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Rodríguez Ends Time with Heartfelt Letter

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Chaplain Rubèn Rodríguez, the volunteer serving with me and with Colorado Rapids, closes this chapter with a heartfelt letter signaling his stepping away. Rubèn came to work with me after stepping in for a Rapids Development Academy Life Skills training night. I remember watching as he commanded the attention of the young boys that were gathered and we talked through a difficult issue of discrimination and some of the impacts on the game. Not long after, he agreed to come on board as chaplain for the DA and when Gerardo Alvarez, my assistant at the time, moved on, he helped me with first team duties as well.

Nicknamed the “preachers” by stadium security, me (left), Rubèn (middle) and Gerardo (right) get ready to lead a life skills session for the Rapids DA.

I asked Ruben to share a little bit about his time working with me, Soccer Chaplains United, and the Colorado Rapids. He shared a warm and heartfelt letter,

I am preparing to step out of my role with Soccer Chaplains United, serving the Colorado Rapids here in Denver. 

In my time with SCU, I have felt proud to serve alongside Brad Kenney, and many of the SCU and Rapids’ staff.  But the brightest and fondest memories of which I feel most proud, are the moments I got to spend alongside players from the Rapids Development Academy and First Team.  

Whether it was meeting a player to talk through their personal and professional issues on and off the pitch, or just finding the time for a quick prayer before a game or important conversation, these small intermissions between games, practices, and daily life are the moments I will miss most.  These fractional interruptions between and before whistles were where I often found the most joy and peace, and where true relationships seemed to form.  

One of my very favorite memories came after the SCU staff had conducted a life-skills session at the stadium one evening.  The players all rose, bound for the parking lot, but they took the time to line up and shake our hands before they left.  A simple formality, yes.  And anyone familiar with the sport will recognize its ritual as one that is often practiced between players on opposing teams before matches.  

And yet this ritual is the crux of the memory: the shaking of hands is a show of respect, but even more so, of solidarity.  It is an acknowledgement of same-ness, of respect for the mutual drive of sport and competition and passion for something much loved. 

With this simple gesture, those young men helped form a bond between us that said, “You are like us, and we are like you.”  And this solidarity was the basis for all conversation and relationship to come – it was the moment that made all others possible.

I am a writer by trade, and the demands on my time as both a commercial and creative writer have become such that it is no longer fair for me to split my time between SCU and my work.  I am looking forward to spending more time on my craft and to creating better pieces for others to read and enjoy. 

But I will deeply miss the SCU and Rapids families, and all the little moments that came with them.  Though I will be stepping out of my position as chaplain, you’ll be sure to find me on some scorching afternoon or chilly October night, standing in the seats, watching the boys in burgundy play the beautiful game.  

I hope to see you there.

Cheers.  

I am sad to see Rubèn move on. I had shared with him that my hope would be that he might one day replace me as the lead person providing chaplaincy to the Rapids, but I am really hopeful that God’s call on Rubèn’s life for writing becomes a place of flourishing for he, Kayla, and his daughters.

I told Rubèn my favorite memory will forever be the “Rapids Faith Day Game” that never was — I will never forget I was out of town on business trip to visit one of our other chaplains and he called asking me where the Faith Night event setup was because he hadn’t been able to find anyone. Unbeknownst to me, the Rapids had canceled it last minute. Rubèn had wandered around the stadium for at least a good 30 minutes asking people about it before he called me. 😂😂

Rubèn, God bless you in your next endeavors and thanks for being part of the work and ministry these past few years.

Soccer Chaplains United Refines Focus for 2021, Transitions Counseling Emphasis

As 2020 comes to a close and with 2021 on the horizon, Soccer Chaplains United is making a significant shift in emphasis for the foreseeable future — namely, the elimination of an internal counseling emphasis for the organization. The shift comes after this past year of analyzing and assessing the continued viability for the organization to carry out counseling service for soccer as part of its own makeup and DNA.

There are a number of reasons for what I am calling a “shift of emphasis” that I will share here. But before I do, I want to recount what I think is a still commendable history for counseling in the Soccer Chaplains United organization with the simple timeline graphic below.

Beginning in 2011 — a key conversation with a professional soccer player led us on a journey of trying to “marry” counseling and chaplaincy. It was born out of the idea that there were certain things where a clinical counselor was better trained and equipped to address (mental health areas) and where a chaplain and counseling team might better serve, holistically.

