend for Buxton Community Church in Derbyshire.

On Saturday Josh was able to play 5 a-side with the churches team Buxton Christians who play in the local league their. It is managed by Andy Tooze and Mike Stanway and captained by Matt Stanway.

The team is made up of men from a mixture of backgrounds but united by their passion of football. With the enthusiasm of the management team to share the gospel with them 90+ were more than happy to come and facilitate outreach for the church.

Josh hosted our now very popular Sports Quiz on the Saturday night which was very competitive a really enjoyable evening. At half time Josh challenged the team to consider what they were living for and defined their life. He continued to share that only Jesus can give true joy and meaning to life. But ultimately we must choose to follow him or reject him and the consequences of our answer will last for eternity. An excellent evening had by all participants especially the winners.

On Sunday morning Josh was asked to share during the service his testimony and share about 90+ and the need of Sports Ministry in this country. He laid a challenge down to church that whether football or not to pursue their gifts and passion and use them ultimately for the Glory of God and expansion of his Kingdom.

May 90+ say a huge thank you to Buxton for their kindness and support to them throughout their time there. Please pray for the Buxton Christians team and the leadership as they seek faithfully to share the gospel with them. 

Gavin Peacock doesn’t play much football these days, which is not surprising given that temperatures in the remote town where he lives, cradled in the Canadian Rockies, can dive to minus 30 in the winter months. The odd five-a-side game for Canmore United in an indoor league is the extent of it now for a player who once performed with distinction for Chelsea and Newcastle United in the Premier League.

Nor does he watch much of it on television. He pays the subscription to what North Americans call the EPL (the English Premier League) but it does not dominate conversation like it did not so long ago when he was one of the faces, with his shaven head and goatee beard, of the BBC’s football coverage, including a regular slot on Match of the Day 2.

Other than that, there is little about today’s Gavin Peacock that reflects his former public life as an ex-footballer-turned-pundit. But that is just the way he wants it.

In 2008 he decided to move his wife, Amanda, and their two children, Jake and Ava, to Canada so he could study theology with the intention of becoming a church leader.

“I left England after Euro 2008, when I had been working as part of the TV team for the BBC,” Peacock says. “And not long after I was living in a small town in a strange country, getting up at seven in the morning to study Hebrew at eight, followed by ancient Greek at 10. And I wondered, ‘What have I got myself into?’”

That same question has been asked by many of his former colleagues and friends back in the UK. Not many people, let alone former professional footballers, walk out on a well-paid job on TV to become a theology student, swapping sofa for seminary. Peacock, now 43 years old, says he felt “compelled” to join the ministry after a “road to Damascus” moment reading his Bible at home in Wilmington, Kent. From then on, his career on TV lost its allure.

“It never felt like it was going to be for ever,” he says. “When I got the call to enter the ministry I just felt like that what I was meant to do. I feel compelled to do it. I was in my study reading my Bible when it seemed someone had highlighted the words on the pages. I suddenly felt the calling to preach.”

Peacock has been a Christian since he was a teenager, so in some respects his decision to become a preacher has been a long time in the making. Yet when it came, it happened suddenly, a calling from the pages of the Bible. The family had a holiday home in the Rockies and they took the difficult decision to move abroad.

“I could have studied in England but we had been out here on holiday a few times and we just thought, ‘Let’s make a real break away from everything.’ Coming to Canada was like stripping things back, I couldn’t trade off my name. No one was going to give me a hearing because I was Gavin Peacock, ex-Chelsea captain,” he says.

It was like he had never been a famous footballer. “At first it was quite hard, being away from everything I had known – family, friends, football. And it was not like we were in Florida, sitting by the swimming pool. It was really cold and that was hard to get used to.

“For the first time, also, football was not a part of my life at all. It’s not like going to Spain or Italy, or even the US. In Canada they have very little interest in soccer.”

Anonymity was hard for Peacock, who as the son of former Charlton Athletic player Keith Peacock has spent his entire life under one spotlight or another. At his peak, around the time he hit the bar for Chelsea in the 4-0 defeat in the 1994 FA Cup final against Double winners Manchester United, he came close to selection for Terry Venables’ England. He then also carved out an impressive second career as a pundit, having moved up from local radio to working as a regular expert for BBC TV.

Giving up being famous has its benefits, however. Peacock now knows that he has had to work for everything he has achieved after making the move across the Atlantic.

It has certainly been hard work. He started out by learning two languages, Hebrew and ancient Greek, so that he can read the Bible in its original form, a testing academic challenge that commands long hours of study and generally weeds out the less committed of students.

“The studying has been hard. It’s been the hardest two years of my life but the most rewarding. I joked with my classmates once that I had played in front of 100,000 people in a Cup final at Wembley but I was more nervous about my Hebrew vocabulary test,” he says.

Recently Peacock has moved on to studying more practical skills, such as preaching and how to serve the community, working with a small evangelical church in Banff. “You have to be a shepherd to your flock,” he says.

The pulpit is where Peacock now feels most at home. “I feel my primary calling is to be a preacher. I have been working at Banff Park Church and I preach there about once a month,” he says.

“I don’t wear a dog collar, it’s quite casual, but I do wear a suit when I preach. There is normally about 120 to 140 in the congregation, which is quite big.”

Preaching is a time-consuming task, as Peacock generally spends 15 hours in preparation and study before each sermon. “I suppose I spend about three hours a day on Monday to Friday before I preach,” he said. “I feel a certain amount of nerves, or fear, when I preach. I appreciate that it is God’s word that I am preaching. I think you could call it a glorious weight.”

