How soccer saves lives in Medellín

This week has been full of hard work, brushing up on my Spanish and experiencing first hand how God has touched and transformed the lives of so many through soccer.

The first day we met all of the coaches in a small room for praise and worship. One guy was on the keyboard at the front of the room leading the songs. I couldn’t really sing along since the words were in Spanish and I hadn’t heard them before. But I understood what they were saying, and it was so beautiful. At one point I just closed my eyes and listened to the group singing praise all harmoniously in Spanish. So surreal.

That afternoon we got started on the project we’ve worked on all week, which is building sidewalks and prepping the landscape for sodding. They are almost finished building a third soccer field on the property. After an afternoon of hard work we played a soccer game with all of the coaches.

Mind you, I haven’t played a soccer game in ages, let alone against a group of coaches who eat, breathe and live soccer every day of their lives. The beautiful thing was that despite any language barriers, soccer was something we all bonded over and understood without words.

That evening the program director broke us into groups to have dinner at some of the coaches homes. I was blessed enough to spend time with Alex, a long-time coach of Cosdecol (the Spanish name of the sports club). We sat around the couch of his living room with his entire family and he shared his story with us of how he became a coach.

He started working for his father, who is the leader of one of the biggest drug cartels of Medellin, at a very young age. As he was growing up and helping his father with violence, he was also playing soccer all the time. For two years his friend encouraged him to join this Christian soccer team. The first day that he went –he was 17 years old at the time — he saw the coach had a bible in his hand. He was about to leave before it even began and the coach encouraged him to just stay for the message before soccer began. After hearing John 3:16 that afternoon he began to have a change of heart and continued coming back to the practices. By 20 years old he told his father he no longer would work for him. His dad kicked him out of the house and sent his men after him to kill him. After two years of battling his father, he was finally left alone and started a family. He became a coach to save the lives of other kids who have also been involved in the drugs and gangs of the city. In recent years, he met again with his father — who to this day is still in charge of the cartel — and they began to build their relationship again. Now in some strange way, the Cosdecol Christian sports club has an invisible hand from the cartel protecting them.

Alex’s story is one of the many from coaches here that have turned their life to Christ. I am awe inspired by the good works that are happening here and so blessed to meet these people who are doing amazing things in this community. Soccer really is changing and saving lives and it’s a beautiful thing to see. What’s simply just a sport to one country can be hope, life and a future for another.

What soccer, Medellín and God all have in common

I was scurrying into church a few months back when the usher pressed a bulletin into my hands as we hurried to find a seat as service began. I usually never look twice at the bulletin, but that day I decided to take a glance at it. I saw the words “Soccer” and “Colombia” — both of which caught my attention. There was a information session happening right at that very moment in another room about a week-long mission trip to Medellín in July. First of all, shout out to God for putting me at the right place at the right time and the holy spirit for thrusting my eyes upon this particular bulletin. I shuffled out of my seat and made my decision right then and there.

I’ve never been to South America before, heck… I’ve never done a mission trip before! My heart was set on this trip and nothing was going to stop me. Of course not everyone was on board with the idea of me traveling in the middle of the summer to a continent that’s known for the widely-spread Zika virus striking fear into anyone traveling to the South American region. But hey, I did my research, no big deal!

I got up at 4:45am as I finalized my packing and headed out the door for an early indirect flight. The mission director picked us all up from our homes in a van that his wife was kind enough to drop us off in. We checked in and got our boarding passes when I realized… I left my phone in the car! But it was already too late and there was no way of getting it back in time for our flight. I’ve never been without my phone for a day, let alone an entire week. And to be without a mode of communication in a foreign Spanish-speaking country… I mean, I guess it’s all part of the adventure, right?

I’ve already fallen in love with the beauty of the culture and the city. The food, the drinks (Colombiana soft drink is amazing!) and even the crazy traffic. Side note on that: I thought we were going to get into like 5 car accidents today because no one uses blinkers, everyone weaves through traffic and motorcyclists look like they’re coming straight at you.  We stopped at Nutibara Hill, where you can see the entire city. It’s a park with tons of local vendors selling handmade Colombian trinkets, and kids are flying kites high in the breeze-stricken sky.  There was a little square in the middle of it surrounded by old architecture and a quaint little Catholic Chapel.

The sun sets rather early here, at 6:30 p.m. As the sun began to set we headed to Bello — a small town just north of Medellín– where the Christian Sports Union Club is situated. The streets of Bello faintly remind me of the small alley ways in Florence. The nightlife scene here is so vibrant! And everyone was outside eating a drinking as they watched the Portugal vs. France soccer match.

Tomorrow we start meeting the coaches that mentor these kids. We will be working on the grounds as the organization prepares to put in another soccer field further up the mountain. I’m so excited for a week full of speaking Spanish, playing soccer and doing God’s work!