In spite of the upcoming shift, Soccer Chaplains United fundamentally still values and believes in that; however, we have reached a point as an organization where we continue to struggle to see the necessary growth and reconciliation of some key factors internally. Those pieces lead us to believe that we need to go about the chaplaincy and counseling collaboration in a different way.

Some of the key pieces for our consideration included:

  • Soccer Chaplains United — our name didn’t help grow counseling very well and wasn’t as representative (for counselors, especially) and transparent as necessary.
  • Limited resources — in truth, legitimate, clinical sports counseling has very few (although growing) amongst its membership. Soccer-specific counselors are even more difficult to find. For us, it’s not that a counselor and to be soccer savvy, but there is a certain subculture to soccer that is key and critical to understand.
  • Financially — typically chaplains are volunteers in professional sports (this is currently true of all Soccer Chaplains United chaplains); counselors are not. There is a disparity as unpaid chaplains “hand-off” or refer people to counselors who are fee-for-service. While we had aspirations to provide free or subsidized counseling, this was a much harder sell than we anticipated and led to very short lifespans (and conversations) amongst interested counselors.

There were other, smaller considerations for us around the decision, but a number of things that we believe Soccer Chaplains United will continue to uphold and value will help make our mission and vision leaner and also continue to move forward as we seek to serve those in soccer:

  1. We still value and believe that qualified and capable (sometimes known as licensed) Christian counselors and counseling is needed and important for affecting change and offering holistic care and support to those we serve in soccer. To this end, Soccer Chaplains United chaplains will seek to develop local counseling relationships to whom they can, when appropriate, refer.
  2. Differently from most professional sports in North America those in soccer, especially in the lower professional divisions and elsewhere, often lack the financial means to afford counseling fees. To this end, Soccer Chaplains United chaplains may raise and determine a budget for counseling subsidies in their annual budgets.

We believe that this refinement — coming as we have devoted the past six years to seeing and working through a model to try and develop chaplaincy and counseling together, may come at an important time and hopefully this “rest” from development will see the counseling emphasis grow in a better, more organic way outside of Soccer Chaplains United.

By way of practicality, for Soccer Chaplains United, we have taken down the counseling portions of our website. Brooke Ewert will continue to be a localized resource for referral and a help for chaplains serving in the Denver Metro area, but her volunteer role as Director of Counseling will be dissolved. It maybe bad form to quote myself in a story that I am writing, but I wanted to make sure that my own comments about Brooke standout from the rest of the story:

Brooke, has been an amazing person to journey with as part of Soccer Chaplains United. She has grown with us and I am excited to continue working with her in the future (albeit in different ways) to help provide for the mental health needs of those God allows me to serve in soccer. I am glad to have a trusted person to refer people on to see and I look forward to seeing her and her practice grow in the years to come.

Brad Kenney, Volunteer Chaplain Colorado Rapids on Brooke Ewert

I also never want to diminish the people who have worked to serve alongside of Soccer Chaplains United (and formerly, CrossTraining). Cody Baker and Nicholas Runyan also helped in the forming and shaping of best practices and different levels and layers of care. We were also glad to be able to successfully host the first known counseling internship amongst a professional development academy in North America. Those will be some gems and historical highlights that will always be a part of the Soccer Chaplains United story.

Soccer Chaplains United is non-profit, 501(c)3 and depends upon the financial support of individual donors and church partners to carry out our work of chaplaincy service across all levels of soccer. Our chaplains are not employed or paid by any of the clubs that we serve. Simply click the PushPay (the big P or give tab) link below to make a secure, online, tax-deductible gift, or mail a donation to Soccer Chaplains United, PO Box 102081, Denver, CO 80250.

On Air, Friday!

Hello, I am excited to be joining my friends at AM 910 around the breakfast table this Friday morning, October 4, at 8:00 am Mountain. AM 910 can be heard online — just click on the Listen On Line link. The morning crew is always a fun group to hang out with and share about the ministry and I look forward to connecting with them again.

During this visit, Director of Counseling Brooke Ewert and I will share with Roy, Denise, and Gordy about the upcoming Global Congress on Sport and Christianity at Calvin University in Michigan.

If you’re able to join us and listen in, you can tune into AM 910 if you’re in the Denver area or listen online with one of the links above.

