Saposoa, Peru: A Young Man's Life Is Still Shaping the Future

Aug 17

When I wrote to you in June about Jogo Bonito, I told you about the need for a place where young people in Saposoa could belong, grow, and encounter Christ through sports. What I couldn't tell you then was the story of Mateo.

Mateo was a young boy with a promising future. Our intern Austin Pritchett had developed a close friendship with him this past spring. Tragically, at the end of a school day, he died unexpectedly following an epileptic seizure complicated by cardiac arrest. In the days that followed, it became clear that although Mateo was gone, his influence remained.

He had been one of Juan's best students. More than that — the first young person outside Juan's own family whom Juan had intentionally taken under his wing for discipleship. Mateo had become an example to other students. He was sincerely seeking to grow in his relationship with Christ.

On the final day of our team's June visit, Mateo's parents came to Jogo Bonito. His mother told us something I've kept thinking about ever since: Jogo Bonito hadn't only changed Mateo's life. It was making a difference in her life and her husband's life too.

That's when the vision of this ministry comes into focus. Jogo Bonito isn't ultimately about building a soccer field and sports complex. It's about building relationships through which young people can be known, discipled, loved, and pointed toward Christ. And sometimes God uses the life of one young person to open the door to an entire family.

Mateo's father works in surveying and construction, and because of what Juan and Keyla had invested in his son, he caught the vision for what Jogo Bonito could become for other young people in Saposoa. The family wanted to honor Mateo's life while helping strengthen something that could influence many more young people in the years ahead. Since then, the property has been surveyed by engineers. The first stages of site planning for restoration of the field are underway.

That matters to me because of what it says about partnership. GO didn't arrive in Saposoa with a plan to impose from the outside — Juan and Keyla carried the vision, you helped provide resources, our intern and team came alongside them. Now members of the community are beginning to contribute their own knowledge, relationships, and resources. That's the kind of interdependence we pray for in missions.

The project is still developing. But it's taken an important step forward, and your investment helped give Juan and Keyla the freedom and encouragement to keep moving.