Praise Report & Prayer Requests

Thank You Jesus for Changing lives!

Please celebrate with us and praise the Lord for His great blessings! This summer God is transforming thousands of lives and developing leaders around the world through numerous summer training projects. Campus Outreach is investing in the lives of students on over:

• 29 Summer Training Projects across the US and Puerto Rico
• 26 Cross Cultural Outreach Projects around the world &
• 6 Urban Development Projects across the US.

> Pray for the many young believers who are investing their summer in growing in their own relationship with Christ and learning to to effectively share their faith and walk in fellowship with their brothers and sisters in Christ. Pleas pray that they would follow Jesus, and He "would make them fishers of men." (Mark 1:17)

> Pray for the many young leaders who are learning to pour their lives into others as they lead discipleship groups and individually challenge others to grow in Christ. (2 Tim 2:1-2)

> Pray for all of the students that God would use these experiences to stretch their view of God, themselves, and the world. Pray God would give them His vision of and heart for the world!

> Pray for the many people who will hear the gospel through these students this summer. Pray that the Gospel will take root and bring forth the fruit of eternal life in their hearts. Pray God will raise up laborers for His harvest (Matt. 9:35-38)

Six Month Planning

Please pray with us this week as our staff team from the CO Global Resource Center will be getting away for an important time of Prayer, Planning, and Training. Pray God will develop us all through this time and lead us into all He has planned for us!

Thank you for partnering with us to help make this possible!

 
Russell & Wendy Long
Global Resource Center
Campus Outreach

World Cup 2014

Hello all,

Tomorrow kicks off a historic event for Brazil, the 2014 World Cup! Many of you have been asking me questions about it, so I thought I would share some thoughts about things so far. For those of you who are not very familiar with the World Cup, here are a few facts:

• The World Cup is an international soccer tournament that takes place every 4 years, like the olympics.
• It is a competition between the national teams of each country that qualify.
• Each country's national team is made up of the best players from that country. These players are often playing professionally elsewhere in the world, but return to play for their home country in World Cup competition.
• Countries qualify during a series of international matches in the 2 years leading up to the World Cup.
• The World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world!
• Brazil has won the world cup more than any other country. (5 times)

Soccer is, for all practical purposes, the only sport played in Brazil. Everyone grows up playing it, and everyone watches it. All other sports pale in comparison in participation and interest. So you can imagine the excitement when the country was chosen in 2007 to host this years' World Cup.

However, on the eve of the opening match of the Cup, the soccer-crazed is full of mixed emotions. People are still excited about the cup, and Brazil's chances to win, but their excitement is tempered by all of the financial, political, and social issues it has brought to light. You may have seen news reports of the massive cost overruns, uncompleted infrastructure projects, and protests. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks as the tournament is played and the eyes of the world are on Brazil. My hope and prayer is that all of these events will bring about positive changes that are badly needed in Brazil.

On a lighter note, I am very excited about the next few weeks. The entire country will be in a sort of holiday mode, and people everywhere will be watching the games together. I will be cheering for Brazil with all my friends here, and of course the US team! I was fortunate enough to get tickets for 2 matches, one between England and Costa Rica, and one for the playoffs later in the tournament. (teams to be determined later)

In closing, I leave you with a video of the US National Team's journey to the World Cup. Our chances to do well are slim; we have arguably the toughest draw in the tournament. But we have a great coach and possibly our best team ever, so anything could happen! Go USA!



​

Written by one of our staff in Brazil:

Lee Cunningham




US Soccer: We Are Going To Brazil

Briarwood Soccer Missions Around the Globe - Please Pray!

As many of you know, three of my children play competitive soccer and love it! I wanted to share the update below from Ryan Lieb about the impact our children's soccer club (Briarwood Soccer Club) is having literally around the world! Please join me in praying for these specific missions opportunities as well as the many other informal missions opportunities our coaches and children will have being part of this club who's mission is to "Be Ambassadors for Christ in and Through the Great Game of Soccer!"

"We Serve a Great God, We Play a Great Game, We are Ambassadors!" II Corinthians 5:20

Dear Briarwood Soccer Family,

I wanted to give an update about our players and coaches that are having impact around the globe this summer.  We have 3 trips going over seas and many people doing great work here in the States.  Here are the 3 global trips:

1. Ecuador - Coach Jamie Likens (03 Ambassadors Gold) is leading a group going to Ecuador June 7-14th.  They will be doing a soccer camp near the Amazon rain forest for kids, working with a local church and missionary Bobby Coe, a former Briarwood Soccer Coach.  5 Ambassador players and 3 coaches are on this trip based out of Brook Hills Church.
2. Hungary - Coach Walter Arroyo (02 Ambassadors Blue) is leading a team to Hungary to do a soccer camp for kids in the city where the missionary works.  There is desperate need for the Gospel in former Communist country, Hungary.  Coach Arroyo has a team of 12 during their trip June 26-July 5based out of Mountain Brook Community Church.
3. Brazil - Coach Leib and Coach Marlow are taking a team of 12 to Belo Horizonte, Brazil to continue to work with our Campus Outreach missionaries and church there.  We will be working with kids in the slums of Belo using soccer and the World Cup to reach out from June 17-June 25.

Please pray for these trips and for the Gospel to be shared effectively. Great job to all who are out there being Ambassadors for Christ. Remember the World Cup starts tomorrow, June 12, with Brazil vs. Croatia at 3:00pm CST on ESPN, make sure you watch some games this summer.

Go Ambassadors, go!

Coach Ryan Leib

Another great example of BSC reaching to the ends of the earth!

Status Update

By Rhett Wheeler

A HUGE thanks to Ryan Leib, Shawn Marlow, and the Briarwood Soccer Club for donating pennies for the football outreach in Bundibugyo, Uganda! I wish I had a photo of the boys eyes and faces as they lit up when I pulled them out for the first time...as well as sound bytes from the yelling and cheering that spontaneously erupted! They feel legit and have now asked for me to arrange a "friendly" match with a local school team now that they have a "uniform". Also, thanks to Sherri Smith for getting them to Uganda for us! — with Holly Harwell Wheeler.

02 Lady Ambassadors Gold Win the Atlanta Peach Classic!

Ginger Minor Marlow shared Jennifer Yester Peace's photo.

May 18 at 3:57pm

Congratulations Lady Ambassadors 02 for winning the Atlanta Peach Classic tournament! Way to go girls!!!

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Way to go girls! Emmi scored 8 goals in the tournament before being taken out with a stomach virus!

Oak Mountain High School Advances to State Finals!

Russell Long

May 10

So proud of Levi and his Oak Mountain High School Varsity Soccer for advancing to the Alabama 6A State Championship with a 4-0 win tonight over Fair Hope HS! — with Wendy Collins Long.

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A Family Who Plays Soccer Together...

Russell Long shared his photo.

April 10

Russell Long with Wendy Collins Long

Lots of great soccer this week! Between Levi, John, and Emmi we have seven matches from Wednesday to Saturday! Got to love it!

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02 Lady Ambassadors Gold Provide Soccer Clinic

Shawn Marlow shared Teresa Prince's photo.

April 6

Our girls must be ducks to swim to this victory at the Hoover Havok Tournament!