Thanks for listening!

LIFE with the Developmental Academy

One of the most exciting spaces for the chaplains and counselors with Soccer Chaplains United is something that has developed over the past couple of years — working with the athletes, coaches, and families with the Developmental Academy (DA).

In the picture above, the “preachers” as Larry the stadium security guard likes to call us, get ready to lead a life skills session for the Colorado Rapids DA. Rev Brad Kenney and Chaplains Rubèn Rodríguez and Gerardo Alvarez pose for a quick pic.

For those unfamiliar with the DA, these are essentially the cream of the crop in soccer. The young athletes in the DA are potential professional soccer players in the making. Professional clubs often pay all of the expenses for these athletes and have them under their tutelage and coaching direction with the express purpose of turning them into professional soccer players one day. At any moment, a professional club could offer a contract to one of the players within the academy system! Imagine, at the age of 12 or 13 feeling that you were only steps away from taking the field and earning a living as a soccer player?

To learn more about US Soccer’s Developmental Academies click here

Needless to say, this all comes with a tremendous amount of pressure — families have to commit to the time, players have to commit to soccer only (no other sports, can’t participate in many school type of activities) as the focus narrows to the sport of soccer alone. And then there are the pressures that come from not just making the team, but earning a starting spot! Many times, the best players from all parts of the state get put into one team – where someone might have been a star player with their club team, now they might be on the outside looking in.

In the midst of this, we’ve been given the tremendous privilege and opportunity to support the athletes and families, and coaches of the DA. And one of the areas that we have been able to provide support is in the Colorado Rapids DA life skills curriculum sessions that the club provides for the athletes every couple of months.

Topics like Prejudice, Privilege and Responsibility, Developing Supportive Relationships are amongst some of the topics that we’ve already spoken on and worked with the academy boys!

Your support of Soccer Chaplains United, allows us to continue to develop and offer life skills training and support — in group environments and in one-to-one family situations. Our chaplains and counselors are constantly developing new topics with engaging content to capture the attention and to work through with these 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18-year olds — topics like bullying, self-care, and others will soon feature at an upcoming life skills session.

Soccer Chaplains United Invited to Speak on Panel about Character

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I am excited to announce that I’ve been invited to take part in a panel presentation at the annual United Soccer Coaches Convention. United Soccer Coaches, which rebranded last year, has the largest soccer coach membership base in the world. Coaches from across all levels of the sport gather each year at its annual convention. The convention, in January, usually sees thousands of  coaches gather for education, training, networking, and other soccer-related activities.

Major League Soccer typically holds  its annual draft in conjunction with the convention. The draft and convention have also been the location for annual meetings hosted by Athletes in Action of those involved in chaplaincy amongst MLS, the United Soccer League (USL), and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

This January, the convention is being held in Chicago and the panel on character will take place on Friday, January 11.

For me, this is an exciting opportunity — it’s an opportunity to represent Soccer Chaplains United on a much bigger stage and to a much broader membership group. It will also provide an opportunity to share about the issue of character and character formation and development within soccer.

Within the current state of the game, often times coaches are seen as primary teachers and builders of character into our young boys and girls. While it is true that coaches often help shape and mold character, part of what we will be talking about is the difficulties and challenges that are often present in that kind of task and pressure.

The panel is still being formed, but it looks as though we will have a representative from the Positive Coaching Alliance, a head coach in the USL, and a few other panelists that will round out the session.

Please be praying about this neat opportunity to speak into the lives of the coaches that attend the panel and to talk about the topic of character from the chaplain viewpoint.

Soccer Chaplains United on Air Next Friday!

I am excited to be joining my friends at AM 910 around the breakfast table next Friday morning, September 7, at 7:00 am Mountain. AM 910 can be heard online — just click on the Listen On Line link. The morning crew is always a fun group to hang out with and share about the ministry and I look forward to connecting with them again.

It’s been a long time since I visited with Roy, Denise, and Gordy and September 7 is just a couple days shy of our 1 year anniversary as Soccer Chaplains United. We will have a lot to talk about!

If you’re able to join us and listen in, you can tune into AM 910 if you’re in the Denver area or listen online with one of the links above.

Thanks for listening!

