Downward Spiral

I originally heard about the downward spiral in the marriage book “Love and Respect”. The husband does something wrong, the wife reacts negatively; no one wants to take the blame and so it just spirals downward from there. Mainly when no one is willingly to break the cycle. 

While the spiral happens often in marriages, it happens just as often in other organizations. A team, a family, a business or in a nation. 

No one likes the results of the downward spiral, but most people dislike the out even more. The out being to admit your mistakes. A knock on your pride; a lesson in humility. No one wants a piece of humble pie!

I coach an American football team in Brazil. It has been challenging in a different culture teaching a sport that requires such discipline. How do I enforce showing up to practice when the culture so easily accepts whatever excuse? I have wanted to just play those who come to practice every time, but playing with 5 players pretty much guarantees a loss. Some on the team get mad about those who don’t practice; in turn they tend to have a bad attitude. Others on the team get mad at those who have a bad attitude. Throw in some other excuses as well and you have a team full of excuses as to why they should not buy in to the program and go all out in training for the team. It is a downward spiral! 

As I mentioned I live in Brazil, but am American. Both countries have their share of problems. I think of the racism problem in the US right now. There are plenty of people that are not racist and want to help solve the problems, but there is enough that just point to the “problems” on the other side of the fence and are not willing to point to their own problems. The quick downward spiral has been intriguing for those in the country who thought the racism problem had greatly diminished! 

Brazil is going through a crisis right now mainly due to dishonesty and theft. Many high ranking officials have put lots of money into their own accounts. The people are furious at the politicians and are trying to take them down one by one. But the very way the election process works almost requires every politician to be corrupt. When you look at the culture, there are many norms within the culture that are dishonest. The people in general are dishonest. But the finger is pointed elsewhere when looking to discover the problem. (To some people’s credit, this has been pointed out before by people saying that they themselves are the problem). 

The gospel saves us from downward spirals. Built into the gospel is the fact that we mess up; we are wrong and deserving of the worst of consequences if it were not for Jesus being humble, coming down as a man and giving His life for us. The gospel driven life triggers a humility (at least it should) that can reverse the downward spiral. Accepting that you are a sinner in need of a Savior (that is not yourself) is very freeing. Instead of pointing fingers, we inwardly realize that we need to work on ourselves first and as much as we work, it is really only God’s grace that saves us! This helps us in not so furiously accusing others. We can help to build solutions not confusion! 

Bits August

Back to school! It is back to school time for many students. I know some are excited, some aren’t. Evelyn is either or….excited or dreading depending on the different day. I, on the other hand, am nervous. It appears that I am starting school again this month…after an eleven year absence. I was reading some course description stuff wondering if my mind can handle school again. 

This month was exciting. I went to Rio for the Olympics, (you can read about that here) and had a good time as we handed out a ton of little booklets with information on the Christ Redeemer statue as well as containing a good explanation of the gospel. 

When I arrived home I had just a couple days before we played our second league football game. We were down at half 7-0, but then Sarah’s little 4-8 year old cheerleading crew did the halftime show. They did great and had fun, the fans enjoyed it, and our team went out and won 22-7 after their performance! Sarah is enjoying this new role as well as learning new information on organizing/managing. 

After our win we had our Bible study and had 30 adults and 8 kids! It was packed at our house! Sunday nights go like this: They start arriving around 7; the starting prayer usually happens around 7:30; we sing a few songs, do a Bible study as the kids go upstairs and have their own time together with Sarah; ending prayer at 8:30 and then everyone is usually out the door around 9:30! We talk and sing for a while after the study. The name of our church is Koinonia, which is greek for fellowship….so we try to hold true to our name! :) 

This month a couple that has been a part of our group since the beginning and also have their own ministry (Teen Challenge) started organizing a kid’s club together with Samaritan’s purse and we have been involved in that. The first week they gave out Christmas shoe boxes (I know….) and the second week they started the discipleship aspect of the program. The gospel was presented both weeks and the kids seem like they are having a good time. Please pray for that ministry! Saturday it rained and so we had about 75 kids and a few adults packed into a 10x20 room. 

Right after the club, while it was still raining, Tyler and I went to English conversation in the park and met with the one guy who came; João Marcelo. He has been in our group for a while and we had a great conversation. We went into the gospel and he really opened up. It was really neat! 

Construction at the church continues and hopefully the first floor ceiling (2nd floor floor) will be done this month. Lots to do still, but we are praying for us to have the space to use soon. Please continue to pray for the funds to come in. This Sunday our study was on giving out of II Corinthians 9. 

