Slum Soccer: Where Scoring Means Survival

At its heart, the World Cup and other professional sporting events are about the thrill of competition - watching athletes at the highest level compete for the prize.

For many, it serves as an inspiration, including children who can use sports to aspire to higher goals in life.

Go Eagles!

In Aglomerado da Serra, the largest slum in Belo Horizonte, it's a morning like other day, and the Eagles soccer team is ready to play.

Before the game, their coach challenges players to run onto the field and fight like David against Goliath. It's the final game of a championship organized by Compassion, a Christian ministry.

After the prayer, the athletes unleash a war cry before diving into the game. For a time, these young Brazilians can forget the daily risks they face: the violence, drug addiction, and sexual exploitation.

Project Compassion, directed by Bebel Quinlan, gives these kids extra motivation for survival.

"We're in a soccer country," Quinlan told CBN News. "We work on a series of issues through this sport."

"The professors that we have here are trained," he continued. "They've taken a number of courses and come from other countries. So we understand that it's a tremendous tool for evangelism."

Compassion chooses the neediest children and youth and offers them education in the arts, languages, music, and of course, soccer.

But more than that, it offers them a message of hope in Jesus.

"I like it a lot because they teach us how to use pencils," one boy said.

"I learned to draw geometric designs that can turn into other designs," a little girl said.

Redeeming a Generation

The project is rescuing children who, otherwise, would become drug traffickers or prostitutes and turning them into good citizens.

"We not only give these people with all their history, education, sports, discipline, and those things, but we also present Jesus Christ to them," Quinlan explained.

"So they'll know that He is the one who will heal their wounds, so they'll have a much broader vision of their future and believe they can leave this reality behind," he said.
 
Project Compassion partners with CBN's Orphans Promise, which is using music and other tools to fight against human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children.

Today, the Eagles beat their rivals.  More importantly, they're winning the battle against the evil that surrounds them.