Casas in Costa Rica

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The third stop over on my recent 10-day business trip was in Costa Rica. The Valor Boys and Girls Soccer Teams had a Discovery Trip. Discovery is a program through Valor Christian High School that gives students experiences serving others around the world. This particular trip combined members from the boys and girl’s teams. The students and leaders worked during the day to build two homes. After a short break in the afternoon, the students would then dress and get ready to play small-sided soccer games against local Ticos (Costa Ricans) or to host soccer camps and clinics for children in the different towns and villages.

As the chaplain for the boys soccer team, one of my roles on the trip (besides a lot of lifting and painting) was to help add spiritual insight and guidance to the team. As team members were confronted with issues of poverty, language and cultural barriers, and spiritual issues I was there to help guide conversation and encourage students to see the greater spiritual realities beyond what was plainly visible.

Below is an excerpt of something I shared with team members, one particular evening after a tough couple days of work on the casas (houses),

Today I observed a lot of frustration — yesterday, both teams hadn’t been able to complete enough work at their sites and for one team, our machine broke leaving us stranded in finishing the concrete work.

The truck in the background hauls off our broken concrete mixing machine and Team Fuego smiles and soldiers on!

With memories still fresh, the foreman (Manuel) came and began to direct both combined work teams. I could see and feel many of the team members (including myself) as we frustratingly put materials into piles. Manuel seemed stubborn. “No, here.” He would point. It didn’t make sense to us. Many of us felt that there might be more efficient ways of doing the work or sorting the materials, or something! We didn’t want a day like we had the day before.
Manuel then gathered the whole work crew. He was going to show us how to frame and drywall a panel. The teaching went painstakingly slow. We messed up. Screws not entirely screwed in. Wood that didn’t seem to be able to fit. Manuel patiently guided us. He would show us, sometimes, doing the very work himself. Once he had demonstrated and got us through the first panel, it was on to making other work stations and other teams to do the same work. There was a look in his eye — but we weren’t sure if it was frustration at the gringos trying to complete this work that he could do so easily himself or if there was just a little gleam in his eye. The kind of gleam that a grandpa gets when he is taking time to teach his craft to his grandchildren. Some mix between love and firmness.

Our wall building team took some time, but soon learned how to work well together.

Then it started to happen, team members started to learn their roles. We grew in confidence. We leaned on each other. We encouraged each other in the work. Our speed and efficiency improved as we began to work together. As Nicole later declared, our team had achieved “peak efficiency” (or some other economics term, I can’t remember). In a few short hours, our team had completed 5 panels, nearly 1/4th of a house.
It was interesting, too, to watch Manuel. He was there if we had a question. He would show us things we had done wrong and he would help us make corrections to our mistakes. He would “hover” over teams and inspect each team’s work. Pointing out errors. Occasionally, a smile would creep across his face if we got something right.

Manuel (background with red shirt) was overlooking each team and making sure we got it right.

Where I am going with all of this comes to this — there is a metaphorical parallel to our walk in following Jesus!
We find ourself in the midst of calamity when we first arrive on the scene. Our lives are a mess with sin and shame and the past ways in which we have failed so many times. We are broken down frustrated, incomplete creatures who have a sense that something just isn’t right. That we aren’t really complete and that something is missing. There are piles of stuff, but it seems out of order, random and unmade.
Even when Jesus does come into our lives and begin to “order” things more rightly we still have our own feelings an opinions about where things ought to go or how things ought to be. We have a hard time letting go. We have a hard time receiving instruction from the “Master.”
But as we sit at the feet of the Master — Jesus, in the case of spiritual things; Manuel, in the case of building houses in Costa Rica. We begin to learn. We learn about our role and calling, our place in God’s kingdom. We learn what are gifting are and as we enter into the communal space of the church, the body, the bride of Christ, we learn what it is to come alongside and work together. And Jesus doesn’t abandon us to this work, alone. He is there. His Spirit with us to help us when we stray, when we have questions and doubt, when we need rest. But we become the hands and feet. We become the vessels through which Jesus works change in the world.
At the end of that second day, everyone (tired as we were) had a much better sense of accomplishment. We felt a sense of purpose and achievement. We had grown in our understanding and our skill. We had become transformed and it was because we sat at the feet of Manuel’s mastery of putting a house together.
We went on in subsequent days to paint the prefabbed frames of the houses. I had the privilege of teaching the students what little I knew of painting. We had a great time as some of the pictures below show.

The Valor Girls rocked the paint crew. They even made up a little song about me! Link to come…:)

But our time in Costa Rica wasn’t about building earthly casas, it was about demonstrating the love of God. Our hope is that our time spent will add more numbers to the heavenly casa.

Team Fuego pauses for a picture before putting up that last exterior walls of the house.

Timothy Project: Year To Date Project Award Recipients In Pictures

CrossTraining Timothy Project

Timothy Project: Year To Date Project Award Recipients Summary In Pictures.

This summation in photographs are of the project award recipients and the gear they were able to take with them. In these photographs you’ll see a few of those to whom the gear was donated, you’ll see some pictures of the gospel going forth, you’ll see the gift of playing a sport that has no language barrier so both the gringo and the native play together and you’ll see bridges being built.

Thus far in 2017 CrossTraining’s Timothy Project has partnered with seven different teams who have crossed outside of USA and into countries all over the world.  These teams consist of teenagers, coaches, some curious sojourners, some seasoned travelers and some novice.  Some are athletes who love the sport and some not so much.  But all of them have gratefully taken the gear donated by the Rapids organization and lovingly and carefully redistributed it to those who will probably never get to see a Rapids game played.

 

Valor Christian High School – Costa Rica

Liberian Institute for Empowerment

Colorado Springs Christian Schools with Inca Link

Valor Christian High School – Kenya

Mountain Springs Church & Beyond Survival – Swaziland

Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church – Uganda

Nuevo Tantoan, Mexico – Los Burritos

This is a series of photographs showing soccer gear donations, locations, and organizations but the stories behind all of it are why the Timothy Project continues.  There is a greater purpose of just moving donations from storage boxes to the world, out of America and into the world and that is why the Timothy Project exists.  Join us, will you?

To support future Timothy Project ventures, please use the Donate button to make a secure PayPal donation. Your financial gift helps to secure additional equipment, sponsor a missionary or organization in an outreach effort, and to cover associated costs of providing bibles, soccer equipment, and other outreach tools locally and around the world!

#TPT

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Timothy Project: Year To Date Project Award Recipients 2017 – an editorial

CrossTraining Timothy Project

Timothy Project: Year To Date Project Award Recipients Summary 2017 – an editorial.

I joined the CrossTraining team February 1 with little knowledge of the professional soccer industry.  While soccer filled large amounts of my weekly schedule, it was barely a hint at the caliber of Major League Soccer.  My soccer experiences included sitting in comfy folding chairs on the sidelines while visiting with other soccer moms, growing relationships and evaluating how our sons were progressing through the season.

I had gleaned insights and perspectives from Chaplain Brad Kenney over time as he shared about CrossTraining, the Rapids and his passion for chaplaincy.  Those gleanings did not leave me star struck with famous players or a Rapids super-fan but instead moved my heart toward the undercurrents of CrossTraining’s purpose.  I was enthralled with the mission of CrossTraining.  My teen years provided large amounts of exposure and involvement with professional athletes through my father’s business.  But the angles are different, then it was business, financial; here it is empathy, support, love.  Both focused on the individual player but for different purposes.

I was asked to join as the Timothy Project Coordinator.  The Timothy Project is the piece of CrossTraining that takes the ‘stuff’ of the MLS and spreads it throughout the world as gifts of blessings.  Since February I have had the joy of watching immense amounts of soccer gear move from CrossTraining headquarters to far corners of our world.

Thus far in 2017 CrossTraining’s Timothy Project has partnered with seven different teams who have crossed outside of USA and into countries all over the world.  These teams consist of teenagers, coaches, some curious sojourners, some seasoned travelers and some novice.  Some are athletes who love the sport and some not so much.  But all of them have gratefully taken the gear donated by the Rapids organization and lovingly and carefully redistributed it to those who will probably never get to see a Rapids game played.

This is a summation of the project award recipients and the gear they were able to take with them.

This is a list of soccer gear, locations, and organizations but the stories behind all of it are why the Timothy Project continues.  There is a greater purpose of just moving donations from storage boxes to the world, out of America and into the world and that is why the Timothy Project exists.  Join us, will you?

To support future Timothy Project ventures, please use the Donate button to make a secure PayPal donation. Your financial gift helps to secure additional equipment, sponsor a missionary or organization in an outreach effort, and to cover associated costs of providing bibles, soccer equipment, and other outreach tools locally and around the world!

#TPT

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