Saying "See you later" to the Seahorses

I’ve really enjoyed being part of the Seahorse Soccer Ministries; it has been a huge blessing to be part of this team! I love Jesus and I love soccer so it has been a great fit! As our soccer filled summer is coming to an end, I’ve been praying a lot about whether or not I should continue to work with this ministry full time.
After a lot of prayer and talking with friends and family, I’ve decided to be involved with the Seahorses on a volunteer basis only. My plan is to volunteer by helping with their website and web development and I would like lead their international mission trips during the summers. But, I will no longer be on full time staff and living in Orange County year round.

What does this mean for you? I hope that you will continue to keep me in your prayers, but financially, the last month I will need full time support will be in August. Amidst the craziness in summer season with practice, clinics, games, and preparing to lead our July Mexico tour, my focus was out on the field and not necessarily in the office. I was unable to make time to send out support letters for our Mexico trip in early July. If you would still like to donate money for that, I will still gladly accept it since I went on “credit” =)


So, what’s the next step? Well, although I’m finishing up with Missionary Athletes International as a full time missionary, I am not quite planning on settling down yet. A friend I’ve met through the Seahorses and I have discussing plans to travel through Central and South America. I’ve had the travel bug for a while but haven’t wanted to go alone and travel just to travel. Cyrus and I have discussed taking a few months to and travel through Central and South America. The plan is not just to travel, but also to visit and encourage missionaries and use soccer and the sports ministry we’ve been learning to help their ministries. It has been exciting to start planning this because I’ve contacted many old family friends (my parents have been missionaries in Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and Colombia) and it looks like it will be an amazing opportunity to put into practice the sports ministry I’ve been learning with my fellow Latinos! I will keep you all posted on how this trip plays out, but I am planning on going back to Santa Barbara and working for a few months to save up some money for the trip (unless any of you want to hire a good Mexican worker! =)). I’m really blessed because not only is my girlfriend also planning on moving to Santa Barbara, but she and my family have been very supportive of me about this trip.


I can’t thank each of you enough for your continual prayer and financial support! Your encouragement has kept me going when I’ve been down and sparked some energy when I was all out of it! I am so blessed that you agreed to this “partnership.”The time I’ve been a part MAI has changed my life and strengthened my faith and I pray that I’ve been a good conduit to share the gospel with others throughout it as well. God bless each and every one of you who have been with me throughout this “season.” Please stay in touch!

Saludos and blessings,
Nate

Summer blast!

Summer is the busiest time for the Seahorses and my favorite! With our camps, clinics, tours and the pdl team the fun work doesn’t seem to end! The update is a little long, but well worth it and there's lots of pictures! =)


CAMPS: We are well underway with our third camp of the summer! Our coaches are all Christians and mostly players that are on the semi-pro team. Not only are these camps a blast, we play really fun soccer games and scrimmage each other during our “world cup” time, but we get to spend time with the kids one on one sharing Bible stories and Christian values. This year the theme is “Breaking Free” and we go throughout the week telling stories about breaking free from lies to truth or from blame to responsibility. The main purpose of these camps is to share the gospel with these kids and the last day we learn about breaking free from temporary to eternal. Please continue to pray for this great part of our ministry, we are in the middle of camp this week and we have two more this summer.

MEXICO TOUR: I got to help lead our mission trip with the PDL team to Mexico! We jumped across the border to Rosarito and worked with the Godwin family that has been called to this very difficult area in Mexico. The trip was fantastic! In the mornings we held soccer clinics in a very needy area. After our clinics we shared some of our own stories and how our lives were changed by Jesus and that that was the reason we came to be with them!

In the evenings we played our second annual tournament at an indoor soccer field. We ended up winning the tournament and afterwards shared over some tacos and hung out and with the other teams and referees. I had lived there for two years right after college (’06 -’08) and played a lot of soccer. I formed some relationships with some of the guys there and one of them was a referee, Edgar. It has been almost 4 years since I have known him and because he’s noticed something “different” about our team and my friendship with him during the time I lived there, he is interested in learning more about the Bible and Jesus. The Godwin’s are planning to start a Bible study with him and other players near the field! PTL!

