Into the Fall

The fall has really started to kick into gear. One thing I’ve been particularly excited about is the amateur soccer team (a team the seahorses have had in the local men’s league for over two decades!). During our tryouts this year there were over 50 guys that came and played! Our main goal is to have a team that glorifies God and thus we hold ourselves to a higher standard. We try to accomplish this by earning the respect from our opponents (playing well and to the best of our abilities), showing good sportsmanship (helping other players up, not giving in to trash talk, bringing water for the other team at the end of the game, etc) and by making relationships with players on the other team so that we may get a chance to share the gospel with them.


So, our selection process is key as we aim to be a predominantly Christian team with a few other players that are interested in Jesus and could be positively influenced by the Christians on our team. I was one of three involved in the difficult task of narrowing the roster down to 22 players. After six tryout sessions we were excited to challenge our new team with a couple scrimmages (one against Chivas USA Academy team) and had good games. The league has started since and we’ve won both of our games. So we are off to a good start!


Similar to the PDL team I was with over the summer we will be breaking up into small groups each practice and going through some curriculum called “Faith on the Field”, as well as have someone share their testimony. We are also planning some outreaches to a prison and possibly a weekend trip to Mexico. I’ve been helping put the curriculum together and am really excited about how it came together! Each player will have a booklet with various practical topics that can be applied on and off the field which we will discuss in our small group setting each week. I am excited to lead a small group and see what God has for our amateur team this year.


Another development is that I will be in charge of the Seahorse after school programs. We will be putting on two after school programs in the La Mirada area. I participated in them last spring and they were a lot of fun. Although we cannot openly share the Lord with kids, here we show are presence in the community, teach kids good Christian values, and make connections to invite them to our seahorse soccer camps where we do share the gospel.

I have also been involved in revamping the Seahorse soccer website and integrating it with social media (mainly facebook). Although I don’t feel like I am qualified for this, being the only one under 30 in the office I am automatically more of an expert than anyone else here. =) I am slowly making some headway and am even learning some about social media and marketing. You can follow us by clicking here or finding us on facebook at Southern California Seahorses and clicking “Like”.


As you know last summer I helped lead a tour to Rosarito, Mexico. We are planning on doing that again as well as take a youth/open tour somewhere. This past summer they went to the Ukraine to work with an MAI missionary. We are in the process of deciding where we will be taking a group next summer but I am planning on co-leading the outreach. I am really excited and feel that this is an excellent way I could use my talents for the Lord, so please keep us in your prayers as we are in the planning stages.

“Extracurricular” – Since I was not able to find a very inexpensive housing situation, I’ve been supplementing my income here and there by doing various little jobs that come my way. One thing that I’ve really enjoyed is running some youth soccer training sessions. I do one for WACC, a big church in Whittier that started up a U5 soccer league. On Saturday mornings I teach the kiddos the fundamentals of soccer through fun games and then watch them scrimmage each other. It is sooo much fun watching them play and see how the parents are involved and cheering them on!

End of summer 2010

Hola a todos! I cannot believe the summer is coming to an end! It flew by! I would have liked to send an update earlier, but am just now having time to write.


The PDL season finished the end of July. It was a great experience, both as playing on a Christian team and playing soccer at a higher level. Soccer-wise it was a tough season as we gave up quite a few last minute goals to either tie or lose the game. Our final record was 6-7-3. It was nice to finish the season with a win at home. As a ministry it was awesome and it was really special hearing my teammates testimonies each home game as they shared with the spectators and also before practice throughout the summer. Not only was it a ministry to the community and to Rosarito, but also to the players themselves.


I could write a lot of great stories about the season, but will share about a great trip we made to Paso Robles. One of the outreaches the PDL team was involved in this year was a four hour trip north to hot Paso Robles, where we partnered with a local church to put on a soccer clinic for kids. They have a lot of problems with gangs in this small town, so it’s especially important for these kids (ages 6-14) to have a positive and safe place to come and play soccer, away from some of the gangs that we were told they were involved with. We had a great session playing games and scrimmages. Our prayer was that we were able to be positive role models and reach these kids with our soccer skills and that they would receive the Gospel through the sharing the evangecube as well as be an encouragement to the leaders of this town,


Our Seahorse soccer camps have also concluded for the summer. They were a lot of work and a lot of fun. There were a total of seven week long campsin different locations and many different skill levels. These camps have been going for several years now and it was great seeing how many kids (ages 6 to 14) were reached. Each day we would share a Bible story with them, as well as a skit, and at the end of the week we would share the gospel message and invite kids to accept Christ. It was awesome seeing how these fine tuned camps take advantage of every minute and balance sharing Bible stories and soccer to keep the kids engaged. From the camps attended there were about 20 kids that made decisions to follow Christ for the first time!


