I know it has been a while since my last post, but I wanted to share this article that was printed today in the Charlotte news paper. We have had some difficulties trying to get them to write articles but they wrote this one and it is spot on. Praise God and I pray that someone in Charlotte will see it and want to get invovled or even come to know the Lord personally. Thank you all for you prayers, you are on my mind constantly.


By Caroline McMillan
They're not all there for soccer.
Some kids come for a hug, a high five, a pat on the head.
Some, too young to take the field, come each week just to watch.
And others come for someone to talk to if their stomach hurts. For someone to help them tie their shoes.
Encouragement - that's what the Urban Eagles give them.
Last September, the Charlotte Eagles professional soccer team started Urban Eagles, a nonprofit ministry in the inner-city neighborhoods of Woodbridge, Grier Heights, Birchcroft and Dillehay Courts.
Each week, the professional players lead an impromptu soccer practice, followed by dinner and a Bible study.
Eagles players Ben Page and Juan Guzman live in Grier Heights so they can build stronger relationships with the area kids.
"They know where we are. They see us all the time," said Page, 25. "It's not like we're coming in and doing the service and leaving. (The families) see our investment."
The mortgage on their home is paid by CrossRoads Corporation for Affordable Housing and Community Development, a nonprofit founded by Myers Park Presbyterian that's dedicated to revitalizing Grier Heights.
Urban Eagles take the kids to church and summer camp. They also tutor and provide clothing, food and furniture for the kids' families.
Owned by Missionary Athletes International, the Division II Eagles are the only Christian professional team in the world.
"Soccer is the bridge, the connection, the common language," said Steve Shak, Eagles' assistant coach and the neighborhood director for the Birchcroft Urban Eagles group. "Letting kids know about the love of Jesus...that's the primary thing for us."
The Grier Heights group plays in an unmanicured field on the grounds of Antioch Baptist Church, minutes from Page and Guzman's house. Some kids sprint down the field, calling for passes and taking shots, while others are content in the ankle-high grass, laughing.
Two young boys, about 4 years old, come every week and play with action figures in the gravel parking lot.
As their scrimmage winds down, some neighborhood kids, including a handful of girls, stop by. The group of 15 grows to 30.
They all huddle up, put their hands in the middle and bow their heads. Page prays.
After grabbing bottles of water from a coach's car and chugging them on the spot, everyone walks to Page and Guzman's house for dinner.
"It's like a youth group," said Page.
They gather under a rudimentary cover, with a tin roof and rusting uprights, in the backyard of the small, one-story blue house on Orange Street.
They sit on folded metal chairs and upturned buckets, playing charades while the adults set up the assembly line of spaghetti, green beans, applesauce and lemonade.
There are about eight volunteers. Debbie Blanzy and Lady Eagles player Ashleigh Gunning help prepare the food.
"I wanted a way to get involved, and I prefer cooking over coaching," said Gunning, 25. "I like to think of (the night) as family time."
The kids bow their heads to pray before they eat. Many go back for seconds and thirds.
When they're done eating, they move the tables out and form a semicircle. Mitch Sanford, an international tour director for Missionary Athletes International, stands holding a Bible. Today, he's teaching from the Gospel of Matthew. "We've got a skit for you," he said. "It occurs every day. It's a sad thing."
Two kids pretend to fight. They both collapse.
"Did anybody win?" asked Sanford, 29. "No. You don't get anything out of violence."
Some of the kids come from homes where violence is a reality, Page said. None of them live with both their parents, and only four of them have male figures in the house.
"Those kids, when they're 3 years old, are faced with realities some of us never have to face," said Page.
That's why the coaches always emphasize Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
"It's a foreign concept to them," said Page. "Then they start to buy it. 'God loves me.' "
But building relationships with the kids was difficult at first, Page said. There was a tense period, as the kids adjusted to a new level of accountability and structure. "The kids don't understand what's going on inside of them," said Page. "There's two months of butting heads. They're testing us. They're thinking, 'Are you doing to leave us, too?' So you keep loving them."
Shak said they've seen some real breakthroughs - kids showing leadership qualities. Every few months, the four Urban Eagles neighborhood groups get together to play one another. This spring, they had five games scheduled and the field was overgrown. Page told the group the grass needed mowing, and one boy, Devanta Kelly, offered to do it.
"He stepped up and took ownership of it," said Shak.
Since they started Urban Eagles, 30 kids have become Christians, and 25 were baptized at camp.
Page baptized seven of his Grier Heights players.
"It was really neat to hear them on the way back, talking to each other about how it felt when they came out of the water," said Page. "One said, 'It was like a weight coming off of me.' You don't hear kids talk like that."
Urban Eagles runs solely on donations and volunteers. Shak said people don't have to play soccer to get involved - they can help with food, transportation or cooking.
"We all have that core need in our spirit for love," said Shak. "The poor, profaned, abandoned, lost, hopeless, rejected - these are the people God sees so much value in."Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/09/29/1715588/these-eagles-help-urban-children.html#ixzz10vWIFaiV

It's Been a While.......