Peacock is due to finish his masters degree in theology in April, when he is hoping his relationship with Banff Park Church will evolve into a full-time job. He has sold his house in England and is committed to life in Canada. After two years living among the elks and the grizzlies, he has decided to stay.

“Originally we thought we would do three years and then go back to England. But we had a period of time back to England last fall and after that I realised I had to stay here,” he says. “I’ve sold my house in England and am committed to life in Canada long term. I’m not saying I would never return to England but for as long as we can I would like to try to pursue things here.”

Home now is Canmore, a bustling former mining town nestling in the Rockies with a population of 12,000, famous recently for providing the spectacular scenery for the movie Brokeback Mountain. Peacock’s church is at the heart of Rockies’ tourist trail, where sometimes the occasional British visitor recognises the former footballer.

It is very cold, however. “It’s minus 30 today,” he says, “About as cold as you can possibly imagine. You have to dress for it but I do wish I still had my hair, I have to wear a beanie hat for about four months. You don’t do much outdoors when it’s like this. The sky, however, is bright blue, and sun blazes down on some stunning scenery.”

Having previously kept his options open, Peacock has now chosen the Associated Gospel Churches as his future home, a Christian denomination similar to the Baptists. “They preach from the scriptures and have a certain demeanour, a gravitas,” Peacock says.

He recently passed a two-hour interview for the AGC, which means he should be ordained in two years’ time, after a period as an assistant to pastor Norm Derkson at Banff Park Church. “We’ve got a good chemistry and he gives me the pulpit from time to time,” he says. If he maintains his progress, he will become the Reverend Gavin Peacock in 2012.

There will come a time when Peacock needs to start earning again, as he has been living off his savings and his footballing pension for the past two years, along with support from the Professional Footballers’ Association. He says: “I have not worked since I left the BBC and became a student. I am very grateful for the PFA benevolent fund that helps me with the costs of the course.”

As he builds his new life in Canada, Peacock’s former incarnation as a footballer becomes less and less important. “The guys at my five-a-side team all know about my previous career,” he says. “And I do get recognised from time to time. Banff is quite a touristy place and there are quite a few English visitors.

“The kids sometimes go on Google and YouTube to see some of the old goals and games. They are good memories and I don’t feel like I wish I was playing again. I had a full career and was blessed I didn’t have any injuries. I was a good player, as good as I could have been, and I felt I achieved as much as I could have done.”

Peacock has taken that attitude into his new career and will give everything to become the best he can at his new vocation. It goes without saying he has no regrets about his decision to up sticks and take the family to Canada.

The key factor for Peacock has been the spiritual development of his family, an indicator perhaps of just how far he has come since he left England two years ago. “My faith has deepened, and as a family we have grown spiritually,” he says. “Life in our consumer society can be very lightweight. People need to be fed meat rather than candyfloss. Hopefully, we are shepherding our children towards God, who is eternal.”

Gavin Peacock’s footballing life

1967 Born 18 November, Eltham.

1984-87 The midfielder begins his career with Queen’s Park Rangers, making his debut on 29 November in a 2-2 home draw against Sheffield Wednesday, aged 19.

1987-89 After a brief loan spell, he completes a full transfer to Gillingham, joining his father, Keith, who is manager. Peacock Snr is sacked soon afterwards but Gavin remains with the Gills for nearly two years.

1990-93 Following a year under Harry Redknapp at Bournemouth he is signed by Newcastle United. Peacock plays a crucial role as they win the 1992-93 First Division title, scoring 12 goals. Despite promotion to the Premier League with the Magpies, he joins Chelsea in the summer for £1.5m.

1993-96 Peacock scores on his Chelsea debut, a 2-1 home loss to Blackburn Rovers, and is one of the star performers in an otherwise disappointing league campaign for the Blues as they finished 14th. Peacock hits the bar in the 1994 FA Cup final as Chelsea suffer a 4-0 loss to Manchester United at Wembley. He goes on to make over 100 appearances for the club.

1996-2002 Moves back to QPR for £800,000 following a loan spell. Goes on to make over 200 appearances and score 39 goals in total for the club, but was unable to help the side back into the Premier League. Has a brief spell on loan in 2001 at Charlton Athletic, where his father Keith was assistant manager, before retiring at the end of the 2001-02 season.

90+ was invited to host an evening with their mens oureach group.

We decided to go with a question of sport quiz and see how people would fair in a competetive yet fun setting. The evening was a huge success. With 35 men, varying from Church and non Church backgrounds they got fully involved in the evening with much to play for. Footballs and many other sports prizes up for grabs the groups took part in trivia, wheres the ball, under pressure and an interactive video round.

One of the mens group leaders commented that, “I think people expected a traditional quiz and the way you guys approached it was very fresh and ideal to evoke a bit of banter.”

It really was a blessing on our behalf to serve this group and help with the continued outreach and development of relationships that have been built over a period of time. Sport has a unique way of bringing people together and sparking a tremendous interest!

The highlight was James being able to share a little about 90+ but also to share a Gospel message to all in attendance.

Dave, the group leader said, “I would wholeheartedly recommend 90+ ministries to any organisation looking for events that bring people together for a fun sport oriented time. We had a great evening with James and Josh, a fresh twist on a sports quiz kept the competition and the banter between teams going all evening. The guys on the fringe appreciated the gospel presentation in terms that they were able to relate to and words they understood.”

We would like to thank St Andrews and we look forward to returning soon and our prayers are with your Mens Group.

If you would like to know more about our event evenings, then please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you or you know someone who would like more information on the 90+ Academy please access our Academy tab on our website and download the Player Information Pack. Or contact us direct on Info@ninetyplusministries.com