Playing football in the park is a universal language in your typical Australian suburb. Kick a ball and they will come. Nowhere is that more evident than in Willmot, a rough and tumble suburb in Sydney’s greater west.

Jordan is planning on starting a new church in the area this year.

Willmot, and its equally tiny neighbouring suburb of Shalvey, are two places you’ve probably never visited. In fact, there’s a saying of the greater Mount Druitt area to which they belong: “Mount Druitt; drive straight through it.”

But for Jordan Chan who’s planning to start a church in the area, there’s a lot to see. In his eyes, there are a lot of people who need to hear about Jesus, and a lot of kids who like to play sport.

Willmot and Shalvey are two of Sydney’s most disadvantaged suburbs. Made up predominantly of public housing, the population of around 6,000 has a high percentage of Pacific Islander and Indigenous people and is plagued by generational welfare troubles.

“It’s a pretty rough area,” says Jordan. “There’s a massive amount of alcohol consumption—at all hours of the day. There’re always burnt out houses as you drive past.” It’s the type of suburb that bus drivers don’t like driving through. In 2008, local bus drivers boycotted the area after a string of rock and bottle attacks from reportedly “drunk and disorderly youths”.

“But when you chat with people about how they got into the situation they’re in, it’s not like they’ve made a few mistakes and ended up here,” says Jordan. “For most, it’s all they’ve ever known. Their parents were here; their grandparents.”

Jordan and a group of people from his current church, Hawkesbury Valley Baptist, did a three day mission trip in Willmot three years ago. They supplied three meals a day on big barbecues, mowed people’s lawns, and staged a massive clean-up.

The next week, Jordan found himself back in the area with a smaller group, catching up with some of the people he’d met. They started playing football.

“We just kept going back every week. And it ended up that people expected us to be on the field on a Wednesday afternoon.”

They don’t just play football; some days it’s soccer, another, ultimate frisbee. When it rains, it’s handball.

“We just hang out, play sport … the kids in the area just wander around; they do what they want most of the time. So if they’re coming down to play a game with us, at least it’s a fairly safe place for them to be.”

But it’s not just about sport. Jordan says he and his small team have always been upfront about why they’re there: to introduce people to Jesus.

“We usually have a barbecue after the game, and people stand around and have a chat. We get to know people better—the boys are always bringing new people along—and we say grace and usually someone shares something about what God’s been teaching them. But the most effective is one-on-one conversations, and we’ve had no trepidation trying to love and care for people and tell them about Jesus.”

Jordan works at the high school in Shalvey as a teacher’s aide. He’s been turning up on the football field every Wednesday for three years now, and kids at his school recognise him. He also likes to walk around Willmot and Shalvey to see who he’ll meet, and catches up with them on the street.

“The community knows us and trusts us  … Kids who I’ve never met at school run up to me and say, hey, you’re down at the fields every Wednesday. And I say, ‘Yeah, that’s me. Come along, and bring a friend.’”