I’m sure you’ve heard that is it dangerous in Mexico right now, well this is one of the rougher areas. To give you an idea about how things are there, I found out that one of the guys I played with a few years ago, a police man, was gunned down by drug dealers a couple months ago just outside the place we held our tournament this year. These kinds of things are not an anomaly in this area. Not only is it a very violent area right now with drug cartels battling over control of the traffic to the US, but also the people that live in this area are very spiritually dry. A lot of the Americans that have moved to this area were often fleeing from the US and want nothing to do with church or Jesus. Please keep the Godwin’s in your prayers as they continue ministering to the people of Rosarito, a change of heart will change Rosarito!

Clinics: I’ve been attending a church in Irvine called Pathways Church. A couple weeks ago we got to partner and hold a soccer clinic in Santa Ana (a lower income Latino community in Orange County). I got the opportunity this last weekend to share during the service about this great outreach clinic. We played some fun games with the kids and then us coaches shared about Jesus being our best friend with the kids. Soccer is such a great way to immediately connect with kids and a conduit to share Christ with these beautiful kids who need good role models. We started with about 30 kids and ended up having over 100 kids! It was awesome! We’ve also been a part of various other outreaches all over the LA area and continuing our weekly clinics here in La Mirada (picture is of us acting as referees in a tournament for kids in a lower income area).



The summer is winding down and I’ve finally had a couple days to be able to sit down and get out an email. It is crazy how fast it has been flying by. I’ll be sending out another email shortly with some info about my future plans, but I wanted to make sure to get you an update on the summer! Thanks for your prayers and support!

Here comes the summer!

Dear friends and family!
I have some major recapping to do! We were reminded this month about the values our organization tries to live out: Love, Relationships, Faith, Submission and Transformation. These words sound really good, especially as Christians, but how do they transfer practically into what we do?

After school programs/Love: I’ve enjoyed heading up the after school clinics and getting to know some of the kids in La Mirada. Each week we share a theme, and give them an example of someone who demonstrates that theme best. Although we are not allowed to openly share our Christian faith since we are partnering with the city, typically the examples we use are Christian men and women. In the picture we were learning about “determination” and used Bethany Hamilton who is an outspoken Christian (she is a pro surfer who lost her arm to a shark attack and continues surfing! A movie just came out about her – Soul Surfer.) We pray that by showing up each week and spending time with these kids, that they will feel loved and realize they are special.


Amateur team/Relationships: One thing I have really enjoyed is playing with our men’s league team. It has been awesome getting to know a lot of the guys on the team and having a Bible study with them. We have gone through a lot of different topics and had great discussions on how we can put our “faith on the field”. One topic that I remember well was gamesmanship or not quite breaking rules, but doing things that are “gray”. In soccer terms, it would be making a tactical foul, or wasting time if you’re ahead in the score. We not only discuss how these are situations that may present themselves on the field, but also how we can apply these things to our daily lives, family and jobs. This was one particularly great discussion among many that we’ve had throughout the year. We’ve had a good season and this past weekend, confirmed that we won the whole league!! Although that was one of our goals for the season and we are hoping to get the sportsmanship award also.


PDL/Faith: As the men’s amateur team is winding down, the PDL season is starting up! These past few months have been a lot of getting ready for the PDL season that starts the middle of May (this team is a lot more competitive). I’ve not only been getting things ready behind the scenes, but I have been getting in shape lifting weights in my garage and running (as my knee permits). It is a good change of pace from the office and it’s been fun to see and feel results. By faith we have decided to continue the PDL ministry (it operates as a deficit) and this year there has been a change in roles in administration of this semi-pro team. We feel the PDL aspect of our ministry provides a higher profile platform to reach players and fans with our testimony. We had a special PDL opener this year, where our sister team , the Charlotte Eagles, came out to compete at the same venue as us in a double-header home game. It was great spending time with them. During our clinic and fellowship dinner that we shared, it was evident that our faith is the main reason why we continue with these teams. After a session of worship, some of the Charlotte players shared their personal stories of how playing previously with the Seahorses in their made an impact on their spiritual lives.




