General news and information about Soccer Chaplains United including newly formed partnerships, news on the different teams and communities being served, and upcoming events for donors, partners, and communities.
The United States Soccer Federation announced last week, that it will cease operations and management of the Development Academy (DA). The announcement comes as a bit of shock to some, a bit of cynicism to others, and a lot of criticism. The USSF noted that the COVID—19 pandemic was the cause of shuttering the DA program.
So what does this mean for Soccer Chaplains United and Rubèn Rodríguez, who serves as chaplain to the Colorado Rapids DA?
So likely we will see MLS DA teams remain as well as the club teams that have the finical wherewithal to play in a newly formed league. MLS will likely take over the scheduling and management of their DA teams, more is to come on this front.
For Soccer Chaplains United it means that we will continue to seek to develop out DA chaplains — though the teams that were once part of the DA may choose to align themselves with a different elite league or programs. Whether those teams are part of local youth clubs, United Soccer League (USL) teams, or MLS organizations.
We are trying to understand all the changes as they occur during this critical time. Stay tuned.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200415_DA_TW_Header.png5001500Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2020-04-23 13:00:512020-04-23 12:54:26Changes in U.S. Soccer
I am pleased to announce that Soccer Chaplains United will be part of the Denver Prays time happening this upcoming weekend. The Denver Prays movement is a 3-Day Christian virtual prayer meeting stretching from Friday, April 24, 12:01 AM to Sunday, April 26 Midnight. The aim is to pray for the city of Denver during the COVID-19 pandemic and just as the city gets set to loosen its social distancing and shelter-in-place restrictions. You can go to denverprays.com to learn more or to sign up.
Rubèn will lead a prayer hour at 1:00 pm (Mountain) this Sunday.
Pastor Rubèn Rodríguez will be leading a Zoom prayer time on Sunday, April 26 at 1:00 pm Mountain. His prayer topic is specifically for Denver Youth, a fitting subject given his many years as a youth pastor and currently as the Colorado Rapids Development Academy chaplain.
I will be leading a Zoom prayer time on Sunday, April 26 at 2:00 pmMountain in consideration of a typical sports event kickoff time. If you are someone in sport who has been effected by the current global pandemic.
I will be leading a prayer hour at 2:00 pm (Mountain) on Sunday.
I will be leading this prayer hour for those in the sport industry (from youth to professional) that have been effected by the Coronavirus pandemic. Many have certainly considered that there are no sports going on, but we may not have thought of the different people and their lives impacted economically through this time.
Perhaps the first image that comes to mind is the multi-million dollar athlete or owner — they should be fine financially, right? But we forget about the part-time stadium guard who is retired and needs the extra income to make ends meet. We forget about the local businesses near the stadiums that depend on heavy traffic flows to help their monthly revenues. We forget about the front-office and ticket sales staff who are facing furlough, lay-offs, and firings because they don’t have events that they are selling, promoting, or working. We forget about the Olympic athlete and the collegiate athletes — whose scholarships, livelihood, and other parts of their lives have been impacted.
In addition, the realities of the income of sport also include those that play at lower levels. The median salary of an athlete in Major League Soccer is $179,000 and much of the league’s athletes make less than $100k. If you go into the second division of soccer (USL-Championship) and lower you will find players making as little as $500-$1000/ month for an 8-month contract. And their subsidized income from soccer camps and clinics aren’t happening right now because of social distancing regulations.
Please consider joining in to pray with us during this time. We encourage you to join (go to denverprays.com) to sign up for either hour, or to look at some of the other hours and subjects for prayer.
Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 developing chaplaincy, counseling, and community service across all levels of soccer.
Dear friends, I wanted to write and personally make an appeal to you. I know that we are facing much uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic and I am thankful for the majority of our donors who have remained faithful in their giving; however, we have seen some decline from last year and we know that this year will be challenging in terms of fundraising and generosity.
