The Champions Program: True Love Goalkeepers

Through teaching at a junior high school, my eyes have been opened! Many of the students believe that love is what today’s music, media, and culture conveys it as. There is a desperate need to help these young people who are sorely lacking a moral compass and don’t know of God’s ways. So it is important to reach the youth with God’s truths—we must rise as loving adults and teach them ways to prepare for life.

Ephesians 6:13 gives a clarion call for all ages to do just that. The Message paraphrases it this way: “Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet.”

The Champions “True Love Goalkeeper” course

What can we do to help young people make good choices for life? There is an excellent program for youth that teaches wholesome morals and prepares hearts for the gospel that my friend Ruth introduced to me two summers ago. It is called the Champions Program. One of its main courses is called “True Love Goalkeeper” (the Japanese name is 愛を守る人 Ai O Mamoru Hito, “the person who protects/defends love”). Like the goalie protects the goal in soccer, true love goalkeepers learn what true love is and how to protect it.

Ruth told me how she started a group using this program to help educate her fifth grade daughter and her daughter’s friends. Whether believers or not, many parents can easily agree with the values taught through the course.

In Ruth’s words, here are some things she liked about it: “The program is good because it is easy for anybody to teach it as it has a set teaching that is blended with games, activities, and a workbook to fill in. The workbook also has a place where students can share their thoughts, which might be difficult to share otherwise, in the form of writing letters back and forth with the teacher. I like it also because it was made in Taiwan so the format and presentation is not foreign but Asian. It also has a solid foundation and history of being used in over 600 schools and impacting over one million junior high students in Taiwan.”

How the Champions got started

In 1994, Dr. Steven Long and his wife went to Taiwan from the United States to invest in education. According to the website, “They started on school campuses, hoping to help young children develop self-confidence, self-discipline, and a sense of respect for themselves and the people around them with the Champions Program.”¹ The program started very small, but now more than 40% of the middle schools in Taiwan are implementing the Champions curriculum every year.

Chieko Saito from Japan was living in Taiwan with her husband when she got connected with the program. She realized how beneficial it would be if she could translate the materials and gear them towards students in Japan, and that is just what she did.

Since 2018, Chieko has trained over 1,000 people in Japan to become volunteer group leaders. The process is quite simple: she offers training sessions several times a year and participants pay 3,000 yen for a leader’s booklet and eight 40-minute group lessons on Zoom.

I enrolled in Chieko’s course, and it was so refreshing to join a group of committed Japanese believers who care about raising up the next generation with godly principles. At the end of each session, there was time for discussion and Q and A.

After completing the training, participants are qualified as leaders to start their own groups, usually with junior high students.

Learning to protect their bodies and hearts

A True Love Goalkeeper group meets eight times, once a week for 40 minutes in person. Groups can meet at a home, church, or somewhere else. The course is suitable for both boys and girls, Christians and non-Christians.

By the time the course is finished, students have a much healthier understanding of how to respect and care for their minds and bodies.

In this course, students learn

• how to respect their bodies, respect others, and how to guard their hearts;
• the benefits of purity and boundaries;
• how to avoid “stirring up” love prematurely; and
• what to do if they or someone they know is sexually abused.

There is space in the workbook to incorporate a Bible verse for each lesson. Ruth told me that fellow moms were, like her, concerned about their children’s well-being. There had been some bullying going on through social media, and these moms were grateful when she volunteered to lead a group for their daughters. She partnered with a Japanese Christian friend to lead the group together. One benefit of inviting her daughter’s friends to join the group was that they all now share the same common goals when it comes to self-image and personal purity.

Tackling life and its problems in a healthy way

Recently, a new course called “Problem Solving” (問題解決 Mondai Kaiketsu) is also being offered in Japan. Among other things, this teaches students that there are ways to solve problems without taking one’s own life or resorting to substance abuse.

Ruth said, “I know of one girl who had a very low self-image before starting the course. She couldn’t write or give her opinions because of fear. Since she went through the Champions and Problem Solving courses, we have seen huge growth in her self-confidence. She started writing more in the workbooks and talking more about herself. Her mom is amazed at how positively she has changed. Another girl said that the new information she has received has given her and her friends a good way to protect themselves.”

I want to share Champions with you because this program is so excellently geared to help us guide youth in Japan. My hope is that you will pass on this information to your Japanese friends and coworkers who would be ideal as Champion group leaders.

You can find out more at https://champ.org.tw, where you can find English and Japanese translations of their history, mission, and course information, or send an email to saito.chieko@gmail.com.

1. Champions Education Association, “Champions Program,” https://champ.org.tw/?page_id=793 (accessed July 17, 2023).
Image from the Champions website