Who Would Jesus Be at a Soccer Game?

     Each Thurs night, we play soccer... It's an adult soccer league that Church of the Open Door hosts and its open to men and women, ages 14 and up. We have 4 teams this fall. Our son Daniel is on the Yellow Team and I am on the Red Team. It is an indoor soccer league so each team fields only 6 players on the court at a time. We play for 8 weeks.

Red and White Teams Ready to Play

     Two games are played each Thurs night and at half time a small devotional thought is presented to the teams. Steve Quatro, the organizer of the league, has asked me to give these devotional thoughts this fall. We will be looking at who Jesus is and/or isn't and relate that to different people you might see around a soccer game. For instance...

     Is Jesus like a TV/Radio announcer at a soccer game? The announcer is very much involved in what is happening on the field. He has a "big picture" view of the game, and can even give a detailed report of what is happening, but he is not able to actually affect the play on the field or the outcome of the game. Many people think God is like that. He has set the world in motion, but is now "hands-off" when it comes to day to day activities.  He might be interested in what is happening in the world, but either can't or won't interfere.

     Many of the guys and gals who play in the league do not attend the church on Sunday morning or during the week. Probably 90 % of the team members are of Hispanic decent. So we are hoping to create some friendships with our team mates, and some bridges between them and the church as a whole.  Some will feel comfortable with the English services at church, but I hope to be a bridge to the Spanish ministries of the church.

Soccer for Adults

     Please pray for us as we seek to get to know some of these guys and gals and invite them to seek a deeper understanding of who Jesus is. Pray for me, specifically as I prepare these half-time talks. Steve has suggested that I could do the devotional times in Spanish. It may be more of a mix between the two languages. Pray that those of us who do attend the church can be a good witness of Jesus to those who don't.

Doug

On the Horizon... and Coming Soon

     I believe that God is always preparing us for the next step in our lives. I think we are constantly in a process of growth and advancement. We don't always know how our current life experiences are going to be used in the future. Sometimes it takes years to figure out why we have to go through our "trials" or joys of today. As we have faced this transition from Ecuador to ministry in the USA, we have been wondering just how God might be leading us in the future.

Soccer Outreach on Thurs Nights

    As we thought about our next two years here in California, we often thought about the Spanish ministry here at Church of the Open Door. Most of our members and attenders come for the English services, but we have 20 to 25 people who attend our service in Spanish each week. This is about the size of the church plants that we worked with in Ecuador.

     As we have become involved this summer in the church, we have seen a number of outreach ministries that could be tied a little more closely to the work of the Spanish ministry. A group of men play basketball every Tues night... probably half of those men are of Hispanic decent. There is an adult soccer league at the church that plays every Thurs night... about 90% of the players are Hispanic. Then there is soccer league for kids that the church sponsors... again 90% of the players and their families have roots in Latin America. Finally, one of the local school systems that is heavily Hispanic allows Release Time Bible Education.

More Soccer to be Had...

     These great outreaches are already reaching into the community that our Spanish congregation can minister to. So, together with the church leadership, we have decided to spend a lot of our time and energy in the next couple of years creating ties between these outreaches and the Spanish ministry at Church of the Open Door.

     Oh... we will still be working with HCJB Global. But this will take the place of the church planting ministries that we have been involved with for most of the years that we have been in Ecuador.  So the next couple of blog entries will begin to introduce you to some of these ministries so that you can be praying for us and for those we our touching through these outreach ministries.

Thanks,

Doug & Ruth