Yesterday, I wrote about the ongoing chaplaincy work for Soccer Chaplains United and the truth is we are busier in ministry as we seek to serve those we’ve been called to — from the college athlete who may not have a soccer program next year to the part-time stadium and concessions personnel who have had to go in search of other work to subsidize their income to the staff of the soccer teams and organizations that have been laid-off or furloughed.
Added to this is the challenge that we’ve not been able to go out and meet new donors or share our vision personally with partners who might help us continue to serve and grow our ministry work.
Will you consider an extra gift or extra expression of generosity?
— Rev Brad
I’d like to ask you, if you’ve received a stimulus check from the government — and if your needs were already being met, will you consider an extra gift or extra expression of generosity? Of course, please consider giving to your local church first, but if you feel so led, will you consider giving to help Soccer Chaplains United? Your gift will help sustain our ministry and work through this time and the time to come as we serve many in the sport of soccer who are facing devastating times and as we look to continue to develop chaplaincy and counseling resources for so many for whom soccer is their vocation and livelihood.
You can give a safe, secure, electronic, tax-deductible gift via PushPay by clicking the button below or by texting soccerchaplains to 77977. You can also mail a donation to Soccer Chaplains United, PO Box 102081, Denver, CO 80250.
Thank you for your consideration and your generosity during this time.
Hey everyone, well, we finally received word from both Apple and Google Stores today that our new app has been approved and is now available for download at both places for Apple and Android devices.
The app is now available in the Apple App and Google Play stores.
The new app name is SoccrChapUtd to better reflect our name. You can also search by using Soccer Chaplains United. The app redesign has also hopefully come out with a simplified way for people to connect with Soccer Chaplains United in a variety of ways — whether you are an athlete, coach, you work in soccer, or are interested in donating, partnering or just learning more about us.
If you already have our old app — you will need to go to the app store of your particular device and download/re-install the new version.
You can download the app here (links to PushPay – our partner).
You can also download the app by texting: Soccerchaplains app to 77977.
Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and we are dependent upon the financial support of our partners to carry out our work of developing chaplaincy, counseling, and community service across all levels of soccer. If your church, business, or foundation would like to support our work please consider making a contribution today or reaching out to us at info@soccerchaplainsunited.org.
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.
More than a few people have asked me, “What does your work and ministry look like right now?” When probing further into their questions, the obvious is part of their inquiry — there aren’t any sports going on right now, social distancing means that people aren’t together in the ways they used to be — so what does chaplaincy in soccer look like?
Allow me to share some quick samples from Soccer Chaplains United’s work:
An athlete from another country is without a car while playing here for one of our lower division teams — getting to physical therapy appointments has been difficult. One of our chaplains has stepped up to drive him to his appointments.
Another athlete and his wife recently welcomed a new child — diapers, wipes, and toilet paper are hard to come by. One of our chaplains brought some much needed supplies.
Chaplains are utilizing apps like Houseparty and FaceTime to connect with athletes and do bible or group study topics.
Chaplains are connecting via WhatsApp to athletes and coaches in the US and in other countries who are currently without support.
Chaplains are conducting virtual Bible studies through the Bible app.
Chaplains are emailing and texting staff, athletes, coaches.
Chaplains are engaging in discipleship with encouraged book and Bible reading and back and forth email and document dialogues.
Soccer Chaplains United has redesigned and relaunching a new app during this time.
And what is the state of football (soccer) right now? Again, some quick hitters:
Major League Soccer athletes are reportedly being asked to take a 50% pay cut
United Soccer League (lower divisions of soccer in US) are furloughing staff.
Soccer Chaplains United chaplains are volunteers and they are balancing their current vocational work and family loads right now from home, in addition to supporting those that we serve with our various teams. We continue to need your prayers and your support during this time.
Pray for those that are in the midst of losing their jobs.
Pray for those who depend on the generosity of donors for their support and fundraising and expenditures for ministry with Soccer Chaplains United.
Pray for those who are feeling tired and fatigued with the heavy load of zoom calls and schedules.
Pray for those who have ethical and moral responsibilities for incomes and wages of people in their organizations.
