Archive for month: April, 2019

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Nashville SC Highlights Chaplain Work

It’s rare — and as chaplains, we much prefer to be behind the scenes and supporting the cast. But this recent article gives a little insight into the work that a chaplain does with a soccer team. Billy Cerveny has been serving Nashville SC for a little over a year and this article only gives a glimpse of some of his work.

https://www.nashvillesc.com/news_article/show/1014159

If you would like to personally support Billy and his chaplaincy and pastoral work, check out Redbird.

To support the Soccer Chaplains United’s chaplaincy work and development in Nashville and other parts of Tennessee, select the Chaplaincy fund from PushPay. Your donations help to offset the coaching and development work for chaplains across the various levels of soccer.

Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and we depend upon the financial support of our partners to carry out our work of developing chaplaincy, counseling, and community service across all levels of soccer. Your support allows us to offer to serve without reservation. Please consider making a contribution today to help us continue growing our work. Click the PushPay logo below or text soccerchaplains to 77977 to make a secure electronic donation. You can also mail a donation to Soccer Chaplains United, PO Box 102081 Denver, CO 80250.

Proposal(s) Accepted!

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I am excited to announce that Soccer Chaplains United has had two proposals accepted for presentation at the Second Global Congress on Sport and Christianity. The congress, taking place at Calvin College later this year, will feature speakers, writers, practitioners, academics, and more that are constantly wrestling with issue of faith, life, and sport.

I had the privilege of presenting at the Inaugural Congress in 2016 in York, England. It was a challenging and encouraging time all in the same breath. Theologians and academics mixing with sports ministry practitioners — for me, there was some new thinking and challenges around how I understand faith and sport. I also did my part, challenging a few academics into considerations that, as a chaplain, I’ve had to work out in the field and arena of sport.

My friend and colleague Rev Bob Mayo (chaplain for QPR and vicar at Shepherd’s Bush) pose whilst having a coffee on the ancient fortress walls in York at the Inaugural Global Congress on Christianity and Sport.

This year, the committee for the congress has accepted two proposals from Soccer Chaplains United. I submitted one on a bilabial foundation for chaplaincy in sport. Essentially, chaplains (and those in sport) often default to particular passages fo scripture to “make a case” for serving in the sport arena (and other areas as well). My hope is to encourage chaplains to go further back into scripture for a foundational basis for the work that we do outside the walls of the church building.

The second proposal involves myself and our Director of Counseling Brooke Ewert. We will be tackling the issue of chaplaincy and counseling in sport. It is a difficult integration and Brooke and I will be doing a panel presentation to discuss how Soccer Chaplains United has worked to bring the work of the chaplain and the work of the counselor into better alignment.

Brooke has been an amazing addition and our sights are set on Michigan in October

Some of the featured keynote speakers include Tim Tebow, Miroslav Volf, Gary Thomas and more…

A few of the keynote speakers lined up for this year’s congress

If you would like to sponsor or help offset the cost of getting to Michigan, we would love your support. Pray for us as we share with others working in the field of sport and as we seek to learn and to grow Soccer Chaplains United.

Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and we depend upon the financial support of our partners to carry out our work of developing chaplaincy, counseling, and community service across all levels of soccer. Your support allows us to grow in our skill, education, and service to others. Please consider making a contribution today to help us continue growing our work. Click the PushPay logo below or text soccerchaplains to 77977 to make a secure electronic donation. You can also mail a donation to Soccer Chaplains United, PO Box 102081 Denver, CO 80250.

Leaving for Las Vegas

Recently, one of our chaplains reached out to me via text:

Greg, our Memphis chaplain recently texted me…

One of the key characteristics about soccer is that there is a very transient population — whether athletes, coaches, or staff — there is a nearly nomadic lifestyle that each one takes as they ply their trade in this industry. And at the USL—Championship level, this movement is more frequent. Contracts are usually only for one season — 8-months. On a typically low wage ($500-$3/4k, sometimes slightly higher). There is a lot of movement as everyone is looking for an opportunity to advance and climb higher.

Sometimes, the decisions are out of one’s hands — there is a willing (and unwilling) surrender to the forces and nature of the game. A phone call. A trade. A waiver or cut. A coach decides to go in a different direction. A GM is looking to offload a salary so that they can get another player. The athletes, especially at the lower levels, are subject to the winds and whims of the teams. Sometimes they have a say. Sometimes they get an opportunity to play where they hope or desire. Many times they do not.

The rest of Greg and my exchange…

It can be hard for chaplains — but we, too, must surrender to the sovereignty of God. We must trust that even when we have poured hours of life and love into someone that God is greater and wiser and loves them more than we could ever hope or imagine.

