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Japan has the world's largest unreached, surfing population with over 1.5 million surfers in
a population that is only 0.1% Christian. The European surf industry turned over 1 billion
dollars, and represents the fastest growing surfing business market.
The UK has over three hundred thousand surfers, and has been embraced as a nationally recognized
lifestyle that many young people aspire to. There are a million surfers in the Sao Paolo
state, even representing the poor favelas. Australians are more likely to surf regularly
than to attend church regularly. The US has the world's largest surfing population
estimated close to 3 million and relatively few churches are relating to them at all.
The latest members to the International Surfing Association are Turkey, Liberia and Taiwan.
The Global surf industry is worth over 10 billion dollars with companies like Quiksilver,
Billabong, and many others. Most Pacific nations have a surfing population
but many of the churches in these places are opposed to them.
South Africa is pioneering development surfing into the poorer black communities and there
is a vast untapped population there. There are over 120 surfable nations, with
an estimate 20 million surfers and growing! Christian Surfers International is a Christian
presence and witness within the world surfing community
We are evangelistic in intent and evangelical in flavor.
We are mobilizing surfers to reach surfers, using their surfing.
We are local church based and interchurch in leadership and accountability.
We are integrated in the local surfing community as well as the church community.
We have a ministry based on relationships of trusts, earned by service as key to all
ministry and leadership. We believe the kingdom of God changes individual
surfers lives through prayer, bible reading, and other discipleship habits and then the
surfing cultures they belong to. We are called to the world surfing community
and will seek to facilitate surfing outreach to every surfing nation.
Christian Surfers International consists of some two hundred missions in 35 nations with
45 staff and over a thousand volunteers working together globally.
Our greatest recent breakthrough is seeing an area we've been praying for come alive,
and the growth of local missions up and down this coastline.
We are seeing a heart for women's mission develop in CS nations and girls rise up to
all that God has called them to be. Christian Surfers New Zealand has been sending
short-term mission teams to Fiji, which has helped establish Christian Surfers in this
community and with ongoing ministry to the surfing population.
It's been great serving on the ASP World Tour, serving some of the best surfers and I'm stoked
to see that chaplaincy is streaming down from the tour to WQS Events and also to Junior
and even local levels. Is our partnership with the UK Pro Tour. We
get the opportunity to work with Britain's 150 top surfers, from Thurso right up in the
north, down to Newquay in the south. Our greatest recent breakthrough through ministry
has been the development of what we call Prep School, which is a week-long intensive training
for teenage guys and girls. In Christian Surfers Japan we just did the
Foundations Leadership Training course and we have seen great results.
Jesus said go and make disciples, and the 'Surf Houses' and disciple making communities
are like a kind of surfer-friendly church and we see surfers and make them grow and
be more like Jesus. It's great to further the development of our
international network in Central America and the Caribbean using our regional visitations,
conferences and shared resources. The Spanish Surfers Bible will impact Argentina!
We've created an exciting resource called 'On the Rocks', which is basically a six-part
series that introduces surfers to the gospel. Our mission as Christian Surfers International
is to mobilize a global network of affiliated nations and individuals; to help them share
the gospel with surfers, to get them connected with the local church and to do it together,
because not one of us could reach the world surfing community alone.