It has been a while since my last post/update and for that I apologize. It has been an extremely busy last month with a variety of events and things going on. Ranging from the Bolton Wanderers of the English Premier League coming and playing against the men's team (I helped run the security and operations of the game) to the Lady Eagles making playoffs and traveling to Atlanta to play for the Atlantic Conference Title. (We won the first game against Washington Freedom Futures who had knocked us out of the post-season the previous two years and then lost to our rivals the Atlanta Silverbacks in the Conference Final game :( thus officially ending the 2010 season.

I will come on again soon and give a more detailed account of the past month, but I just wanted to put something up quick to tell you Caitlin and I are alive and doing well and God has been doing some amazing things through the ministry in Charlotte.

I also wanted to mention that Caitlin and I will be traveling back North to Syracuse in the coming week to reconnect with our supporters and see family. I will try and get more information about our trip itinerary soon. If you are interested in getting together please let me know and we will schedule it.

Please continue to be praying for Lady Eagles as now they are faced with having to go back to school, find jobs, or just figure out where the Lord wants them to be. It can be a scary thing having to go from a spiritual high of being surrounded by believers to having to be in environments where their faith will be tested. The comforting thing is that is why God had brought them to Charlotte in the first place; to teach them to share their faith in the environments they are in on a daily basis.

For now that is all I have. My next step is to take my lovely wife out on a much needed date and just spend some quality time together. We are looking forward to our 2 year anniversary coming up on the 1st of August!! Praise God for that!!! Thank you all for your prayers, love and support of the past months. I could not have been doing the Lords work without you.

Until we see each other again, take care and my God Bless you!

-Jeremy

Charlotte Eagles on FOX NEWS!

Our Charlotte Eagles have been featured on Charlotte's Fox News this week! Click on this link to see some of the footage! Or watch the video below!

We're excited to get the word out about the Eagles, so send this link (http://alturl.com/wsidh) to others who might be interested... we need lots of action on this link so Fox will keep airing the Eagles!!!

a funny video and a quick update

First, a funny video:

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

That was Jeremy and his father, along with his brothers Jon and Jay and my (Caitlin's) brother Josh. They're all excited about the World Cup, I'm sure.

Also, a quick update on the Lady Eagles trip to Tampa, Florida. Jeremy and I were both able to go on this trip, and the ladies had two games - both against Tampa. The first game ended in a 0-1 loss for the Lady Eagles, and the second was a 0-0 tie. The trip went well, and I'll have Jeremy tell you more about it soon!

We also have a few prayer requests - first, for Jeremy's grandfather (his dad's father) who has been really struggling with his health lately, and second, for Jeremy's grandmother to continue to heal and recover. Pray for us to continually keep God first in our lives.

Let us know if you have any prayer requests, too! We would love to hear from you!

children of the world... in charlotte!

It's the sweetest thing to see children from all over the world - of every tongue and tribe and nation - right in Charlotte. Sometimes I wish that Jeremy and I were overseas (maybe back in South Africa), but this week, I was reminded that we don't even need to travel anywhere... God has brought the children of the world TO US.

My favorite part of the Eagles ministry, which we've mentioned before but wanted to highlight tonight, is the Urban Eagles, which reaches out to several inner city neighborhoods, specifically places where refugees have been resettled in Charlotte.

According to the NC Refugee Assistance Program, the US government allows up to 70,000 refugees to come into the US (although not that many do come in), and increasingly, more and more are being resettled in North Carolina, many in Charlotte/Mecklenburg.

For about the last month, I've been able to go and make some friends at a local apartment complex in Charlotte where many of these refugees are placed. At this particular complex, more than 14 different countries are represented, and there are so many children who just want someone to pay attention to them.

This past week, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the Lady Eagles had the opportunity to spend some extra time with these kids... loving on them through soccer, sidewalk chalk, and nail polish. Usually, the Urban Eagles ministry focuses on the young boys by getting them involved in soccer, but this week, I saw four or five times as many girls come out than ever before (usually it's only a few). They loved getting to know the women on the team, and I think the women were really impacted by the time there, too.

We were also able to have a photographer, Rodney Scot, take some pictures while we were there. Many of the parents in this neighborhood have very little in their homes, much less any artwork on their walls, so these pictures of their beautiful children will be printed and framed for them! Just so cool. It's also a sweet opportunity for me to introduce you to some of my friends...

