Coach Andy - changed and helping change others

Andy is a coach serving on the SOI El Salvador team. This personal testimony is a wonderful example of how our ministry builds leaders who then invest in the next generation of young people, using sports as a tool.

“As part of the SOI ministry, I would like to share my experience and how the ministry has changed my life and has helped me in my academic, spiritual and personal growth. In addition to improving my relationship with other people, working with SOI has been a wonderful thing.

“After finishing my high school education, I started my career as a Teacher in Physical Education, Recreation and Sports in the year 2012 in the Specialized Institute of Higher Education El Espíritu Santo (IEESES). It was a difficult year because economically I did not have the necessary funds to study but with the help of God and my mother I managed to finish my first year of study.

“In 2013, thank God I was able to obtain a study grant through the municipality of Nuevo Cuscatlán. part of the grant requirement was to perform mandatory social service. It was then that I learned about Sports Outreach through the coordinator of sports of the college, professor David. He was an SOI volunteer, and he told me about the sports project in the municipality of Nuevo Cuscatlán where I live, working with children and young people from the Pedro Pablo Castillo School Center.

“I was interested in the project and investigated it, since it was in my home town. I was invited to a meeting where I met the people who would be in charge of the project and Lic. Humberto Alferez Marenco, the director. In the month of February, I began my social service as an assistant soccer coach in the sports center. it was a great opportunity they gave me and that they continue to give me to be part of this ministry.

“In 2014, thank God, I began to receive a small stipend from Sports Outreach. This helped me with my studies, and it also helped my mother. In that same year, the “Hope Restored” sports program began in La Esperanza community. It continues today, a program that I have been part of since the very beginning. I am able to work with children in that community, and this has has helped me to grow as a person. There, I have I met a group of children and I can say that many of them have changed their life in an incredible way!

“I finished my studies in 2015, and SOI was able to help pay for my graduation expenses. I am grateful to the ministry for that valuable help they gave me that year, it was a relief for my mother and who could see me graduating. In that same year, Janine Filippin from the US helped me to study the English language, and how i have a basic level. I will be always grateful for the support that the ministry has given me since 2013, and for the opportunity Sports Outreach gave me to be able to be part of this ministry that is coming from God.

“In my Christian formation, before starting my studies I did not attend any church. I missed my relationship with God. At the beginning, I did not know that Sports Outreach is a faith-based institution. The ministry has helped me to return to God, again, thanks to Lic. Humberto who helps us with our Christian formation through the relationship he has with me and with the SOI group.

“I reconciled with God in a group activity at SOI celebrating “Teacher’s Day”. After that, SOI ministry began to work with the Iglesia Dios de Pactos Church. I have gotten involved as a member there, and part of my vision to serve God is being able to continue giving biblical reflections to children and young people who participate in the ministry programs.

“Once again, I want to thank SOI for all the help you have given me, emotionally, financially, in my spiritual and work training, and in my growth as a person.”