A Volunteer's Life Changed
At Sports Outreach, Volunteers are a crucial part of ministry, both domestically and internationally. In El Salvador, SOI Director Humberto Alférez and his team, take great care to involve, teach, and disciple their volunteers. Sometimes those volunteers come in as individuals wanting to serve and love people because they love God, other times, they come just to have something to do or to meet a requirement. Often what ends up happening is these individuals find themselves surrounded by people who love God and want to help His people, and they leave with a transformed life, wanting to do the same. Kevin has a story just like that. He enrolled in Sports Outreach programs because his mother wanted him to. But he now has a passion to change kids’ lives through sports and the Word of God.
My name is Kevin Antonio Alemán Martínez. I am 19 years old, and I live in Nuevo Cuscatlán, La Libertad, El Salvador, where I also finished my academic studies graduating from high school at the National Institute of Nuevo Cuscatlán in 2018. I currently live with my grandparents. Until I was 15 years old I lived with my mother and my brothers, during that time I received some help from my father but him and my mother were separated. In 2015 I went to live with my father. It was not easy being the son of separated parents who also had difficult times but we trusted God and He helped us to get ahead. God also put Sport Outreach in my life and they were of great help since they gave me advice and taught me in each training how to put things into practice. Because of that, I was able to graduate high school with good grades.
I have played soccer since I was 8 years old where I played for the municipal soccer school team until I was 12 years old. In 2012 I lowered my grades and had a bad behavior, so my parents decided to remove me from the soccer team and told me that they would let me play again when I raised my grades and improved my behavior. One day when I was studying, the coaches from the soccer academy at Sports Outreach came to visit. My mother encouraged me to enroll since they talked about God. I agreed so I started going to Sport Outreach in 2013. When I began attending my behavior did not improve. But slowly, with each training, the coacehes counseled me about God and I learned many values that helped improve my life, my behavior, and my academic performance. I can say with all I am sure that being part of Sport Outreach was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Thanks to God and SOI for changing my life!
In 2015, the coaches and Lic. Humberto Alférez (Director of SOI Central America) asked me if I wanted to be part of the volunteer staff. Without thinking twice I said YES and it has been one of the best decisions of my life! To be able to serve in the ministry and teach what little I know is a blessing. Thanks to SOI for allowing me to help and teach soccer and talk about God to many children and young people.
God used Sport Outreach to change my life.
My family and I are very grateful for all that SOI has done for us. Currently I am a SOI volunteer and I am happy doing what I do, because seeing that happiness in each of the children and young people is incredible and drives us to be better every day. Thanks to SOI, I have been able to visit two countries, Honduras and Guatemala, where we have gone to talk about Jesus and teach about sport. Thanks to SOI I have seen myself benefited with clothes, shoes, and food among other benefits that SOI provides. In the future I see myself being a professional soccer coach because of how sports and God changed my life. My dream is to use coaching as a tool to bring young people closer to God, to preach to them of the Word, and to guide them on the right path. In the year 2021 I received a news that has given me great happiness; SOI was going to give me a scholarship so that I could continue to prepare myself academically and be able to be a professional in life! That is why I am studying to get my Bachelor of Languages with a specialty in the Acquisition of Foreign Languages, at Don Bosco University. My dream is to be able to speak English and French and thus be able to fulfill another one of my dreams, which is to teach what I have learned. I would love to establish a language academy together with SOI and thus be able to reach young people through the teaching of these two languages and also through sports.
“And whatever you do, do it from the heart, as for the Lord and not for men.” Colossians 3:23
That verse from Colossians is the foundations for the work of the SOI El Salvador team. They are hard at work training up the next generation of leaders just like Kevin. Kevin’s life has been transformed by the power of the Gospel and by the power of discipleship from dedicated coaches.
If you would like to learn more about ministry in El Salvador and how YOU can be involved, click here!