This is Zowdie, a nine-year-old girl from Africa (she hasn't told me which country yet) and one of the first kids I met here. She is completely full of life, with a strong, outgoing personality. Her little sister Sofia (below) is pretty much the same, sweet and lively. She's 5 years old.

This is Mariam, a ten-year-old girl from Congo. She has the sweetest and most loving heart. This week, she taught me a hopscotch-esque game from her home country, which was hard for just about everyone but her.

And this is Biak, a beautiful girl from Burma. She is so full of love. She's about 9 and has two younger sisters she cares about deeply. I wish I had pictures of her sisters, A Siang and Mia (sorry, I can't remember how it's spelled) because they are just as cute and sweet as Biak.

I would keep going and show you all the kids individually, but instead, I'll just share one last picture of a whole group of kids listening to a skit about how much Jesus loves them.

Chile Tour

Hey Friends:

Sorry the last post was suppose to go up a week ago but we had some computer problems but were able to recover it. Yeah!!! So I wanted to write now to let you know two things. First the ladies had their first victory last weekend at Hampton Roads. If you are thinking that we just played them, that is correct. We played them in Charlotte on May 14th and then played them again in Virginia on May 22nd.

We ended up playing a great game and winning 5-0. Our record is now 1-0-1! Undefeated so far which is great! Our next game is on June 5th and then June 6th, both against Tampa Bay in Tampa.

The other thing I wanted to tell you about is that the group going on the missions trip to Chile left on Monday night. I am asking that as you all read this, please say a quick prayer for the them as they travel and minister to the people of Chile. They are going to be able to do some great things in Chile for the Lord. I am going to try and post some videos and other details about their trip when they return. Until then continue to pray for their time in Chile and then their safe return.

I miss you all very much and please continue to pray for Caitlin as she is getting busy working at the Eagles office with the camps department and doing graphic design things. If you want to know every time we have a new post, you can sign up on the right hand side of our blog, or you can email me at jwauyer@gmail.com and I will add you to the list. Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support. Take care and keep in touch.

First Game!!!

Hello friends!!!

So, the first game was two weekends ago. That is why I am writing now instead of on Sunday. I totally missed my self imposed deadline. I am going to try my best to continue to post at least once a week to make sure all of you who pray and support me know whats going on in the ministry.

So far we have just about every women on the team here and practices have been going great. 6:15 every morning they have devotions and then start practice and finish up by 8am. It has been a taxing schedule for everyone but I know that the women are getting into the sport ministry training and the discipleship groups. I would encourage everyone to check out a blog by a women who is on staff with the Lady Eagles. She is a former player who is now the women's ministry coordinator and goalkeeper coach. She will give you a great perspective on what they are going through and what it means to them. http://kforbis.blogspot.com/

I have been doing my best at making sure everything is prepared for the season and now my role shifts to maintaining the day to day of the team. I am learning the process to report the details of the game to the league and making sure the team's travel to away games goes smooth. Please continue to pray for the women as they training both spiritually and physically for their next game this weekend. Our opponent is Hampton Roads Piranhas. They are located in the Virginia Beach area. We have been able to develop some good relationships with them because we have played each other for the past couple of years.

Because we played them last week as well, we are hoping to continue to talk with some their players after the game. We had a time to pray with their team following our last game with them and hope to do that again. Please pray for Hampton Roads and that we will be able to talk with some of them and that they would be willing to ask questions to our players. Also pray for safe travel and a safe game for both teams. And that we would be able to be an example of Jesus to all of the fans, players, and officials at the game.

I am thinking about all of you and apologize for not being in touch personally right now. I am going to be trying my best to get in touch with each of you. Please be praying for Caitlin and I as we continue to serve God here with MAI. We love you all and miss you!

- Jeremy and Caitlin

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season starting!!!!!

Well, it has arrived! The first day of practice is a little over 8 hours away! For all of you who are early risers, please pray for me because I am not.... though our 6:15am practice time will do its best to convert me. Yes, Monday morning we will start at 6:15am and go until around 8:00am. This will go basically everyday of May until the first week of June - then we will start at 4pm. So please be praying for each of the ladies on the team as some of them will not get in until the second week of May. Please check out our schedule at www.charlotteeagles.com.

Caitlin and I are also working on putting together a type of "adopt-a-player" program for anyone who wants to be involved. Basically, you will have a Lady Eagle player on our team, and you will pray for her specifically throughout the season. You could also take it a step further and send her a card or note of encouragement or even a gift basket. But please go easy on the sweets because they will be in season, remember. ;) But we would like you to get creative with it and get as involved as you like. So look for more details about that in the near future.

I tried to keep this post short and I will try to do more short posts instead of the lengthy ones like before. Please continue to pray for me as I still have a good deal of work to do before things get too crazy. Please also pray for Caitlin's job interviews this week! We will keep you updated on everything, and we hope to hear from you all, as well. I love you all and will continue to pray for you.

syracuse connection: megan and abby

Here's a fun story about a local connection that the Charlotte Eagles has to Syracuse, New York.