Tour/Submission: This year has been difficult recruiiting for our tours. The girls tour that is going to Japan has encountered hardships as some girls are worried about the situation in Japan while others say this is the reason they have to go this year. The tour is still a “go” as they will return to southern Japan and continue the work there. Please keep them in your prayers. The Ukraine trip that I’ve been working hard at recruiting for had to be cancelled. Due to cost and schedules it was hard recruiting players for it. We then had an opportunity to go to Costa Rica (I was very excited about this, a place where I could use my Español!) but in the end had to make a decision to hold off on any boys’ youth tours this summer. It was a tough decision but I believe we did everything we could and submitted the tour to God’s hands. I will however participate in thetour that I will be returning to Baja with the PDL players over the summer.



Web development/Transformation: I’ve continued to head up maintaining the website and establising an online presence with the organization. Although it’s a lot of hours staring at a computer, I do enjoy the challenge and learning new things. It is always a lot more work than one thinks, but it can be fun. I’ve taken over the newsletter, social media, and maintaining the website. (You can join our mailing list, like on facebook, or follow us on twitter) Ok. Maybe website transformation isn’t exactly what they had in mind as a value, but in the literal sense our online presence has been transformed! =)

Throughout everything, God is working! Of course these five values cross over into other areas. It is awesome to see that our efforts are being blessed and that God is transforming lives. I am very excited about this summer and am looking forward to our camps, PDL team, after school programs, PDL tour and more! After the summer I’ve decided that I’ll be working with the Seahorses as part time/volunteer basis and hopefully being a part of their tours in the future. As you can imagine, trying to work on full time support in this financial climate has been pretty difficult. I’ve had the opportunity to do some side work coaching and doing some electrical work which has been great, but those are not available all the time. Over the summer I will be very involved with the seahorses, so if you would like to still make a donation I would be very grateful. Thank you for making a difference in my life and allowing me to invest my life in this great ministry. Your prayers, support and encouragement are what fuel me in times when I get down and am low energy. God Bless!

Christmas and a new year!

Hola everyone! Sorry for the blog hiatus. Over Christmas time I went home to Ometepec for about a month and it has taken me a while since I’ve been back to sit down and write. But I wanted to share a bit of what has been going on. While I was in Mexico I got to help out my family with the Christian youth camp we’ve been running for the past 13 years. It was great to be there and spend time with my family and support the ministry they are doing in Southern Mexico! (Left: Family picture, bottom left: bro Andy tearing up the wheelbarrow race, bottom right: daily camp devotions)





One of the things I thought was really cool was that the two guys on the right (Luis and Jonathan) in the picture on my prayer card (also in my first blog post), came to the camp for the second year in a row. Every year I go back home, I play soccer in the evenings at the local “deportivo.” I met Luis and Jonathan there playing soccer a few years ago, and last year I invited them to come to the camp where we could have more intentional time sharing Jesus and digging into the word. They were very excited about going this second time and have started to grow in their relationships with the Lord. God works in amazing ways. It’s so cool and encouraging to see. I can really feel your prayers!


Back in LA I’m continuing to do a lot of the same things for the Seahorses (after school clinics, amateur team, web development, tour preparation, PDL preparation, etc), although my time is beginning to be split up differently. Right now my focus is primarily on recruiting for the outreach tour I will be leading this summer to Ukraine. It will be a tour for boys ages 15-23 so if you know of anyone who loves Jesus and likes soccer, I would love to talk to them!


I continue to enjoy working with the Amateur soccer team. We are contenders for 1st place thanks to some hard fought victories and rainouts! I wanted to share a quick story about our amateur team. As a Christian soccer team our goal is to obviously be a good testimony on and off the field and show good sportsmanship. We want to go even beyond that and were thinking of ways we could tangibly connect with the players from the other teams. So at the end of each game, win or lose, we bring the other team water and try to chat with them for a bit. One recent game, we forgot to bring water for the other team. Well, the other team walked over to our bench and brought us water! They told us that they remembered that we always brought them water, so they wanted to return the favor. God is humbling sometimes and encouraging (we Are making an impact with other teams!). I will be leading a weekend outreach trip with this team to Rosarito, Mexico next weekend, so please keep us in your prayers.

I started working with the Seahorses one year ago and it’s gone by fast! Looking back at the year I’ve seen how God has stretched me in different areas of my life and I love being a part of this organization. I am looking forward to summer and being a part of the PDL team and the camp staff, as well as leading the Ukraine tour. As always, your prayers are much appreciated. Thank you for a year of partnering with me!