Stephen is
back in San Pedro after a 2-day trip to Mexico City that lasted 10 days. He
went to register the team and submit all the paperwork needed for 2nd
Division, which has turned out to be much different than 3rd
Division. In the service tonight Stephen told us how for the first time we have
encountered discrimination from the soccer federation because El Calor is a
Christian team. One of the many letters that he submitted among the paperwork
was signed “Dios les bendiga” (God bless you), which is a common greeting here
in Mexico among Christians, but when the lawyer in charge of the paperwork saw
this, he became extremely angry and said that he wouldn’t accept our papers and
that we were kicked out of 2nd Division because Christianity and
sports don’t mix. Many things happened after this; our paperwork was “lost”,
the lawyer refused to see Stephen (one night Stephen stayed until 12:30 a.m.
waiting for the lawyer, who refused to leave his office in order to avoid talking
to Stephen), and it seemed to be an impossible situation. God was working
through all of the difficulties, however, and people started calling from other
organizations and teams from 1st Division, telling the officials of
2nd Division to approve our registration. Stephen finally received
the information he was waiting for late on Friday night but when we entered the
information to begin the online registration process, a notice came up that our
registration time period had expired. There is still a struggle ahead, and
Stephen will be heading back to Mexico City later this week to try and finish
the registration process. Thank you for your prayers, for those of you who
always pray for the team and the El Calor ministry, and those of you who may
have started praying in response to one of these posts. Please keep Stephen in
prayer as he travels and is at the soccer federation headquarters, please pray
that we will find favour with the officials and won’t have to struggle through
the season, and pray that the registration process will go smoothly and that
the funds needed for it and for the season will be provided.
The season starts on Sept. 2, and you can follow news here or through the El Calor Twitter feed (@CalorDeSanPedro)
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