Saron’s name is in the Bible and means “His Song,” or “God’s Song.” Born to committed Christian parents in Jarrettsville, Md., Saron Mack began listening to God’s song at the age of 7.

“We had a lot of visiting missionaries in our church and home. I always wanted to be a missionary from the time I got saved, but I wasn’t ready! First, God needed to sand down my rough edges.”

In college, Saron went for a degree in geology and applied mathematics, and she eventually landed a job doing programming and technical support for medical-based software. Her workplace became her mission field. Much of her free time was devoted to a Christian search and rescue team and training as a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician.

Saron’s favorite holiday choice was going on short-term mission trips, first within the United States and Canada, then further afield in Jamaica, the Arabian Peninsula and Ukraine. During her second trip to Ukraine in 2004, she spent two weeks of sports outreach with an international mission called OM. She recalls, “That week I realized sports ministry was where I belonged. It was so clear!

“Back home I checked out all the missions, and OM was the only one that had full-time sports ministries for women. I prayed, applied and went to a training conference, but I still wasn’t sure when and where the Lord wanted me. Meanwhile, I joined a club-level soccer team as goal-keeper to learn the game better and ended up getting a serious shoulder injury. Some people said it was a sign I shouldn’t go to Ukraine. I told them, ‘The Lord will have to kill me if He doesn’t want me to go! He just wants me to persevere.’ I was doing physical therapy for months, but returned to Ukraine in June 2005 for another week-long sports camp. My shoulder had been hurting badly, but the minute I stepped off the plane it stopped hurting! All week it was fine.”

Later, Saron bypassed shoulder surgery in favor of weight training to strengthen her muscles alongside a personal trainer. The following December she felt ready to join the OM Ukraine team in the city of Rivne.

Working on the Border
Ukraine means “borderland,” and the fact this former-Soviet nation shares borders with Russia, Moldova, Poland, Belarus, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia has laid it open to centuries of invasions. Millions died during the repressive Soviet rule; the country only achieved independence in 1991.

Decades of Communism and atheism have sunk deeply into the people’s souls. Many of the 48 million who live there openly pine for a return to the “good old days” of Soviet rule. Bribery and corruption, the Mafia and KGB are facts of life. Although the onion-shaped domes of Orthodox churches tower over every town and village, the vast majority of church-goers are elderly.

OM International started in Ukraine in 1994 with the goal of encouraging local evangelical churches to reach the next generation. Sports ministries soon took a leading role. KidsGames attracted 3,000 children the first year; since then, 40 churches have started sports ministries. Observes OM’s National Director, Pastor Oleg Abaturov, “After KidsGames, 100 new people came to my church. We started a new church for youth. Parents are coming to church, too, to find out what’s happened to their kids!”

Along with soccer, Ukraine’s most popular sport, OM has developed rugby, floorball (which can be played inside during the long winters), volleyball, ultimate Frisbee, paintball and adventure sports like mountain climbing. Training camps are held for church youth leaders to demonstrate how to build their groups through sports. Although raising money for equipment is often a problem, an even greater obstacle is that many churches consider sports to be sinful—along with listening to the radio or watching TV. Churches that do have funds have little vision. Pastors don’t share the eagerness of their youth for sports. So the OM team started sharing the vision in seminaries; little by little they are seeing attitudes change.

Starting Small
Saron moved to Ukraine and lost no time getting involved in a local church and hosting a home Bible study for Ukrainians in her small apartment. Soon young people were dropping by for supper and games.

She put her IT expertise to good use by designing Web sites for missions and churches in the country, but it was her keenness for sports and qualification in coaching that made her an immediate success on the mission team. Saron realized that in Soviet times girls had many more opportunities in sports than in post-Soveit rule. Her passion led to organizing a women’s soccer team and girls’ floorball team. A weekly Bible lesson during the practices added an important dimension to the friendships she formed.

In addition to matches and sports camps during the year, OM’s week-long children’s camps have proven a successful strategy in evangelizing Ukrainian youth. In spite of occasional opposition by Orthodox priests, the team impacts a total of about 1,000 children in various villages each summer. Their longer-term goal is to get the young people into the Sunday Schools that are being started in these villages.

Team members hold camps for some of the country’s gypsy children and cross borders to promote KidsGames in neighboring countries like Moldova and Chechnya. Ukrainians say they have a definite advantage in areas where people don’t want to listen to Russians.

Saron has no regrets about her career choice. “The Lord has taught me a lot about myself through competitive games, and they are a perfect place to put what the Lord teaches into practice,” she says.

How much longer Saron will continue to share God’s song with the youth of Ukraine is anyone’s guess. That’s His call, she says, smiling and adding, “I feel at home in this country. It’s where I belong.”