Also, in case you missed it: Here is the link for the message magazine! In it is an article on the football ministry as well as an article on the people behind the Olympic ministry. As a special added bonus, there is an article on our friend’s Maicol and Mandy who are our partners in crime for Servant Leaders. He and I are working on the translation and development in Portuguese and it is going well! Check out the English website to see about how local church leaders can be trained; there are already many videos in English and many free resources for churches to use on practical classes you don’t see everywhere! :) 

So much to say! Thanks for your patience, love, support and prayers. You all mean so much to us!

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my big two schooler (that is meant to mean that Evelyn is going to two schools right now, home school and Brazilian school) and doing well in both, and our little kitty cat Anna Claire (if her five hours per day acting like a kitty cat persist we may have to survey our constituency for a free psychologist, but for now we enjoy the cuddles she gives us in the morning while acting like a cat). 

Olympics in Rio de Janeiro

On August 8 I flew from Recife to Rio de Janeiro in order to participate in the Olympics. Although rumors might have accidentally been started by me about competing, I was not there as an athlete. A group led by Dr. David Crandall, an ABWE board member and leader with Answers in Genesis went to the Olympics to evangelize. Dr. Crandall has been active in this type of large world event evangelism for the last couple of decades and has seen a great impact. I heard about the cause through our mission board ABWE as the missionaries from Brasil were asked to translate for the groups.

I thought it might be right up my alley since I do enjoy sport's ministry and so I signed up almost a year ahead of time. Upon arrival there was a diverse group of people from Peru to New Zealand, China to Brazil, and US groups from Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Michigan and everywhere in between. There were around 85 of us in all with varying personalities and styles.

We started going out on Tuesday and my group went to the Ipanema beach where almost everyone accepted the booklets we had. The name of the book is "The 7th Wonder" and talked about the Christ the Redeemer statue as well as talking about the Christ of the statue. The book is very well written and provides lots of interesting information. The Brazilians in Rio took the books like candy and we soon realized that we had not printed enough in Portuguese.





We switched locations most days and only a couple days did I go back to a location. During the 10 days in Rio I went to the Christ Redeemer statue, Ipanema beach, Copacabana beach, Olympic Boulevard, Olympic Park, a major bus stop and one rainy day to a mall. Most locations had crowds of people walking past us and we just handed them out with people on the run. We did not have many lasting conversations on these days, but were very successful in getting the books into the hands of people. During the week we were told that on average each book you hand out is read by 7 different people. Since the trip we have already heard of someone from Italy getting saved upon returning home and reading the book. God chose to give us His Word in written form, which probably means that is pretty effective.

The beach days were nice to be able to talk to more people. One day I hung around a few different groups and talked for a while. I met a girl whose boyfriend was participating. She asked prayer for his grandmother since she was really sick and they didn't want to tell him before he competed. A couple other conversations went deep into the gospel and it was neat to see people thinking about their lives.

After 7 days of passing out booklets our group had passed out over 108,000 books. The 55,000 Portuguese books quickly disappeared which stalled our effort some the last couple of days. Around 20 people had made professions of faith and many more deep conversations had occurred. We received many thanks from Christians who were impressed that the group cared that much to make the trip.

One other part I enjoyed was the networking aspect of the trip. I was able to connect to a couple pastors who have been begging for someone to go work in Rio. We were able to get some leftover books to them as well as maintain contact. There is so much work to do in Brazil and around the world! It is neat to see a trip where we could help both the world and Brazil in hearing the gospel. By the way, we were able to hand out books to closed countries; people who would not be able to hear the gospel in their own country. The popular refugee team from the Olympics all received these books! We also were able to get a box of books from 10 different languages into Olympic Village to be passed out to the athletes. I watched some of my teammates congratulate a girl from Hong Kong who had participated and it was a huge step for their country.

Below is the link to the Message magazine where there is an article about this Olympic ministry (as well as the article on our football ministry here in Brazil). It has more info about the trip and the ministry Dr. Crandall is involved in.
https://issuu.com/messagemagazine/docs/message_vol_64_issue_2/1

Football opportunities in Brazil

The doors are open for football in Brazil. But what does that mean? How can Christians take advantage of this growth? I have heard of a couple of missionaries being involved with teams, but there is so much more we can do. We are already involved in camps/clinics, coaching, playing and networking. We teach character as well as the fundamentals of football during our clinics. If you played in high school or above you are probably qualified to help out. We usually have a camp in early June. We could also setup another clinic as well. If you are interested in being involved in a camp, please let me know using the contact info below.