And Greg is right — we need donors and supporters to get behind us and help us to find additional chaplains with other cities and teams. Currently, the USL–Championship League (2nd division) has 11 vacancies. 11 teams without a chaplain. Las Vegas is one.

It can cost upwards of $7000 to do the development and work to find a chaplain that is suitable and mutually acceptable to both the soccer club and Soccer Chaplains United. We also work with other ministry groups like Athletes in Action, CRU (formerly Campus Crusade), Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and others; however, chaplain placement is often not as primary a focus for these ministry groups as it is for Soccer Chaplains United. Sometimes a staffer within a different ministry group might be asked whether they have time to add in the chaplaincy duties into the work they are already doing with a local campus ministry or high school sports team.

The ongoing costs, when a chaplain is discovered and developed can include things like professional liability insurance and other tools and resources to help equip that chaplain to serve the team — including one-on-one coaching and collaboration with other chaplains in soccer.

When you support Soccer Chaplains United — you enable us to conduct searches and reach out to clubs and teams with an offer to look for chaplain candidates to serve their people. Your financial and prayer support allows us to educate teams on how a chaplain might serve and to offer candidates for them to consider as well as ongoing coaching and education and development.

Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and we depend upon the financial support of our partners to carry out our work of developing chaplaincy, counseling, and community service across all levels of soccer. Your support allows us to offer to serve without reservation. Please consider making a contribution today to help us continue growing our work. Click the PushPay logo below or text soccerchaplains to 77977 to make a secure electronic donation. You can also mail a donation to Soccer Chaplains United, PO Box 102081 Denver, CO 80250.

Vittles in the Valley

In the lower divisions of professional soccer in the United States, there is a wide disparity of income. There is no minimum salary and athletes below MLS are not represented by a union, at this time. Athletes in the USL – Championship can make as much as $2,000-3,000/month for an eight-month contract or sometimes as little as $500/month. Often times, teams will also work out a housing arrangement to offer housing for the athletes as well.

So, when a chaplain at the USL levels offers to buy a meal for a player or coach or staff member — it means a lot. Recently, Chaplain Isidro Piña shared about an opportunity that he and his church had to serve the Rio Grande Valley Toros FC players.

RGV FC Toros came to my church for lunch prepared by some of the members of my congregation. We had a great time. I got to talk to some of them and got to know them better since they have new players. It also helped them see what I do. 

Isidro Piña, chaplain Rio Grande Valley Toros FC
Isidro (gray top, right) prays over the team and church members before the meal

For a club like RGV Toros FC, few athletes will ever call McAllen, TX home. Occasionally, an athlete might come out of the community in working toward ‘making it,’ but in general RGV will be a stop over — with coaches and athletes here for a while on their way to another team or another place. It can be here, though, that a chaplain and a church and a community can have a profound impact on a young person’s life. I still remember Isidro’s first impression when he met the players for the first time,

I walked in and thought, ‘Where are the players? These are all kids…’

Isidro Piña, on his first time meeting the team

Much of the work at the USL level involves looking after simple basic needs — a meal, housing, an ESL (English as Second Language) class, a ride home from the airport or hospital, a phone call to family letting them know their son is ok after surgery. And, as pastor of a local church, the opportunity as chaplain serving the team means an opportunity to mobilize the church to serve and support, as well.

RGV players pose with the church members who cooked a meal for the team

We have plans of having a Bible study. Some players asked for cooking classes. Others asked for an opportunity to work with low-income children. This is a good start. Our cook said he’s willing to host a cooking class. One of the players wants to do an English Bible study and I will lead the Spanish one. These are plans. Let’s pray they come to pass 

Isidro Piña, on what the future with RGV may hold

When you support Soccer Chaplains United — you enable us to serve the young people and the coaches and the support staff around them. Your financial and prayer support allows us to serve — a basic need of giving a meal or a deeper need of helping to provide spiritual food.

Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and depends upon the financial support of our partners to carry out our work of developing chaplaincy, counseling, and community service across all levels of soccer. Please consider making a contribution today to help us continue growing our work. Click the PushPay logo below or text soccerchaplains to 77977 to make a secure electronic donation. You can also mail a donation to Soccer Chaplains United, PO Box 102081 Denver, CO 80250.

Not Your Usual Community Outreach

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Imagine getting the first bit of news: Sorry, we won’t be offering you a contract for the next season.. It’s okay. You’re young — well, late twenties in professional soccer isn’t exactly young, but you’ve still got some miles in the legs. But then the second bit of news follows, too closely: Sorry, your spouse has cancer. Pressures on. What to do. Insurance is ending as the contract expires on Dec 31. Next season, what team will take you on? How do you get a contract when your spouse needs help and support? And, oh by the way, your usual bills are still coming due — rent, utilities, and so on and so on. So what do you do? Where do you turn? Where do you go?

