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!