Furia Santa Soccer Tournament Going to Guatemala

By: Eduardo Mejía Urbina

It is awesome to witness how God answers our prayers. Many years ago, I was talking to Mr. Travis about Furia Santa Soccer tournament and he told me that he saw the soccer event going beyond Nicaragua’s borders. I told him “Are you kidding me”, but he told me “It is true.” When the Lenexa Baptist Team came down last Spring, one of the team members was Pastor Steve Reed, who also does ministry work in Guatemala, asked me if we could go for a run outside. As we were running, he asked me what my responsibilities at Project HOPE are. I explained to him what my responsibilities looked like and talked a little bit about Furia Santa Soccer event.

Immediately, he told me that he would like me to go to Guatemala with him to share with his friends about how Project HOPE shares the gospel through soccer using “The Ball of Many Colors.” Instead of me going to Guatemala, I invited them to join us in our last soccer event of the year in September. Pastor Steve and his team, three brothers in Christ from Guatemala, joined us in September to learn how to run a Furia Santa Soccer Tournament. They participated in the 2 days of the soccer event and they were so amazed how people responded to the call to receive to Jesus in their hearts. Two of the Guatemalans even rededicated their lives to Jesus.

After the soccer event was over and our brothers from Guatemala along with Pastor Steve headed home, they expressed that they wanted us come to Guatemala and help start a Furia Santa Soccer ministry there. This dream is becoming a reality with God’s goodness, on January 23, 2023 five of us will be traveling to Guatemala to start training a team that will being running the Furia Santa Soccer Tournament in April. We will come back to Guatemala then and help with the first Furia Santa Soccer Tournament in Guatemala, “God is Good!”

This reminds me what scripture says in the book of Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and if the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

We will go to Guatemala to disciple people, teaching them about how to present the Good News of Salvation through soccer. It is awesome that others want to duplicate this strategy and that God put the seed in our hearts!