About a month ago, while in the middle of the recruiting process that I mentioned earlier, we got a call from a woman who played with the Lady Eagles two years ago. She wanted to know if we had room on our roster for one more player she had been getting to know.

My first reaction was that we were too far along in the recruiting process to even consider another player, but the Lord really laid it on my heart to find out more about this player and to see what we could do.

From there, I found out that the former Eagles player was named Abby Crumpton, the assistant womens soccer coach at Syracuse University. I had never talked to Abby or knew much about her during her time with the Eagles, but our head coach Lee Horton remembered her and thought very highly of her.

So I decided to call Abby myself and talk to her to see what she was thinking in regards to this new player she wanted us to consider. Abby told me that within the first couple of weeks of coming to SU, she was introduced to Megan, as she was not only a leader on the team but a very strong player. Megan was coming off of double knee surgery to clean up tendonitis in her knees.

Abby also mentioned that Megan had brought to her a list of six or seven teams for which she was considering playing this summer. One of the teams on the list was Charlotte, only because she knew two people living in the area.

She did not know that Abby was a former player or anything about the Eagles, including the fact that we are a ministry-driven organization. Abby took the opportunity to explain to Megan every detail that she could about the ministry of the Eagles and about what she could expect if she were to play for us.

Abby told me that she had assumed that telling Megan about the ministry of the Eagles would turn her off to the possibility of playing with us. Instead, the opposite happened. Megan became more interested in our team and the possibility of playing in our environment.

One thing that you should know about Megan is that she comes from a Catholic background and was not a believer. Because of the questions that Abby answered about the Lady Eagles, it opened a door to discussing Christianity in more depth with Megan.

A week after talking to Abby, I called Megan to hear from her and make sure that she understood what our ministry was all about. As I talked to her, I quickly realized that she was very excited at the opportunity to play in the unique environment of the Lady Eagles. She was not at all turned off by the ministry or talking about Christ, yet she was honest that she did not have a personal relationship with Him.

Normally, the Lady Eagles do not bring on players who are not professing believers in Christ, but as I started to pray about it and as others began to pray for and with me, we were all drawn to having Megan come down to Charlotte and be a part of the team.

Three days after my call with Megan, I received a call from Abby. She was giddy with joy because Megan had prayed to accept Christ as her Lord and Savior that day!

This just happened to be the day before I was planning on calling Megan to offer her a spot on our team. It served as confirmation to me that I had made the right decision in inviting Megan to serve with the Lady Eagles this season.

What is so awesome about this story is that it demonstrates all that the ministry of the Eagles and Lady Eagles teams (and MAI as a whole) can do in people's lives. Abby came in, was trained in sports ministry, did sports ministry with the Lady Eagles, and then was deployed to her current mission field at Syracuse University, where she impacted the life of Megan. Now Megan gets to come and learn more about Christ and about sports ministry, and our prayer is that she will use her training to impact the life of someone else in the future.

MAI's goal is to "develop culturally relevant soccer ministry programs that become self-replicating." Even on an individual level, each and every woman that comes to Charlotte to be a part of the Lady Eagles is a part of a ministry. This ministry changes her life, but it also trains and empowers to go and impact someone else's life for Christ.

Megan's life is forever changed. This is a glimpse into how all of your prayer, support, and gifts can be used to bring glory to God and change lives. I implore you to continue to pray for the ministry over this upcoming summer. Our dream is to see lives changed and God glorified through soccer.

the Lord will provide

I received an e-mail a few days ago from a Charlotte Eagles staff member's daughter, who is going to be going on tour with the Lady Eagles team to Chile. She was sending the e-mail to encourage her fellow tour members as many of them are struggling to raise support for the trip. In the e-mail, she added lyrics to a hymn called "The Lord will Provide." I thought it would be a great reminder to all of us that the Lord will provide everything that we need, exactly when we need it. I hope that you enjoy it and that it will be an encouragement to you as well.

The Lord will Provide

by John Newton

Though troubles assail,
And dangers affright;
Though friends should all fail,
And foes all unite,
Yet one thing secures us,
Whatever betide:
The Scripture assures us,
"The Lord will provide."

The birds, without barn
Or storehouse, are fed;
From them let us learn
To trust for our bread;
His saints what is fitting
Shall ne'er be denied,
So long as 'tis written,
"The Lord will provide."

His call we obey,
Like Abram of old,
Not knowing our way,
But faith makes us bold;
For though we are strangers,
We have a good Guide;
And trust in all dangers:
"The Lord will provide."

When Satan appears
To stop up our path,
And fills us with fears,
We triumph by faith;
He cannot take from us,
Though oft he has tried,
The heart-cheering promise,
"The Lord will provide."

