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!