Chaplaincy is still going on during the Coronavirus pandemic — it just looks a little different. Thank you for your prayers and for your support.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ouitrfhneke-scaled.jpg13661920Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2020-04-20 12:00:192020-07-27 21:28:48Chaplaincy during COVID-19
Well, friends, our Easter Egg Hunt was off to a good start; however, we soon received word that the Google/Android side of the app hadn’t been properly completed and there was no new app for our non-Apple friends. 😫
So, unfortunately, we had to suspend the Easter Egg Hunt and postpone it.
Raise my own hand on this (I’m a chaplain, not an app developer) and apologize. We will restart the egg hunt once the Google Play Store has the final app ready for release. We will announce a start time as well.
We did have one very ambitious egg hunter who found all 9 eggs and it took them approximately 18 minutes! I have reached out to them and they don’t mind a “restart.” So hold onto your Easter Egg Baskets and we will have another go, later this week!
There will be 9 different, hidden eggs in our new app! The nine eggs commemorate the nine different teams that Soccer Chaplains United currently serves from the professional ranks to high school teams. The first users to find and email us the location and description of each of the nine Easter eggs will receive a gift from Soccer Chaplains United!
In coordination with our new app launch, there are a few other things changing:
New name for the app: SoccChaplain will become SoccrChapUtd
Simplified menu
Quicker load out and updating
Profile creation ability (set preferences on types of content you want to receive)
If your app looks like this, then you’ve got the old version and you might be too early for the egg hunt!
Current users of SoccChaplain will need to update and change the app. We will announce when the new app is ready and released in the Google Play Store and then we will announce a start time.
App screen should look something like this…
New users will look for Soccer Chaplains United or SoccrChapUtd in the Apple or Google stores.
Here’s how we will do the Easter Egg Hunt:
Download or update the app
Explore, browse, and look through the app to find the numbered eggs
We will use the time stamp of the email to determine the “first” person to find a particular egg
You are welcome to include more than 1 egg (or all 9) in your email to us to increase your chance of winning
We will contact the winners by email and get information on where we can send you a special gift
There will be nine different winners
In all of this, we just want to have some fun, show folks our new app and have them explore it for themselves. So get your “basket” ready for our Easter Egg Hunt!
Soccer Chaplains United is hosting its very own, virtual Easter egg hunt! On Easter Sunday morning, April 12, at an unannounced hour and in coordination with the release of our new app, there will appear Easter “eggs” hidden throughout the app that can be “discovered” by exploring the different areas of the new app. In what is a common practice in gaming — usually a developer will hide different “eggs” in a program that are a special gift or prize to the “explorative” gamer.
There will be 9 different, hidden eggs in our new app! The nine eggs commemorate the nine different teams that Soccer Chaplains United currently serves from the professional ranks to high school teams. The first users to find and email us the location and description of each of the nine Easter eggs will receive a gift from Soccer Chaplains United!
In coordination with our new app launch, there are a few other things changing:
New name for the app: SoccChaplain will become SoccrChapUtd
Simplified menu
Quicker load out and updating
Profile creation ability (set preferences on types of content you want to receive)
If your app looks like this, then you’ve got the old version and you might be too early for the egg hunt!
Current users of SoccChaplain shouldn’t need to do anything other than re-open the app. The new version should automatically update and change on the first go (in coordination with the version release). The new version release will be on Sunday morning at an undisclosed time.
App screen should look something like this…
New users will look for SoccChaplain or SoccrChapUtd in the Apple or Google stores depending, again, on the download time of the app.
Here’s how we will do the Easter Egg Hunt:
Download, update, or re-open the app
Explore, browse, and look through the app to find the numbered eggs
We will use the time stamp of the email to determine the “first” person to find a particular egg
You are welcome to include more than 1 egg (or all 9) in your email to us to increase your chance of winning
On Monday, we will contact the winners by email and get information on where we can send you a special gift
There will be nine different winners
*Note: Some eggs may be “time-released”: you know we can’t just let the big kids get all the eggs! 🙂
In all of this, we just want to have some fun, show folks our new app and have them explore it for themselves. So get your “basket” ready for our Easter Egg Hunt!
