Time video about Amputee Soccer Team!

This is a video put together by Time Magazine about the Haitian National Amputee Soccer team. After watching it perhaps you will appreciate how far the players came from just to get to the World Cup in Argentina and compete.

Below is the original URL if you want to view it on the Time website:

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,645210272001_2027113,00.html

Discipleship Group

Tomorrow at QCS (where I teach) we are starting discipleship groups. I'm excited to start my group with 5 or 6 high school girls, but I'm a little nervous too because I really want this to make a difference in their lives. Pray that God will use me...work in spite of me, bless them through me, etc. And pray for me to grow along with them. Thanks,
Carol

Amputee World Cup - and the winner is.....

Here is a description of the Amputee World Cup final game:

Uzbekistan Repeats! Beats Argentina 3-1 for 2nd Amputee Soccer World Cup

by Fancisco Rodriguez in Crespo

Uzbekistan confirmed its supremacy in the sport of amputee football by defeating Argentina 3-1 in the final match of the 2010 World Cup. More than 10,000 fans packed the arena for a second straight night to watch a superior Uzbekistani team repeat as World Champions. Uzbekistan also won the World Cup in 2007.

Speed and accuracy were the keys to this young Uzbek team led by its fast front line of Haydarali, Kudrat and complimented by prennial star Azziz leading against a tough Argentine defense. Argentina performed well, but the depth and shooting attacks by Uzbekistan made the outcome a foregone conclusion.

The champions began with a steady pace, he gradually took charge of the match with a game based on skillful ball handling, sharp passing skills, and keeping the ball moving from sideline to sideline.

The Argentina defensive was forced to work increasingly harder, with three defenders close to the goalkeeper Miguel Lemos.

Turahujaef Kudrat, the Uzbenistani keeper, tossed aside all shots against him.

The second half started with a quick goal from Haydarali, then Azziz scored again for the Uzbeks remaining focused on the ball and driving his shot home after a series of blocked shots and rebounds.

Argentina got on tbe board thanks to a drive from midfielder Travagliante Montans which was picked up and slipped into the net by Argentine Captain Hugo Hereñú. A wildly cheering crowd urged its team to gain another goal to make the match even.

But Argentina's hopes were dashed by a great move by Haydarali on the left wing, resulting in his second gol of the night, and a 3-1 lead for Uzbekistan.

The final whistle of the Turkish Referee Huseyin Elberb started a wild celebration by Uzbekistan, which ended the tournament undefeated with 4 wins and 2 draws.

Amputee World Cup Scores

Here is a summary of all the games Haiti has played so far from the iisport.org website. You can also see the standings of the entire tournament at: www.worldamputeefootball.com


Wed, Oct. 21

The Haiti team played their first match of the consolation round against Iran at Viale Foot Ball Club in Viale, Argentina in front of a pro-Haitian crowd of almost 4000.

Haiti played a hard fought match but couldn't overcome their lack of experience as they lost 3-0.

The teams double arm amputee goalkeeper, Cesar, made his World Cup debut in the 2nd half and played solidly, despite a defensive breakdown that caused a goal.

After the match, the team spent a lot of time with the fans, especially the children, who have embraced this team as their own.

Oct. 19:

Haiti fell tonight to the experienced and skillful Russian squad this evening 7-0 in Viale, Argentina. The Russians displayed a total game, with skilled precision passing, ball control, and a very capable attack that the young Haiti team just couldn't contain.

The first half the Haitians tried to play a more defensive game, but the Russians broke the defense as the score at half was 3-0.

After half, with wholesale player substitutions, the Haiti team attempted to open up the match with a little more offensive mindset, however, this allowed the Russians more space and they definitely took advantage of it.

The pro-Haiti crowd at C.A. Arsenal Stadium was solidly behind the Haitian squad despite the final score.

Rick Hofmann, General Secretary of the World Amputee Football Association had this to say when he heard the score, "Your rookies held Russia to 7 !!?? That's a phenomenal performance!" He went on to say, "Being together as short as time as you have, and this being your first real competition, you have no idea of how impressive a performance that is. Holding Russia to 7 in your first international competition. That's truly remarkable! They are, after all, three time World Cup Champions."

Oct 18:

In the second game in two days Haiti did not play well. The men are still learning to adapt to this high-pace world and the emotional ups and downs of competition, and we had to reassure that even the best teams in the world can lose 2-0 under these conditions. Considering that this was only their second game ever and that they have been playing for less than two months, we are proud of their performance.

Oct 17

The Haitian Amputee World Cup soccer team played its first-ever game against the powerful team of England at Arsenal Stadium in Viale, Argentina.

When the final whistle sounded, Haiti lost a hard fought battle vs Eng 2-1. The Haitians overcame early nerves & ended the half 0-0. Eng scored a goal early in the 2nd, and Haiti equalized on what the Argentines call a Golazo. Eng scored the winner about midway in the 2nd. The team played with heart, grit, & determination, …and they all “got stuck in”! After the 1st match, Haiti is 3rd in their group on goal differential.