He tells us we're weak,
Our hope is in vain;
The good that we seek
We ne'er shall obtain;
But when such suggestions
Our faith thus have tried,
This answers all questions,
"The Lord will provide."

No strength of our own,
Nor goodness we claim;
Our trust is all thrown
On Jesus' dear name.
In this our strong tower
For safety we hide;
The Lord is our power,
"The Lord will provide."

When life sinks apace,
And death is in view,
The word of His grace
Shall comfort us through;
Not fearing or doubting,
With Christ on our side,
We hope to die shouting,
"The Lord will provide."

the reason I am here

Last week I went to a apartment complex in Charlotte to listen to the kids there read to me. Myself and Katie Forbis, a former player and current Women's ministry coordinator, went to the apartments with the Urban Eagles. The Urban Eagles are a part of the Charlotte Office ministry. They go into a couple different apartment complexes where different refuge groups are concentrated. They formed a soccer team in each place and then they minister to the children on the team and their families. This could mean anything from just hanging out to helping the children with their reading. Because many of the kids are in school then need as much practice as they can get. The parents usually do not know any english so we help teach them as well.

I stopped by for the first time with Kaite and we were both blown away about how wonderful the children are and how eager they are to read. It was such an easy thing to serve and love them. The exciting part was that we found out a couple of days after we visited that a dozen kids excepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior!!

Some of the kids that we met were in the video that I posted earlier. I have added another video here about what the urban eagles are all about. Check it out!

devotional

One of the Men's coaches sent this along to everyone in the organization and said that it was a great devotional to take a look at. I read through it and it was exactly what I needed to hear. Take a look.....

David Wilkerson Today

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2010

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

What does it all mean when prayers go unanswered? When hurts linger and God seems to be doing nothing in response to our faith? Often God is loving us more supremely at that time than ever before. The Word says, "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth." A chastening of love takes precedence over every act of faith, over every prayer, over every promise. What I see as hurting me could be his loving me. It could be his gentle hand spanking me out of my stubbornness and pride.

We have faith in our faith. We place more emphasis on the power of our prayers than we do on getting his power into us. We want to figure out God so we can read him like a book. We don't want to be surprised or bewildered and when things happen contrary to our concept of God, we say, "That can't be God; that's not the way he works."

We are so busy working on God, we forget he is trying to work on us. That is what this life is all about: God at work on us, trying to remake us into vessels of glory. We are so busy praying to change things, we have little time to allow prayer to change us. God has not put prayer and faith in our hands as if they were two secret tools by which a select group of "experts" learn to pry something out of him. God said he is more willing to give than we are to receive. Why are we using prayer and faith as "keys" or tools to unlock something that has never been locked up?

Prayer is not for God's benefit, but for ours. Faith is not for his benefit, but for ours. God is not some eternal, divine tease. He has not surrounded himself in riddles for men to unravel, as if to say, "The wise will get the prize."

We are so mixed up on this matter of prayer and faith; we have had the audacity to think of God as our personal "genie" who fulfills every wish. We think of faith as a way to corner God on his promises. We think God is pleased by our efforts to back him against the wall and shout, "Lord, you can't go back on your promise. I want what is coming to me. You are bound by your Word. You must do it or your Word is not true."

This is why we miss the true meaning of prayer and faith. We see God only as the giver and we are the receiver. But prayer and faith are the avenues by which we become the givers to God. They are to be used, not as ways to get things from God, but as a way to give him those things by which we can please him.

Read this devotion online: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/7979

Pulpit Series Newsletters

new england revolution exhibition game

On Saturday March 13th, the men's team had an exhibition game against the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer. We were really excited about the game because it was a great way for the Eagles to get people excited about soccer in the area. Besides that, we are able to reach a new group of people who might not normally come to our soccer games.

Leading up to the game we had the largest pre-sale in Charlotte Eagles history, over 1500 people. Unfortunately the forecast called for rain during the game. We were a little worried that we would not get a good turnout but in the end we had over 2,000 people. The one problem was that about 8 minutes into the game we had a lightning strike. We had to clear the stadium because we were on an open aluminum stands. As we were doing that people assumed that the game was over so they left the game. What we were trying to tell everyone was that we had to wait 30 minutes and they if there were no other strikes we could resume the game.

Praise the Lord we were able to resume the game and played all 90 minutes of the game. In the end the Eagles lost 2-0 but had some very good chances on goal, including hitting the post once and sending three just skipping wide of the post. The team played extremely well for only being together for about one week. The NE Revolution had been together for almost a month now.

On another note, as we have mentioned in the previous post, Caitlin has been helping with graphic designs for the team. She was able to produce a great program that we distributed. The cool thing was that we asked one of the coaches to write his story on the back of the program. We were able to distribute over 1,000 programs to the fans and players from New England that had that testimony on the back.

That same player actually played against the Eagles many years ago and received a similar testimony of an Eagles player which helped eventually lead him to Christ. It was his idea to do this again, planting a seed that the Lord could use to bring a player, fan, coach, or official to Christ. It was an awesome thing to be a part of such a great organization who's focus is to serve God!

Thank you again for each of you who makes this possible for Caitlin and I to be here. We pray for you and praise God for you!

Prayer requests:

- Caitlin is still looking for a job

- My mother's mother took a spill last week and ended up with some damage to her arm and head. She is ok now but is recovering from a surgery to repair a fracture in her elbow.

- We are close to finalizing the roster for the women's team. Please pray for the women that are not sure if they should play or not and those that we have to say no to.

Take care and I look forward to hearing from you.

recruiting, tryouts, and more.....

One of my very first responsibilities was to start recruiting players for the team. Coming into the position, I was most nervous about this aspect because it has such long term effects. What if brought in the wrong person, or what if she did this or didn't do that. It was starting to weigh heavily on me. I had been praying about it and realized that God already knows who is supposed to come and how to get them here. I feel like I have these moments when I just sit back and know that it is totally out of my control.

One aspect of recruiting that fell to me was putting on an open tryout. Actually, 95% of the recruiting will normally fall to me, but because I came on staff in the thick of things it has been split between myself and our head coach. As for the tryout, we open it to anyone across the country who is able to come and who wants to be a part of our ministry. This year the tryout fell on Saturday, March 13, 2010. Normally just any old Saturday, but this year it was also the date of our Men's team exhibition match against the New England Revolution from Major League Soccer. (Look for more on that story another time!)

So as the date approached, I was starting to get a little anxious because of the small number of women committed to coming. Yet again God shows His goodness, and we had over 25 women show up, as well as 4 players who are veterans on our team. For us, 25 is a great number and more importantly, the level of play was the highest it has ever been. That is the good part; the difficult part is that it falls to me to make the phone calls to the players who do not make the team.

Both myself and Lee (our head coach) wish we could take more players than we are allowed because we know that if we could just get the women in our environment, then God will change them in mighty ways. Let me clarify what I mean by "allowed". Per the rules for the league we are in, the United Soccer Leagues W-League, we are allowed to roster 26 players at one time. (Meaning we can have a player rostered at the beginning of the year and then switch her out for another one at the end.) We are only allowed to dress 18 for games, meaning only 18 girls have the chance to play in a game. Because we are a ministry, we usually only have the resources to roster 24 players and then have another 3-4 players as what we call "non-rostered" players. The 3-4 players are women who have a strong desire and call to sports ministry and specifically to the Lady Eagles. We allow them to practice with us everyday, to participate in our ministry training and small group studies, to go on our mission trip if they desire, and to serve in any other way the team is able to. The only thing they are not allowed to do is play in any games.

To some of you who are reading this, that might not seem like a big deal. But to women who, more often than not, have only ever felt good about themselves when they are on a soccer field, it is a big deal. You have to understand that more than anything, the team exists to bring women in to train them how to use their faith on the field and how to share that faith with others. Before we can show them how to do that, we need to help them grow in their own relationship with Christ.

Each of the women that come onto the team are at a different point in their spiritual walk with the Lord. We try and do things that will be able to encourage and grow each woman specifically in their own walk with Christ. As you can imagine, that is a very difficult thing to do, but we know that it is nothing that we as leaders can do to save someone; it is only through Christ one can have life eternal. So we try to point them to Christ and be a support group and talking board for many of them.

Wow, I just realized that the last three paragraphs stemed from me trying to elaborate on what I meant by "allowed". Sorry, back on topic now.

So we wish we could have more women come and be a part of the ministry because we truly believe that it would change anyone who was a part of it for the better. But, alas, we cannot, and that is what leads us to where I am at today.

We have just completed the tryout and, as I mentioned before, had a great turn out of quality players. They not only ranged in age and quality of play, but also in spirituality. We had some women who came who did not know that we were a Christian team and who did not have much if any knowledge of Christ. God gave us a cool opportunity to witness to them during our lunch break of the tryout. I opened the time up with prayer for our food and then when they were done eating I showed a video about Missionary Athletes International. After the video, I was able to share about how God called me to MAI to be a missionary and told them that people like you (who are reading this right now) have sent me money so that I can hold a tryout so that they could come and have an opportunity to play soccer. That definitely turned some heads!

