Fútbol and the Faith by Cameron

October 22, 2026

Fútbol and the Faith by Cameron

One of our main ongoing ministries with the youth of Santa Rosa has been a soccer ministry. Thanks to some generous donors, we have soccer balls, goalie gloves, and pinnies to kick it off (yes, I know). At first, the idea was to get some people together, pray, and play soccer, the favored sport of Costa Ricans (for good reason, I may add). We expected to have a smaller group, enough to ideally just fill the 5-on-5 futsal field in our town. But God had other plans!

As of now, every Sunday afternoon we go to the field for our soccer ministry. We begin by having everybody give thanks for at least one thing. We will play for at least an hour, then finish with everybody sharing an intention that everybody else can pray for throughout the coming week. Lastly, we all share a snack together.

Turns out, word got around after just a couple weeks of us playing that the missionaries played soccer on Sundays and anybody could play with them for free, and they had snacks! Our group has grown a lot since then, to the point that our limit on the field at once is 16 people, and more often than not there are usually more waiting to play. Recently, we've had three teams of 6-8 players that take turns playing each other, so if you do the math, we've been having around 24 participants!

Our goal (yes, I know) is ultimately, of course, to bring Jesus to these kids, but to also be a kind of second family for them, especially those with difficult family situations at home. We have been blessed to have very active participation, and kids sharing multiple things they are grateful for, and multiple intentions that they would like prayer for.

We have been intentional about telling them that we are a Christian group specifically, and so our purpose is to share the love of Jesus with each other. As such, there are certain charisms that we follow as a group, including honoring God (especially on the Lord's Day) with our words and actions, being team players, and being respectful during prayer. We also try to set an example for them with our music, which is a mix of Spanish praise songs and other Christian music.

We ask that you pray for this ministry and for however God is continuing to work through it, and thank you so much for all the prayers getting sent our way!

God bless,

Cameron