Inside Story: Swapping Soccer for God

Inside Story for Friday 1st of August 2025

By Andrew McChesney

Silva Langa, a high school student in Mozambique, loved soccer. The sport was his god, and he played whenever he could. He was a skillful player and dreamed about a big-league career.

Then a friend surprised him by saying, bluntly, “You have many good qualities, but you lack God.” Silva’s surprise grew when the friend, Hodes, invited him to church on Saturday. Silva had never heard of a church that worshiped on Saturdays. In addition, Saturday wasn’t a good day for him to go to church. It was the day he most often played soccer matches.

Hodes, however, was a good friend, and Silva accompanied him to church on the next Saturday that he was free. Silva was surprised again. Church members showered him with love and affection. The hymns touched his heart. He studied the Bible, and he gave his heart to Jesus in baptism.

Many of Silva’s relatives and friends couldn’t understand why he had stopped playing soccer on Saturdays.

“You have a crazy faith,” said one.

“Why would anyone go to church instead of a soccer game?” said another.

Silva explained his faith as best as he could.

His parents became worried when Silva skipped university entrance exams on a Saturday. They questioned his mental health, asking him why he was willing to risk his future for the Sabbath. It was a severe trial for Silva, but he decided to adopt the courage of Peter and other apostles and declare like them, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29, NKJV).

The dismay of his parents grew when the school called to ask why he wasn’t going to Friday night classes. Several relatives pleaded with local Adventist leaders to tell Silva to study on Friday nights. The leaders did not offer a Bible study on the Sabbath. Instead, they offered assurances that God would not leave the teen and that he would graduate from high school.

Before long, Silva was able to transfer to an Adventist high school, where he no longer faced Sabbath conflicts. He graduated from the high school.

Today, Silva is an entrepreneur who has no regrets about giving up his god of soccer for the God of heaven. His life of faithfulness has led two of his sisters and other people to baptism.

“God has blessed my life,” Silva said. “I thank God that today my family respects my beliefs.”

Pray for the gospel to be proclaimed in Mozambique and other countries in the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division, which will receive this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering.