Soccer Chaplains United's Director of Counseling, Brooke Ewert, recently took part in an interview series with the Colorado Rapids. With the month of May being known as Mental Health Month, the Rapids have been doing a series, entitled, Mindful Monday. The interview style stories on the website featured Brooke and others working in the field of mental health and sport. Read the interview here. Part of the vision of Soccer Chaplains United is to work closely with counselors in order to provide necessary clinical interventions that support the whole person. While chaplains often provide spiritual help and support, there are times when it is important to refer the athletes, coaches, staff, and their family members on to a trusted counselor

Well, technically, Major League Soccer (MLS) began on the last day of February for the 2020 season, but close enough. As the season kicked off last week (and the Colorado Rapids were the first game) it started the 25th season for the top flight soccer league in the U.S. The MLS season has had varied lengths in its 25-year history, and most recently the league condensed its season to run league competition games between the months of March and November. 34 games are par for the course — 17 home and 17 away; throw in a few exhibition games, an Open Cup tournament, weekly training sessions and travel and it makes for a busy 9 months. But this is just games!

This past Saturday, was a fun first for Soccer Chaplains United as we held a packing and sorting party for a couple of our upcoming Community Projects. There were six or seven volunteers (besides my own family) who gave a portion of their time to help sort, count, and pack. The first project was for a large request from Musana which is shipping containers to the country for school rooms. This is our first time working with Musana and their project going to Uganda. It was unique as we packed items into specially purchased bins which will be delivered in a few weeks as they finish their build out. A bit of an assembly line was formed to count and

Last week, the Colorado Rapids hosted a memorial service at Dick's Sporting Goods Park for former midfielder, Colin Clark. Colin died on Monday, August 26, 2019 of a heart attack. At just 35 years old, Colin's death shocked many. He grew up in Fort Collins playing soccer and played for the Rapids, Houston Dynamo, and Los Angeles Galaxy and had one appearance for the US Men's National Team. He also coached many youth teams in the Colorado area after retiring from professional soccer. The recorded service is viewable below. I had the privilege of leading and speaking at several different points in the service. The actual service begins at around 17:20 minute mark with a looping slideshow that precedes the

This past Sunday, I got to catch up with Larry and Micah Koorneef, a week from being back from Cambodia. Jet-lag over, they expressed gratefulness for the soccer balls and shirts that they were able to take over to the orphans in Cambodia. They also enjoyed meeting Setan Lee and observing and working alongside him and his ministry TransformAsia. Micah even became the new drone pilot for Setan as he video recorded the different facilities and work for the ministry! Micah, made a travel journal during his trip. Here is the entry from the day that they handed out gear to the children at the orphanage: Day 7: Today is Monday. The kids are clingy and won’t stop touching you--very tiring