Well it has come time to say goodbye…and this is not a late April Fool’s joke.
No, not to me! To Brad Evans.
Soccer Chaplains United has had an app (SoccChaplain) that we launched when we went through our rebranding a few years ago. A stock photo featuring Seattle Sounders MLS player, Brad Evans, has adorned our front page screen, letting athletes know where to click in our app for content that is designed for them.
Pretty soon, the old app will go the way of the dinosaur
A few months ago, we were notified of new requirements from Apple and Google for app developers and we started working on a new app in conjunction with our fundraising partner PushPay.
Well, we are pretty close to launching the new app. It will have a new looking feel to it and it will also feature a new name. So keep an eye out for our launch and announcement here soon and we will have some cool prizes to hand out to people.
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/rbanexeyapc.jpg10671600Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2020-04-03 00:00:002020-04-02 12:45:32Say Goodbye to Brad
The global pandemic of Coronavirus has meant quite a few changes in the United States and around the world. Valor Christian High School, originally slated to fly down to Tamarindo, Costa Rica during spring break and the school’s practicum week (March 14 – March 23) ended up canceling the trip along with their other Discovery Team trips.
Although it is difficult not to be in Costa Rica this week, I was filled with joy that our houses were still built and were able to change the lives of two families forever. I am grateful for the hard work team Costa Rica put into the fundraising for the houses and also to our trusted partner that carried out the work in our absence.
On behalf of all the leaders, I would like to thank all families and friends who helped support our team’s mission. I hope the pictures below bring you Joy. And let’s all remember, this was God’s journey for us and we give Him all the Glory!
Mike Wright, Assistant Coach Valor Christian Soccer and Costa Rica Team Leader
While the trip was cancelled, the building materials and supplies had already been ordered and paid for. Local project leader Maximo Cisneros organized local “Ticos” to take on the work of building two new homes for the previously designated poor and needy families in the community.
Maximo (2nd from right) and crew pose in front of one of the completed houses.
Obviously, it was a big disappointment not to get to see our friends and partners and those we’ve worked with in the past, but it was a blessing to see the pictures of the homes completed and the local community folks reaching out and helping.
I hope that the opportunity that we were looking forward to — taking our student athletes into this environment and serving — will be something that we can resume in the near future.
Brian Shultz, Head Coach Valor Christian Soccer and Costa Rica Team Leader
The Soccer Chaplains United gear that had been distributed to the Valor team will be returned and sent out with another Community Project, per project guidelines. We hope to support Valor in a future endeavor once the issues from Coronavirus begin to subside.
When you support Soccer Chaplains United a portion of your gift automatically goes to help our community projects and requests. 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!
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CD50B874-61D2-4BB8-B7A2-7E10BCD1D2C3.jpg360640Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2020-03-26 04:00:002020-07-27 21:29:06Coronavirus Cancels Costa Rica
If there is a silver lining to the timing of the Coronavirus, it has been at a time when I have been working on a new, updated app for Soccer Chaplains United. Our current app, SoccChaplain, has needed some updating and recently Apple and Google have changed some of their requirements for apps and developers which will require us to make changes.
When I first heard the news back in February, I was left thinking, “When will I have time to do that?” But the Coronavirus pause has not only afforded the time, but also helped sharpen thinking around the app and its use during times like these.
Now, to be fair — our new app isn’t going to change the world. In fact, it may not feel all too different from the one that we currently have. I am not smart enough to design some great thing and there will likely be some different issues to work out as I learn more about the new platform and how to build it out in the best way. But, I am excited — that hopefully the new app will seem simpler and be really useful for people to use — whether an athlete, coach, staff or family member who are part of the global game of soccer.
Stay tuned for more news and information on when we plan to launch the new app!
https://soccerchaplainsunited.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/app-front-screen.jpeg1334750Brad Kenney/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SCU_Seal_Logo-300x300.pngBrad Kenney2020-03-24 15:30:582020-03-24 15:30:59Coming Soon: A New App
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