The ministry that we are serving alongside here has a passion for reaching people. Their soccer ministry engages with kids and keeps them off the street, meeting them where they are at in different neighborhoods throughout the city. Before each practice/game the coaches share from the Bible and pray over them, and while we have been here, we have been able to do the same.
One of the coaches we have been able to serve alongside is a man named Alvaro. When we were first told about Alvaro, we were told that he was “born with a gun in his hand”. After meeting him, all we could see was a man who loved the kids and had a passion to bring them to the feet of Jesus.
In the mid-1980’s, our ministry host, Marcos, began to organize a soccer league to reach and meet the youth of Colombia on a common ground- soccer. Alvaro heard that a soccer league was being organized in his neighborhood and was instantly intrigued. Before the first game, Mark gathered the teams and led them in prayer.
Alvaro was also interested in the Bible study Mark had invited him to outside of the league, and a friendship began to develop between the two of them as he began to attend Bible study. God began to work in Alvaro’s life, and before the soccer season was over, he decided to follow Jesus and began to attend a local Evangelical church.
Alvaro came from a very poor family in Medellín’s Robledo neighborhood. Like most of his neighbors, he lived in a small, one-story brick and mud home with unfinished walls. Alvaro, although a bright young man with leadership qualities, had only finished the sixth grade, having had to leave school to work for the extended family who all lived together.
Alvaro was not the only young man that this was a reality for. Unemployment for this sector of society was above 20%. Opportunities to get ahead and improve living conditions were very limited. Around the same time arose the Medellín drug cartel with all of its power and quick riches. Many young men saw it as a way out of poverty, and enthusiastically became a part of it. By 1987 an average of 20 young people a day were paying the price with their lives for joining this violent organization.
Not long after Alvaro had decided to follow Christ, a rich man who lived in the area, offered Alvaro a job as chauffeur and bodyguard. “Don” Byron, as everyone knew him, was a high-ranking member of the Medellín drug cartel. It was a tempting offer. By working for him, not only would Alvaro have the money to adequately take care of his mother and sisters, but he could also acquire a bit of prestige for himself.
Alvaro, even with his scant knowledge of Christ, knew that it was no little matter to get involved with the drug cartel. He put Don Byron off with “let me think about it.” In the ensuing days, though, every time that Don Byron would drive by his house, he would stop and offer once again the opportunity for money and some power. One Sunday morning, Alvaro was walking up the street after church and Don Byron pulled up in his big car, and once again told Alvaro, “Come work with me. I can give you everything you need in life.” “Don Byron,” replied Alvaro, pulling his Bible from under his arm and holding it in the startled man’s face, “in this is everything that I need for my life.”
Never did he imagine how true those words were. For several months later, another young man from the neighborhood, Carlos Mario, whom Don Byron had hired in Alvaro’s place, had been tortured to death and was found in an empty lot. Come to find out, Don Byron had all of his employees shot and killed because he thought that they were plotting against him. Alvaro, who could have been that young man, is now devoting his life to saving many children and young people from a similar fate through Mark’s ministry called the Christian Union Sports Club (CUSC).
Just as there was a large transformation in Alvaro, much of the Medellín area has undergone a similar transformation. Medellín, a city of 2.7 million people, was tragically the homicide capital of the world for over 15 years. However, a change has come over the city and there is a relative peace among the population, partly due to ministries like the CUSC. God has been writing a redemption story for the people of Colombia, and we have met several people here who have a passion for reaching the Ventana Verde (Green Window), which is still overruled by the large cocaine demand, and hope to see it redeemed in the same way that Medellín was.
The CUSC now has a full-time staff of 42 coaches, that work every day to share the gospel through sports ministry. The CUSC works with approximately 3,000 children and youth on a weekly basis through 130 soccer teams, and their own city-wide soccer league. The coaches live and work in some of the most socially depressed areas of the city, including refugee camps, but through a soccer ball, they are bringing the “Light of life” into their lives.
We have been so fortunate to be able to be a small part of the ministry here at CUSC and see how the Lord is transforming lives. We hope to be able to take away a small piece of this ministry on the rest of our Race, and the rest of our lives in order to meet people exactly where they are, in a language that they can understand- even if that language is soccer.
From your wander racer. Stephen C. and team.