The after school clinic that I attempted to restart did quite well at the beginning of the summer. Towards the end, however, there have been fewer and fewer kids showing up we think due to other competing programs they are already enrolled in. I am hoping and praying about continuing this effort once school starts up or focusing my energy in some other place in the community.


Summer is about over, so now what? I have had unofficial talks with the leaders of the Seahorse organization and have decided to continue being a part of the organization for another year. It’s not official yet, but the plan is to work with them on a part time basis helping with some after school programs, the amateur soccer team and leading a tour next summer. I will be having an official meeting with the leaders in a couple weeks, so please pray for the Lord’s guidance as we enter into those conversations.


I want to thank you all so much for your encouragement and support during these past few months. As I mentioned above I will continue working with the Seahorses on a part-time basis until next summer when I plan to be full time once again when the heavy ministry is taking place (camps, tours abroad, PDL season, clinics, and more). I will give you an update on my involvement once I meet with the leaders of the organization in a couple weeks. If you feel led to continue supporting me as I partner with the Seahorses I would greatly appreciate it. On a personal note I am planning on taking a few classes during this fall and work part time running soccer practices for a local youth club team.


Thanks again to all who read this blog and have encouraged me! Blessings and saludos!

Tour to Rosarito Mexico

Towards the end of May I took a tour setup trip with Mark Schrock, one of the head honchos of the Seahorse organization, to Rosarito, Mexico to prepare things for the soccer PDL tour (the team I play with) we were taking there on June 2nd. Our goal was to team up with the Godwin’s (a missionary family who had recently moved to Mexico about a year and a half ago) and partner with their recently planted church “Hope Chapel Rosarito.” I was very excited about this opportunity because I had lived in this area for two years after I finished college and was going to get to see some friends I used to play soccer with. The plan was to do soccer clinics with kids at schools and local neighborhoods. We would also set up a friendly scrimmage against the church team and an indoor soccer tournament with eight teams playing single elimination for the trophy. Outside of the schools, we were free to present the gospel and we were planning on doing that during the scrimmage and tournament. We left feeling good about the partnership and excited about being part of God’s work in Rosarito.

The first week of June and our Mexico trip came really fast! It was strange because many of us felt that we were there simply having fun playing with kids and playing soccer, but God used us to open doors in sharing the gospel to this area in desperate need of Jesus. One of our other goals was to get Angel, a member of Hope Chapel Rosarito who loves soccer, excited about sports ministry and train him as much as we could in one week. He came with us everywhere and was very thrilled about sports ministry when we left.


One of the highlights of the trip was going to an elementary school and providing a clinic to the kids. There were hundreds of kids and they loved the games we played with them, as well as hanging all over us. It was great! The indoor soccer was also a high point since we played on my favorite field in Rosarito. It was a hard fought final, but the Seahorses came back with the trophy in the end. When the game finished I got the opportunity to share my testimony with the players and the crowd. It was cool because Edgar, one of the refs that used to ref all the games when I lived there, came up afterwards and was interested in attending church and learning more about my faith.


The Godwin’s did an excellent job documenting the tour. They have posted a concise day by day recap on the tour as well as a ton of pictures. You can check them out at their blog by clicking here.

June Boom!

For the last month, I have been going non-stop! It has been great! Things have been moving very fast since I last sent an update and I apologize for not getting this newsletter out earlier. Here are some of the things that have been keeping me busy since my last newsletter.

I continue training with the team and it’s been exciting learning about sports ministry as well as getting better at soccer. Before each practice session we break up in small groups where we challenge each other with different topics that are often challenging in sports. This last week we discussed pride vs self confidence and had some good conversations. On the soccer side of things, I continue to enjoy practicing with the team and feel that I am slowly improving not only skill wise but also tactically and in my knowledge of playing this game at a higher competitive level.


