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!



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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.

Special Guests...

Nathalia, Priscilla, Claudia, Russell, & Wendy

Since the Global Staff Conference last month we have been blessed with having many of our international staff in town for training and development. It has been a joy and a blessing to serve and assist them. We have enjoyed having several of them from Brazil stay with us in our home! The children have enjoyed practicing their Portuguese. We are so grateful to you for helping make this possible!

Change Your World - An Update from Brazil

Investigative Retreat 2012 - by Demps and Kristy Dempsey      This is always one of my favorite weekends of the year as we get away from the busyness of the city with the American and Brazilian college students and take a couple of days to encourage them to personally investigate the life of Christ. We always use some form of media (movies or music) to build our sessions and discussion groups around, and it's always an important step for many of the students in their personal spiritual journey.      This year in following our theme of, "Change Your World", we talked about our personal search to change our world both personally and globally and how that search needs to include the consideration of God as the source of our purpose and meaning. Next, in considering God, our challenge to the students was to consider the historical Jesus as one who declared himself to be God. There are many biased views of the person of Jesus among college students in Brazil because of such a variety of religious influences and we sought to address these "cultural" views of Jesus and encouraged honest, sincere investigation of the historical Jesus.      One of the Brazilian students in my discussion group at the end of the retreat said, "I was baptized Buddhist by my parents but never knew it until later after they had abandoned buddhism. After that my parents always encouraged me to find my own path spiritually but I was turned off by what I considered fanatical religion that I saw in my neighbors. After this weekend, I realize that I have never really investigated for myself and I think that I need to consider the person of Jesus".This made me smile because that's the whole point of this weekend, for students to leave placing many of their biases aside and investigating who Jesus was and his relevance in their lives today. Prayer Request: Pray for many new Brazilian students to continue investigating the life of Christ even as the American students leave the first week of July. Pray for God to open students' hearts to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior

Summer Team Partnering in Belo Horizonte

Each year we have the privilege to send out short-term teams around the world to partner with full-time CO teams and teams from other ministries. Students take their summer break to invest in their relationship with God and in the lives of others who may not know Christ through these Cross Cultural Projects.

CCP in Belo Horizonte, Brazil - Their theme this year is Change Your World. Pray that God would help them understand how He desires to use them to change their world!

Please be in prayer for them as they are challenged in their personal security and faith as they seek to share Christ in foreign lands with different cultures, customs, and languages. May God strengthen the students' faith and may He reveal Himself to them in ever deepening ways through these experiences. May God use these students to demonstrate His love and preach the gospel in places that may have never heard it before! Lord send your spirit before them preparing hearts to respond to your message of reconciliation!

Prayers for Brazil

Thank you for your continued prayers for the ministry in Brazil! We are so excited about all that God is continuing to do there! We recently hosted Alan and Juniha, two of our Brazilian staff, who were visiting here in the U.S. Alan leads the campus ministry on one of our campuses in Brazil. We are so encouraged by their leadership, passion, and vision for what God is doing there!

The last week of January was the annual conference called Projeto de Férias (PDF) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.  The theme this year was "Uma Vida" or "One Life" and emphasized the importance of making this one life count.  This year they used content from the National Campus Outreach Conference, which included talks from J.D. Greear, Matt Chandler, Tripp Lee, and John Piper.  They devoted time after each talk to group discussions, bible study, and personal reflection. It was a fun and challenging time for those who attended, especially for those who were non-christians and young believers. This time was significant for many students as they left with a deeper desire to investigate and know Christ.  

Pray that God will pierce men's hearts and shed the light of the gospel into their worlds that they might know Him and enjoy Him forever!

Brazil the Rising Star - Report on 60 Minutes