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Special Mission Trip: Upward Soccer - Mexico
Short-Term Trip Report by Brice Early | View Photo Gallery
Twelve high schoolers and adults went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, August 10-15, to help start an Upward Soccer league. Our church has been setting the foundation to start this ministry for over one year. This trip was to begin the fruit of that labor. Not only did we work with getting the league set up, evaluations, etc. but we also worked at the mission, next to the dump.
The Christian school we are helping to build is almost ready for the 2nd floor and we helped to finish walls and jack up the roof to prepare for the next floor. In the afternoons and evenings we evaluated the children on their soccer skills to help divide the teams up evenly. When we arrived we had about 45 children signed up to play and when we left we had 132! Praise God!
The church we partner with in Puerto Vallarta runs about 70, so this is a huge victory! It would be like our church having 3,000 in our soccer league. Imagine the volunteers, commitment and organization this is calling for on the part of these believers.
God was working ahead of us, as He always does. A computer programmer/engineer and his wife took off in a boat from San Diego for a 2 to 3 year journey and stopped in Puerto Vallarta. God led them to the church we are working with and they are serving there to help in whatever way they can. They will be running the computer program and communications of Upward for this first season as well as training people in the church to take it over when they leave! Praise God! The soccer fields we are using are privately owned, and the owner is a believer. They are redoing the fields and when they do so it will leave a huge cement wall that needs painting. That wall has been given to Upward if we paint it, so that we can use it as a giant billboard to share what Jesus is doing! Imagine what next years league will be like.
Our team did incredibly under very hot and long days! They looked for needs and met them. What a privilege it is to be a part of God’s work and to help start a legacy in this community, church, and Upward organization that will touch and transform the lives of thousands over the next weeks, months, and years! Please take a moment to pray for the church, league, players, and coaches in Puerto Vallarta!
Please take a moment to pray for our next mission team that will be going down this October to work at the mission as well as be there for the first two weeks of Upward Games. Please take a moment to praise God for being a part of a church that is willing to GO and SHARE and make a difference in the world in which we live!