The lone Haitian goal was scored by Gustave Denis, and even though he let in 2 goals, Emmanuel Ladouceur was great in goal. Considering this was the first competitive match that they have EVER played, and the first time that this team was all together on the pitch was on Aug 14th, their first match was an overwhelming success.

Quisqueya Students help prepare uniforms for distribution

Medical kits being prepared


Uniforms being separated


This week QCS students earned community service hours by helping AIS Haiti group uniforms of the same size into bags of 18. We were given tons of “t-shirt style” uniforms by a town soccer league near Boston. These uniforms will be a great blessing to many teams during this coming year!

In addition, thanks to a generous gift of medical equipment by the Ciotti family at Crossing Community Church we were able to make up 40 first aid kits to distribute to teams far from medical help.

Police receive World Cup Evangelistic Booklets

The month of October is the end of the fiscal year for the Haitian government so this is the month when all of our official documents and car registration have to be renewed. As I was waiting at a police station to get my driver’s license, I saw a young boy who apparently had stolen something with two adults on either side of him, presumably his mother and the one who had been wronged. They were arguing with the policeman behind a desk. This helped me to realize that the Haitian police force needs the Gospel and God’s wisdom in making decisions just like anyone else. So when I had to go back the following day to pick up my paperwork, I took several cases of the World Cup evangelistic booklets I have been distributing as well as some cases of “25 Bible Stories for children” for those policemen/women who have children. When one of the police leaders saw the booklets, he thanked me and said that the whole police force needed the Word of God. I asked him how many police there were at his station and he said 350! So I gave him enough for everyone. Please pray that God’s Word would help the police govern justly and without corruption and that many will put their trust in Christ.

Training weekend in Jacmel

Rich training in Jacmel

On Oct. 16th Ronald, Rich and Jean Paul went to Jacmel to train about 30 volunteers how to start evangelistic soccer teams at 7 schools in the area. This was a follow up training to the work Ronald, Jean Paul and Sylvain did this past summer with the Unchartered Waters Sports Ministry team.

Each school sent a person to be trained as a coach, chaplain and team administrator. After the training, each person was given a certificate and enough soccer equipment to get the team started. In addition, each school received evangelistic booklets with a World Cup theme as well as Bible story booklets in Creole. We also gave each school 18 student workbooks for the “Young Peacemaker” curriculum that we have been training chaplains how to use for the past year.

Cholera Epidemic

This is a report from our fellow missionaries in St. Marc:

We’d like to call people to prayer for our city (St. Marc) and the countryside surrounding it. There seems to be an outbreak of some kind of a water borne disease where people who contract it come down with severe diarrhea resulting in death within 24-48 hours. We do not have concrete numbers of how many have actually died to date, only scattered reports from Haitian Messagers seek aid and purified water saying; “Many Many Many people are dead or sick!”. The hospital in St Marc is filling up with cases and our clinic down the road has been made ready for overflow. hospital ward.

Symptoms point to Cholera: With Cholera the problem isn’t medicine, they claim they have the cure, but getting it to the people in time. We are focused on three things, distribution of purified water, transportation of the sick and education on sanitation. The disease seems to have originate in the countryside (known as the 5th section) where the river has flooded several times over the last few weeks. The minister of health for our area is hot on the case and we are in good partnership and communication with him. We have made our Clinic in Balague (5th Section in the heart of the problem) available as needed, Nouveau Depart Health Center in St. Marc City available as needed and our Mercy Truck Ambulance has already been mobilized transport the most serious cases.

We are taking precautions at our campuses and outreach post, be prayerful for Lubin 4 where we have the Bosseutte family who have been leading a new church and school.

Prayer points at a glance:

* Pray for protection to all health workers and volunteers in the area.
* Pray for a quick diagnosis so that correct treatment can be administered immediately.
* Pray for those who have already lost loved ones.
* Pray for peace in the countryside and for protection for those who live in the high risk areas that may not have access to clean water.

Please pray for Micah and for Francoise

Please pray for Micah of Vapor Ministries who is sick. I haven't been able to get news about him today, but yesterday he had a fever that needed to come down. And pray for his wife, too.

Richard has been meeting with Vapor Ministries people who are planning on starting a center in Haiti. They were at our house for dinner and a presentation of their ministry to some UEBH leaders. They are inspiring people.

Also, Francoise and her three children, who have been living in our house with us really need a place to live. She is a hard worker, but housing prices have gone up since so many buildings were destroyed in Port-au-Prince. Please pray for her to find something safe and suitable by November 1st since we have visitors coming then.

Haiti Amputee Team Practicing in Dallas

Here's a link to an article in the Dallas Morning News about the Amputee Team:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/collin/frisco/stories/101410dnmetamputees.2544f44.html

Praise God, enough money was raised for them to buy the tickets for Argentina.

We'll try to keep you all updated.

Yee Haw - Team arrives in Texas!

Inspite of the team's reservations not being finalized on Friday with the airline, they still let them on the plane and they arrived safely in Miama on Friday afternoon before changing planes and flying to San Antonion, TX where they arrived late at night.

This morning the whole team received a standing ovation in a large church in Texas.

They are staying in a nice hotel, thanks to the generosity of several donors and sponsors.

