For Bryan Smith, Haiti has become a bit of home away from home. Smith first traveled to Haiti in 2004. For the last four years, he has been bringing soccer with him. It is the world’s game, after all. Last year, the Colorado Rapids donated a couple of boxes of equipment with many personal donations by Haitian Goalkeeper Steward Ceus (Rapids, 2009-2013).
This year, the Rapids donated enough gear to outfit a complete team with shorts, shirts, and compression shorts along with some miscellaneous gear. Smith, using some of his other connections, was able to secure additional equipment like shoes and balls for the young men of the village of Fedja, in the Mirebalais region of Haiti, northeast of Port-au-Prince.
For the past couple of years, Smith has been bringing whatever soccer gear he can get donated in order to outfit the teams that he has been working with – including a u-18 and u-15 team, as well as a handful of orphans that are also playing on the teams. Many of the players are also students at the Global Vision Citadelle Ministries school. This year, the teams played in an exhibition game with the gear donated by the Rapids.
The coaches and players were very grateful to get the Rapids gear. I was also able to give each player a new pair of cleats. It was an awesome time. Thanks again. We hope to continue the relationship with the Rapids in the future.
Haitian players stretch before taking the field sporting shorts from the Colorado Rapids.
Smith has high hopes for the young athletes that form this team,
We will be registering the FC-GVCM team for regional play. If they compete well we will enter them in the national league in Haiti.
Smith is still looking for sponsorships and partners that will help these boys make it to the next level and reach higher. If you would like to know more about Bryan Smith’s work in Haiti please contact CrossTraining at info@crosstraining-us.org.
If you would like to support future Timothy Project ventures, such as this one, please use the PayPal link below to make a donation. Your financial gift helps to secure additional equipment, sponsor a missionary or organization in an outreach effort, and cover associated costs of providing bibles, soccer equipment, and other outreach tools locally and around the world!
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Below are some additional photos of the soccer teams in Haiti.
After a Houston Chronicle article in 2009 declared the city of Juarez, Mexico the “most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones”1 most Americans and many Christian mission organizations stopped travel and efforts to help the poor of the estimated 1.5 million people who call the city home. The violence spawning from the drug cartel wars has claimed many lives and mission work in the city was deemed too risky. But there were a few organizations that still dared to carry on the work – meet 
Recently, Steve McConaghie, a pastor at Cherry Hills Community Church was invited to sit on 
Recently, the Colorado Rapids cleaned house – boxes of used team gear were simply taking up too much space in the confines of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and after the annual “garage sale” for Rapids fans, there was still plenty left over. That’s when team staff contacted Rapids Chaplain Brad Kenney. The text message read:
Chaplain Venegas sprang into action – putting some messages out to contacts in Costa Rica. Is there anyone who could use some team gear and equipment for their church or a local team? Pretty soon, Chaplain Venegas had 4 different project requests coming out of Costa Rica – a player training with a team in hopes of getting a contact in Major League Soccer, a church group praying for new team uniforms, and a couple of reservations with poor, indigenous people. As Chaplain Kenney opened the boxes, it was almost too overwhelming…Do you have an idea of sizes? (read a text message to Venegas).
I just remember looking at all the boxes in my living room, my children were trying to help me sort and count, and I panicked – what were we gong to do with all of the gear? Will we have enough? Too much?
On the last day of 2013, there is occasion to pause for reflection. There is much debate around looking backward in order to move forward in our culture. Some criticism – that the only reason we look back is so that we can make more efficient our practice or modernize our mechanistic attitude. Some wisdom – that we ought to learn from mistakes and strive to not repeat them, to teach our children how to overcome them. Some practical application – goal-setting, resolutions, and the like. Some fantastical dreaming – see above.