We’ve had trouble coordinating the after school clinic as the school year ended, partially because many of the kids stopped coming, and also because we have started the Seahorse summer soccer camps. Last week we didn’t have any kids show up. We are continuing to pursue this outreach opportunity, so please pray that kids will start coming out and that we can find some more people from the church to get involved.
As I mentioned our Seahorse summer camps have started up! These camps are a big part of the seahorse soccer ministry! This past week was the first camp and it was challenging. It is a cool camp because not only do we teach soccer skills but also share the gospel with kids. Under my new alias “Coach Pancho,” was put as coach for 8-9 year old kids and my they were a handful! I had every character you could possibly imagine: the girl that was in her own world picking daisies and distracted the whole time, the girl who cries about everything, the kid who knew it all and didn’t want to participate, the kid who wouldn’t ever listen and kicked everyone else’s balls -- I could go on and on. The week was a lot of fun though and overall it was a good experience. I think the kids had a really good time and got excited about the Bible stories and messages. (Following is a picture of Alex and I, he was the non listener, we had a good time though as he suggests)


Personal note – On a personal note things are going well. I like living in SoCal and amidst the traffic and concrete everywhere I’ve gotten to go to some friends’ weddings (3 weekends in a row, it’s wedding season!) and get away every once and a while. Also my girlfriend moved out and now lives close by, so she keeps me busy as well. =) I have been living with a host family and they’ve been providing a place to stay rent free, so every once and a while my roommates and I help them with chores around the house. This past month we assisted in shoveling manure from their two horses they keep in their yard. For those of us that haven’t spent much time in the farming lifestyle it was a humbling experience and pretty comical.


On another awesome note, the World Cup has going on this past month!!! It only happens every four years and is the biggest sporting event in the entire world and it has been very exciting to watch. Although this last weekend I was emotionally devastated (the US lost on Saturday and Mexico lost on Sunday to the exact same teams they played against four years ago), I have begun the recovery process, part of which is watching the rest of the games. =) So if you haven’t seen any games make sure you get some in! The final game is July 11.
Thanks to all of you who read this and have encouraged me. This past month has been exhausting but I’ve loved it!

Preparation and planning

This past month I’ve continued to get the lay of the land, had more opportunities to get involved in other aspects of the ministry and take on some responsibilities of my own. Although not my favorite thing, we accomplished a lot through planning meetings, office work and behind the scenes tasks. Not exactly a calm before the storm since there were a lot of aspects that needed planning. With a change in venue for our home PDL team games (Premier development league), sorting out schedules and coordinating programs for the different activities we’ll be doing this summer (the PDL season, the PDL tour to Rosarito Mexico, the women’s Japan tour, the U20 boys Czech tour, six summer camps, and more!) we’ve been busy.


After school programs - Due to lack of personnel and some of the kids being out of control, one of the soccer clinics had to be discontinued at the beginning of the year. One of my goals for the month was to start it up again. And after jumping through some hoops it is back up and running! The first time back, all the kids were very excited to see us and quickly got their friends together to play and take part in the soccer and Bible lesson. The Pastor I am working with mentioned that this is the highlight of the week for these kids who come from broken homes and rough neighborhoods. It is a great opportunity to share Christ with these kids and teach them some good Christian values for their life as many of them as they grow older get recruited to the local gangs.



So. Cal. Seahorse PDL team - I am currently a reserve player and am very excited about being able to practice with the team at a high level of soccer. This is the highest level I’ve played at and it has been a while since I’ve been in good soccer shape, so my body is definitely feeling it… but I love it! Our first game was May 1st and we’ve started out with two hard-fought wins this season. Before each practice we have been doing sports ministry training (SMT) and it has been a great time to further learn how to use sports as a tool to share the gospel as well get to know the players on a deeper level than just playing together.

The World Cup is starting in less than one month!!! I am extremely excited about this! It only comes every four years! Not only is it the greatest sporting event in the world, the best sport in the world (I am a little bias), played at the highest level, it is also a fantastic opportunity for outreaches. Russ Carr (President of Sports Outreach Institute and my dad’s boss) gave me a copy of an outreach manual they used in the 1994 world cup and I am excited to plan some events during this awesome event. Be sure to watch some of the games! A great game will be USA vs. England on June 12 at 11:30 Pacific time.

It’s been interesting adjusting to life in Los Angeles. Life is very fast paced and there are cars everywhere. Everywhere and all the time! It’s been nice to get up to Santa Barbara a couple times to supplement my income with construction work, but it also serves as a good get away from the concrete jungle of LA. Overall things are going really well.

Please pray for the kids from the clinics that they will be open and attentive to the Bible sessions and for them and their families to get plugged into a local church.