I told them about the different ministry outreaches we do and that we are first a ministry and second a soccer team. Yet, we want to glorify God in everything that we do and do the very best we can; meaning we are not going to use our Christianity as a crutch or excuse so that we do not have to try. After I spoke, I had a former player speak and give her story of how Christ led her to the Lady Eagles and then I had a current player speak. When they were speaking, you could see each lady in the room fixed right on them and eating up each word. So many of them could relate to what our players where saying, it was awesome to sit back and watch God work. Then Lee spoke about the team, and when he was done, it made me want to play.

I truly pray that each of you reading this will be able to someday come to Charlotte and see what you being involved in this ministry actually does. We could not do any of this without you, and I wish there was a way I could better show you that. I love and appreciate all of you, and I pray for you as you pray for me. I am sorry this was so long; it was supposed to be a short post, but you understand.

I will hopefully be posting again soon. I am working out the kinks of how this all works and the best way to inform you all, so please bear with me. Thank you again, and please give me a call or shoot me an email. I would love to hear about you and what you are up to. I am going to be trying to give each of you a call in the coming month before the season starts. If you have not heard from me, please give me a call when you have a moment. I always want to hear from you.

Prayer Requests:

- Pray for me as I have to call the women who did not make the team. Pray that God will give me the words to say and that each of them will be able to know that God has a plan for their lives.

- Pray for Caitlin as she is still looking for work. She has been doing some graphic design work for the Eagles which is awesome. (You can check out all of her stuff at www.theboxcardesign.com, which is under construction but does have the majority of her Eagles designs.) Let us know if you need baby announcements or wedding invitations, she is your girl!

- Pray for each of the players on our team. (I am going to post the roster when we finalize it and I would like everyone to pick a player to pray for when you pray for me!)

Praise: Levi Peter Auyer was born Feb 23, 6 pounds 10 ounces 18 inches! His parents, Rachael and Jason Auyer, and big brother Sam are doing great, and we just Praise God for His awesome creation!!!

urban eagles video 2010

Missionary Athletes International introduces urban ministry through the Charlotte Eagles professional soccer team in Charlotte, NC. We are transforming not only individual lives but entire communities through the love of God found in Jesus Christ. Soccer and tutoring are the tools we are using to connect to kids and their families of the inner city, for them they might think it's a way out but for us it's a way in. www.charlotteeagles.com

the crazy story of our move to charlotte

The short story is that, after an amazing time in New York with family and friends during the holidays, we have arrived in Charlotte. However, the extended story is much more complicated, so you might want to sit down and get something to drink. I will try to streamline the story, but it’s hard to find shortcuts in this one.

Over the weekend of the 16th of January, I had a soccer coaches’ convention in Philadelphia. After the convention, I left with the Charlotte Eagles Men’s General Manager, Tom Engstrom, around 8 o’clock in the morning on Saturday, attempting to meet Caitlin and her parents in Charlotte by 5 o’clock that night (in order to get our key from the apartment office).

Meanwhile, Caitlin, her parents, and two dogs (our dog, Charlie, and Cindy’s dog, Jordy) left Syracuse around 4 o’clock on Saturday morning in a pickup truck, loaned to us from good friends of ours, in order to make the trip to Charlotte, which would normally take around 12 hours. This time, however, they were pulling a U-Haul trailer up and down the hill country of Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Tom and I were making pretty good time and were on pace to make it to Charlotte without much problem, planning on getting in before 5. It was about 4:30 when I received a text message from Caitlin saying that they were near the NC/VA border and that, when they had stopped, they had found some pink liquid coming out from under the truck. My first thought was transmission fluid, and I was worried.

I did not find out right away, but what had happened was that, while Caitlin was driving, it had been about time to fill up on gas and stop for some food. She and her parents decided to look for a Chick-Fil-A, and found one with the GPS. They accidentally missed the exit, so they took the next one. At that exit, as Caitlin was pulling the truck up to the gas pump, she pulled it too far forward and had to back up a little to reach the pump. After doing this, they were able to see a puddle that had formed where the truck had been, and then saw the ominous pink liquid dripping from underneath.

From here, they saw a Wal-Mart across the street and drove over to pick up some transmission fluid. Because all they could see was a small drip, they hoped it was a minor leak that they could monitor themselves. As they pulled up, they saw service station on the side of the Wal-Mart and figured it would better to go in and ask for advice. Of course, the service station did not work on transmission problems. As Caitlin’s father, Rick, was leaving, a man asked if he needed help with a transmission problem? He had been getting new tires at the service station and had overheard Rick in the service center. He had also just happened to work at a transmission shop right off the exit that they had first missed. Right there in the Wal-Mart parking lot, he slid under the truck, spotted a blown seal, and said that he could take a better look at it back at his shop. So off they went.