However, Dr. Fred Sorrells tells me that they still need financial support to buy the plane tickets to Argentina. If you would like to donate, you can do so through iisport.org.

Thanks for your continued prayers as they prepard for the World Cup that starts in just 6 days!

Party and Press Conference

In anticipation of the team getting their Visas yesterday, we planned a send-off party for the player's relatives and a press conference.

About 20 of the player's relatives showed up and we celebrated God's goodness to the team and thanked them for all the sacrifices their families made for them to participate in the World Cup.

Later a local television station showed up and filmed the team getting ready to go.

This was a great ending to a great day for the team!

Lea Mills, Freelance photographer

Thanks to Lea Mills, a Freelance photographer that has been documenting the team, we have some excellent pictures of the team's preparation for the World Cup of Amputee soccer in Haiti. If you would like to see her pictures and contact her, you can do so at leahmillis@gmail.com. You can also see more of her photos at:

http://leahmillis.sites.livebooks.com/

For more about the team, and to donate online, you can visit iisport.org

On Route to Argentina via San Antonio TX!!

The team in front of the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince

What a great miracle God did for us today!!

We were able to get all the Visas done in one day! Unheard of in a country like Haiti. This was only possible because we had the full cooperation of the US Embassy because Dr. Fred Sorrells had contacted the former US Ambassador to Haiti as well as his local congressmen.

It was a long process! Earlier this week we spend 10 hours filling in the applications on line, and then last night we spent another 4 hours filling out another form.

But it was worth it all as now the team is "on route to Argentina". They leave tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM.

Their first stop will be San Antonio, TX where they have been invited to train on the fields of Dallas' professional MLS team.

Then they will head to Argentina around Oct. 16th.

We will keep you posted on their progress in the World Cup Tournament.

Please check out iisport.org for some great photos and more news about the team!

Passports & Shipment Arrive

As an answer to much prayer and hard work, the team received their Haitian passports on Oct. 5th after waiting 6 hours after the time the government said they would be ready.

With the passports in hand, we started booking flights and applying for US Visas.

Yesterday (Oct 6th) Giscard, the administrator of the team and I spent almost 11 hours filling out the US Visa application online, complete with photos being rejected and re-taken, internet problems, and government system problems where all your work would be erased because of a "time out". I felt like putting the person who designed the computer program in "time out"!

On Oct. 6th we also got word that the shipment we had sent to Haiti this summer had finally cleared customs and was ready to be picked up. So while we were working on the Visa applications, we sent two pickup trucks out to Titayen to get the two pallets of equipment that we had sent the end of July. This is an answer to prayer because there is lots of stuff in the shipment that the Amputee Soccer team needs, such as long-sleeved shirts and sweatshirts (it goes down in the 30's F in Argentina at night in Oct.)

Today we go for the US Visas. Please pray that we will be able to get them today so that the team can fly out on Saturday.

Ricky and friends sell hot dogs to raise money for team

Ricky and his school friends helped us sell hot dogs after church to raise money for the amputee soccer team.

Thanks to their help, we ended up selling all the hot dogs and drinks and made a profit of $20 US which was enough to buy lunch for the team today when they went to sign for their passports.

Thanks QCS students!

First day of school

Today was the official first day of school this fall for children in Port-au-Prince.

It was also the first day of school ever for two of the children who have lived with us since the earthquake: Franclene and Kimberly.

They are both in First Grade, and have a lot to catch up on since they never went to pre-school. Carol has been working with them to learn their "ABC's" and numbers.

Many are struggling to pay for school this fall since tuition has gone up after the earthquake.

Pray for Passports and Visas

Dear Friends,

Yesterday the whole team fasted and prayed that we would get the Passports today, and the US Visas later this week.

Gone are the days when you could just hop on a plane or boat and go wherever!

We hope to have a press conference and going away party tomorrow with the players and some of their families.

This is crunch week, so please keep praying!

Dangerous Game

This morning I was called on early to go and take an injured player to a medical clinic. He had been wounded by the crutches of another player. He ended up getting some stitches, and is OK now, but it will take a few days before he can practice.

Please pray for the safety of our players!

Team gets Deluxe accomodations!

Group showers!

Beds for 15!

Since Wednesday night the team has been sleeping at Quisqueya Chapel in order to have 2 trainings a day. We have been feeding them 2 meals a day, which is all we can afford, and they have been doing a morning and afternoon training session.

We have been studying Gideon in Judges and how he defeated 120,000 soldiers with only 300 men.

As you can see, the accomodations are rustic: 15 thin mattresses and sleeping bags in the floor, and group showers to save water because it is scarce!

But the team is improving every day.

Today, however, we had a big disappointment. We were supposed to get the passports but there was a delay.

It turns out that the entire computer system of the Haitian government has been down this week, and that has caused delays in getting all the paperwork done.

We have decided to fast and pray on Sunday until 6 PM, just like the whole country did on Feb. 12th after the earthquake. Only God can unblock the process to help us get the passports and Visas we need to get the team to Argentina.

Please continue to pray for us and fast this Sunday with us if you can to implore God's help on the team's behalf.