March - Getting familiar/Japanese visit

The month of March blew by and has been very eventful! It has been a month to familiarize myself with the Seahorse organization by attending many of their ministries. I have been able to attend all three of their after school programs, play with the amateur soccer team, practice with their PDL team (Professional Development League), play indoor soccer in a church gym, help with the administration in the office, plan the PDL trip to Mexico this summer, be part of hosting an entire woman’s soccer team from Japan, host players trying out for the PDL team and participate with the planning of this summer‘s soccer camps and fundraisers for the organization. Though there is still a lot more to learn I have a good understanding of the organization and what they believe and a peace that I am in the right place right now.



It has been awesome getting to know the other people involved in the organization and the people that support it. They have been warm and friendly and have made my transition to the giant city of Los Angeles smoother than expected. Paul Gizzi, the director of the Seahorse organization who grew up in Japan, has been fundamental in this. A church friend of Paul’s has allowed me to stay in a room they have in their house which I will share with two more players come May when the PDL soccer season starts up.



March also allowed me to reconnect with friends and family in the area and spend time with my girlfriend who flew out from her native Hawaii to visit! I have also had the opportunity to go to Santa Barbara a few times to work for a friend to supplement my income. I have taken advantage of these quick trips to see (old?) college friends who have decided to live close to our alma mater (Westmont College).
You have encouraged me tremendously by your response and have made it possible for me to contribute to this awesome ministry. I am truly blessed by your friendship and generosity through your prayers, financial support and your encouragement! I can’t thank you enough!



The ministry highlight of the month of March was definitely the visit of the Japanese girls’ soccer team. It was a different experience for me because all of the mission trips I have been a part of, I am always a translator. In this case though, my Español did not get me very far with my entertaining attempts at Japanese.

Paul Gizzi did a great job in recapping the week they spent with us in LA:
“ Vickie & I had the privilege (and hard work) of hosting what I call a “reverse outreach tour” for the Shizuoka Sangyo University Soccer women’s team. It was a unique venture in that Pastor Hasui (our partnering host in Japan) & Ken-chan, a sports minister that came to Christ on a Seahorse outreach 10 years ago came along with 27 girls and coaches. Three of the Seahorse staff (Aaron, Mike & Nathan) were 24/7- “Chaufers” & refs. Besides 4 games against Biola, Vanguard, APU, & Troy HS in 6 days, a BBQ at our home, a tennis experience, visits to Santa Monica Pier, and the Shopping Mall, we were able to bring them to another American cultural experience, “CHURCH & Sunday School”.



Jim Jeffers, a former Biola professor prepared a talk on the Olympics & using Phil. 3: 12-16 presented a wonderful challenge to all of us. The coach was impressed that we would take the time to PRAY for each other’s needs. He was also impressed at the message Jim presented in Sunday School. We were able to present Japanese/English bilingual bibles to each girl so they could follow along with the message. They were quite thankful for this gift.

On the last night we had a “Sayonara Party” where each girl & coach was asked to share a bit about their impressions of California & the USA. What stood out was the expected, “Everything is so BIG, and people are so kind”, but several other things surfaced that were unique. Jim Joseph (himself a missionary kid from Japan) was able to share a dynamic testimony of why we are not just “typical” Americans but how the indwelling of the Holy Spirit makes us different.



The most notable impression was how “open” we are. They did not expect that. Please be praying that the impressions created in these young women’s hearts will lead them to continued pursuit of Christ through Pastor Hasui right there in their home town. The formerly “guarded doors” of their hearts have been flung wide open in this relationship. PTL”

I hope you had a blessed and happy Easter!

Seahorse Soccer Ministry - Why and how

In June of 2009 I participated with a soccer ministry called Missionary Athletes International (MAI) known in Los Angeles as the Southern California Seahorses. They are a mission organization that uses soccer as a tool for sharing the gospel and travel throughout different places in the world. When they went to Ometepec, Mexico last summer I was very impressed by the effectiveness of their outreach in my hometown. Many young kids, teenagers and even adults idolize soccer and good role models that play the game are scarce. Bringing good Christian soccer players to show not only their great footwork, but also display their values, work ethic and most importantly share Jesus through their own testimony, has impacted thousands of people in the region.


They invited me to work with them and after much prayer and contemplation, I accepted very enthusiastically! My mission is to share the good news of the gospel through soccer; my focus will be with the Mexico and other international outreach projects, inner city after school programs, coaching clinics and camps, playing with their PDL (semi-professional) soccer team and provide training to develop good athletes with Christian values on and off the field. To learn more about the organization please visit www.seahorsesoccer.com.

You can be involved! Whether through prayer, equipment donation, financial giving, participating yourself or many other ways, you can partner with me and make a difference. Please contact me via email at nate.wood@seahorsesoccer.com.

Dios les Bendiga!