At this point, he had told Caitlin and her parents that it would take at least until Monday morning to fix it because they would have to take the whole transmission down to fix it. So now, they are about 3 hours away from Charlotte with no way to tow all of our things. What do we do? Trust that this little shop could fix it? They were in the middle of nowhere in rural Virginia, with no other transmission shops for miles and miles. Should they rent a truck? Should they stay in a hotel and wait? Should I go and get them? Should I bring them

to our empty apartment without any of our things? These moments were a little bit heartbreaking because it was impossible to know what the best option would be, and it seemed like nothing was working quite the way it should. Caitlin and her parents had no idea who to trust in the situation, but they did trust that God would provide the answer.

They decided that they really did not have any other option than to leave the truck there to be fixed and find some other way to get back on the road or find a hotel. Then, they found out that just 4 days earlier, the owner of the transmission shop (and the father of the kind man who had helped them at Wal-Mart) had started renting U-Haul trucks. Then, because they already had the U-Haul trailer with insurance, the owner worked out a deal for them - only a flat fee of $57.80 (that is, with no mileage fee) for the rental of their smallest truck for the three days until the truck would be fixed. It was an amazing deal! Working with a U-Haul newbie, we are still unsure about whether or not he charged us correctly, but the fact remains that it was an amazing deal.

However, then, the owner said that his credit card machine was down and that he needed cash. This might not have been a problem had they not been hours away from home without easy access to cash or even an ATM. Normally, they would not have that much cash on hand,

but when Rick checked his wallet, he found exactly 57 dollars even. That was it! Then, they had to scrounge around for the other 80 cents, but came up with exactly what they needed. How unbelievable was that! Praise God! So off they went with Caitlin sitting on the floor of the truck between the seats with Charlie on her lap. I can’t imagine that it was very comfortable, but they did it. They arrived at the apartment at 9:30 that night.

Meanwhile, I had arrived at the apartment a bit after 5 o’clock that night and was able to get the key and sign the papers that needed to be signed. Another situation occurred, however, the moment I walked up to the manager’s office at the apartment complex, as the manager on duty was running out the door because of a situation with a tenant. She came back a bit later and told me that she had just found that one of the tenants was dead in his apartment. The police and ambulance had just gotten there. I found out that the man had died earlier that day, and when his son could not get ahold of him, the assistant manager entered the man’s apartment, found the man, and went into shock. She came back to the office shaking and very distressed. While I did not know her, I know God had put me there to help her through that moment.

After all of that, when Caitlin and her parents arrived, we brought in two blankets, a couple of pillows, and some clothes, and then we slept on the floor that night because it was too late to unpack without disturbing the neighbors. (Oh, the new world of apartment living!) It did, however, work out well that they were able to get the covered truck from U-Haul because it had started to rain around 5 o’clock that night, just when we would have been unloading, and continued throughout the night. In the morning, we went outside to start unpacking, and we discovered that the truck had a flat tire! Yet another issue! We continued unloading and finished it before 3 o’clock that Sunday afternoon, just as it started raining again. It wasn’t until 6at night that we were able to get someone out to change the tire. Then, on Monday, we got word from the transmission shop that the truck would not be ready until Tuesday afternoon, instead of Monday.

So, Tuesday morning, Caitlin’s parents left in order to get to the shop by noon to pick up the truck. When they arrived, they found out that they had encountered some problems and that it would not be ready until Tuesday night. So they hung around the shop (in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do) until they received yet more bad news - the truck would not be ready until Wednesday afternoon because of some more issues. At this point, they got a hotel room, brought Cindy’s dog, Jordy, into the room wrapped up like a baby, and tried to sleep, worrying about whether they would ever get home. Finally, they were actually able to head out around 4:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday and got back home to Liverpool at 3:30 in the morning on Thursday.

Caitlin and I found it so incredibly difficult that we could do nothing to help them. For me, it seemed like nothing had really happened to me in the midst all of the craziness, while my in-laws had encountered so many trials in the journey that they had made to help me. We couldn’t help but feel like everything had just plain gone wrong. Even when Rick and Cindy finally got home, the truck was still having problems and would have to be re-fixed. Since we have been here in North Carolina, our tub leaked into the apartment below us and ruined their ceiling; our dog has destroyed a good-sized piece of carpet, made several huge messes in the house, and ripped up the window shades trying to look for us; and our new bed frame had a defective part and broke. I hope that I don’t sound like I’m complaining; I tell you all of this not to complain, but to say that, even though the devil might be trying to bring us down, our strength is in the Lord. I know that because of all of you, who have been praying for us, you have kept us safe and made sure we had our eyes fixed on our Lord. So many times throughout the story, if just one little thing had been different, it could have ended in a much different way. God was there with us, carrying us though it. We continue to covet your prayers for God’s provision and protection

over us, for Caitlin’s job search, and for all that He has planned for us in this scary, new place! Please keep us up to date on your prayer requests, too, so that we can truly be partnered with you in prayer!