Unfortunately, this story is common in professional sport and this story in particular happened last year to a former player with the Rapids. The result? A flight back home — only what they could carry. Sell it all — the apartment furnishings, everything. Donate the rest. New chapter beginning. Hospitals and doctors and diagnoses are the new concern. Insurance. Support. GoFund Me pages. Because you’re never ready for cancer.

I have seen many times, the athletes and coaches that find themselves in the churn of the sport. The sport itself is nomadic. It is a transient lifestyle. There is little stability. There is less security. Sometimes you end up leaving in the middle of the night. Sometimes you leave behind a spouse and children to pack up the house and move to a new city, a different country. Sometimes you’re not paid — depending on the integrity of the club, or the league, or the national federation. Sometimes the insurance ends when the contract ends.

As a chaplain, we are called to help “cover” people that are vulnerable. We are called to help people pick up the broken pieces and shattered dreams of their lives and begin to piece it back together again, somehow, with God’s help. And one of the ways is by reminding people who they are and how much they are loved.

An assortment of boxes — left overs from someone’s story in Colorado heading back home

Well, I mentioned that this was a community project. But of a different type. Sending some personal items back to the player from the story above. For me, it’s about not having to lose “everything” — especially, memories and personal things left behind in the heat of the moment and the urgency of flight. It’s about trying to restore something that has been lost. It’s about reminding people that they are loved and held, not by us, but by God.

Thank you for your support of Soccer Chaplains United. When you give, a portion of your gift automatically goes to help needs within the soccer community. You can give specifically to help cover our costs by making a gift through PushPay — simply select Community from the selectable funds. Your financial gift helps us purchase new soccer equipment, sponsor individuals or organizations, and to cover associated costs of providing Bibles, soccer equipment, and other outreach tools locally and around the world.

Community Request from Sadaya International

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Sadaya International may not be a familiar name, but its founders are familiar to Soccer Chaplains United. Thomas and Jamie Fahn, moved to Liberia last year (2018) and along with the move, L.I.F.E. (Liberian Institute For Empowerment) became Sadaya International. Sadaya translated means — “God’s grace” in the Goala dialect in Liberia.

Sadaya means “God’s grace”

Sadaya International has several programs and among them is the Sadaya Football Academy. Through football (soccer), Sadaya Football Academy seeks to use the power of sports to inspire, motivate, and encourage children and youth to stay out of trouble and focus their attention on things that will enable them to be successful. Sadaya recognizes that not all players will go on to earn a living from playing sports; therefore, the academy looks to provide other opportunities for players to get quality college preparatory education while learning their football skills. The academy’s youth sports program is for players (boys and girls) ages 6 through 19, and is designed to provide players with opportunities to learn technical and tactical skills that will enable them improve their soccer skills. As the players grow and improve, they are moved through the next age groups where they receive coaching tailored to their age and abilities. The final step of the process comes when they graduate from the U-19 team, where they are usually invited to join our premier team (Sadaya United) in Monrovia. 

The young boys from Sadaya Football Academy’s U-8 soccer team pose for a picture last year

Thomas shared that through last year’s generous donations, they have been able to successfully run the football academy.  They have been able to provide cleats to some of the players during training and games and the water coolers are being used to keep players hydrated during training and games in the oppressive 100-degree heat! T-shirts are being used for children in the scrimmages and games.

Sadaya’s U-12 Boys lineup for a drill

The needs here are tremendous. The number of players we expected to begin our academy program with has tripled, and parents are asking us on a daily basis to bring their kids to our soccer program…They are very passionate about the game because it provides them hope and happiness.  Born and raised in Liberia, I can truly identify with that feeling.  These kids come to practice every day with old beat-up shoes and some even come barefooted.  All they want to do is play soccer.

Thomas Fahn

In a recent Facebook Messenger call, Thomas shared with me that the biggest needs right now are for balls and cleats. The field conditions are so difficult that often, these items, are ruined or destroyed after just a short time. Additionally, many of the families are poor and cannot afford the soccer equipment.

One World Balls (blue) complement the typical soccer ball and usually last much longer than traditional soccer balls which easily deflate with the harsh field conditions.

Soccer Chaplains United’s community project will look to supply cleats and balls for Sadaya Football Academy. Some of the logistical considerations include the time and cost of shipping items to Liberia — with the cheapest way usually via container.

Boys in the football academy stay hydrated with a water cooler from last year’s request

Remember, when you support Soccer Chaplains United a portion of your gift automatically goes to help projects and requests like this one for Sadaya International. You can give specifically to help cover our costs by making a gift through PushPay — simply select Community from the selectable funds. Your financial gift helps us purchase new soccer equipment, sponsor individuals or organizations, and to cover associated costs of providing Bibles, soccer equipment, and other outreach tools locally and around the world!

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