Geraud Brumfield recently has started serving as volunteer chaplain to Central Valley Fuego FC, a team that plays in the United Soccer League 1, otherwise known as USL1. Fuego FC has a bit of a “rise from the ashes” kind of story after the USL Championship side folded in 2019. The team was founded in 2020, after the pandemic and the work to get a new club up and running saw the team bring back professional soccer to the valley in 2022.
Brumfield, serves many young people in his work for a campus ministry outreach. For Geraud much of his life and mission nd passion is about coming alongside of young people who are asking those “larger than life” questions about God, faith, pain, and this world. While soccer isn’t his first language, loving and listening to young people is.
Part of my call in life is to walk with college-age students and to help in the asking and wrestling with those questions that loom…it comes from a part of my testimony. When I was in college, I was asking those same questions. I had a friend who pursued and persisted and he walked with me as I figured out Jesus. I had been living my life trying to make my dad proud of me. The problem was, my dad passed when I was 10 years old. I came to understand God telling me: ‘You are living for someone who is dead. I want you to live for Someone who died for you.’
Geraud Brumfield, on the origins of his call to ministry and his awakening to faith
Fuego’s USL1 level is a near perfect match for Brumfield in terms of player age. As a third division, professional soccer team, many of Fuego’s athletes are younger and aspiring to grow to higher levels in the game. The average age sees the majority of players in their mid-20’s and coming from the recently graduated college ranks.
Geraud’s placement story is a beautiful blend between my connections with different people in the game and the work of Pacific Chaplain Manager, Jubal McDaniel. My relationships with Jermaine Jones, the Head Coach, and Adam Smith, the Technical Director, were a tremendous part of seeing Geraud’s placement come about. Jubal has done the work to coach Geraud in the different points of entry that a chaplain must take in building trust and beginning to work with a team.
It has been a tremendous joy to see how warmly Geraud been received by the club…his humor, personality, and deep love for people has shown to be a perfect match.
Jubal McDaniel, on Geraud’s placement
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