EAGLES BRASIL: August 2009

Hello Eagles Brasil fans! Sorry for the delay in updates. Here are the latest match reports…

Just five days after our final match of Copa Mulher (the loss against Sao Bernardo), we played our first game of Jogos Regionais (the regional tournament for the state of Sao Paulo). This tournament determines which teams qualify for Jogos Abertos in October (the State games).

We played 5 games in 6 days! (30-minute halves). Praise the Lord we made it to semi-finals of the tournament, after winning a PK shootout in the quarterfinal!

We played almost all our games in the rain, mud and cold, it was quite a mess. Not to mention we slept on the cement floor of a school classroom during that week! Always a joy.

We lost our semi-final match 3-1 to Santos, the powerhouse of women’s soccer here in Brazil.

The next day we lost the 3^rd-place match 2-1 to the same Sao Bernardo team we lost to in the final of Copa Mulher. The good news is that despite those losses, we still qualified for Jogos Abertos in October because of finishing in the top 4. Even better news is that people everywhere, from coaches and players of otherteams, to refs, and even our city administrators have noticed the “difference” in the way Eagles Brasil plays honestly and conducts themselves, compared to all the other teams.

We were even invited to spend time during this tournament with the entire Praia Grande men’s soccer team and staff, where Fernando (our ministry leader) gave a gospel presentation, and Coach Tina and one of our players shared personal testimonies.

Many of the guys prayed to receive Christ as their savior that night.

We thank God for the success he has given us in this first part of the year, and the stage He has created in the futbol community that has allowed us to share the Gospel one on one, face to face with every player from every team we have played against so far (with the exception of Santos). Many players have prayed for salvation, and our players are keeping up with them by means of the internet.