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