Besides taking a 1-2 week short term trip, we could also use players to come down for 5-9 months. We currently have a graduate from University of Northwestern in St. Paul who played four years of college and has come down to play a little more as well as help with the church plant here. With football experience under his belt, he already comes out with a leverage on the players here. He can be great influence on them in little time. Brazil has many more teams and some of them are in cities with missionaries in them. You can come down with one of your friends (or we can hook you up with another player), live, work and play with them and help out a church plant as well. One cool thing is that you probably won’t have to raise support or self support yourself that much. Some of the teams have money to pay your passage and visa as well as living costs. Some might just be able to do living costs, but either way, you won’t have to self support your self that much. Some places would even find you some sort of work you could do to make some extra money (don’t expect too much though). 

We have already started looking for players to come next year in either February, March or May to stay through November or December. Ideally we would like players who have played in college and already graduated. We also need guys with character and a passion to make Jesus’ name known. Come be a part of what God is doing through football in Brazil! 

David Carrel

carrelda@gmail.com 

look me up on facebook 

or leave a comment below

Bits July

We have a major change here that started this month. Three days before our first important game, Tyler Rust moved in to our house. A year ago I wrote 12 Christian college football coaches and told them about football in Brazil. One way I said they could help is by sending players that would be willing to help plant a church and play football. One school showed interest and out of 4 players who contacted me, Tyler ended up coming. He played four years at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota. You can read about our exciting first win here as we beat a good team in our league 14-13. 

Last Sunday night Tyler gave his testimony to 26 adults that came to our house for our study. The Sunday night group is really growing and we have several committed faithful families! On Thursday we started another Story of Hope Bible study with the extended family of one of our families! We are excited about this! 

We have also continued to go to Tupanatinga (50 minutes away). We did two trips this month. I have taken three different musicians with me on these trips! The first time Gabriel, second time Alison and third time Pastor Ruy. Each time has been a blessing and seen different people listening to the studies. I am discipling Pedro with the Way to Joy book; studying a Proactive parenting seminar as well as teaching a Bible study. We cram it in, but it has been good for Chico and Bia there! 

Next Sunday I leave for Rio de Janeiro for the Olympics where I will be translating for an evangelistic group sent through Answers in Genesis. Pray for Sarah as she will be at home for 11 days by herself with the girls. Fortunately we have a good amount of support around us here in Arcoverde, but neither of us like being away from each other for long! (that is a good thing….) Pray also for the opportunities we will have in reaching the nations as the nations come to us in Brazil! Through this evangelistic idea many people have been reached and even churches have been planted at past Olympics and world events! 

This month we have received a couple VBS offerings with creative ideas! The whole football team will be receiving Bibles thanks to Faith Baptist in State College, PA! Then one VBS adopted one of our kid’s rooms and sent a bunch of money for decorating it! The construction has been slow this week due to the worker’s occupation at other works, but it should be starting up again soon. Our funds are up and down! Every time we raise money, we use what we raise! :) I guess that is how it works... Pray that God will continue to provide at the right moment, just as He has through this whole process. We are amazed to see where it all comes from!

This month an article about football in Brazil will come out in our mission’s “The Message” magazine! Be sure to check it out! Tyler and I are working together to invite lots more players for next year to play for different teams and help different churches throughout Brazil! I continue to be amazed at the doors God is opening through football! Please pray for this ministry. After a very exciting, strong, unifying team practice on Thursday I told them we needed to sing our hymn, or say the team prayer or something. Instead they told me to pray. I thanked God for the team and the spirit, and asked for us to be able to honor God through our team. They continue to be open to the gospel, more and more become faithful to the studies and a couple of them are thinking about salvation. 

Also, I am looking to start a Master’s program this month using the development of Servant Leader’s as a project. We developed more material this month in the program. 

We thank God for you all! Last month someone wrote saying he felt nervous about writing us and taking up our time with questions, but I assure you all that any email or letter is very encouraging; shows us your reading, and we greatly welcome and appreciate it! 

All for HIS glory,

David, Sarah, my entrepreneur Evelyn who started a cookie selling business that operates one day every other week and sells out every time and who also sends encouraging messages to all her friends on whatsapp, and my little food processor Anna Claire who eats like a teenage boy and somehow manages to spend all the energy she has just gained

Celebrating our first win!!! 

First Win!

There are several very memorable hugs I have had in life. That kind of hug where you squeeze the life out of someone as they squeeze the life out of you. I remember when Jeremiah Johnson decided to give his life to Christ when I was his RA in college and when I finally found him at room checks that night. This last year Gabriel gave me that same big hug after he made the same decision. 

Last night I received a bunch of those hugs. We have had an American football team for two years now. We have developed so much as a team as far as structure, knowledge and attitudes, yet we had not won any of the four games we had played so far. It is hard to gain confidence and trust in our community without victories. Last night was our biggest game we have had as a team so far as we started the national league in a conference of eight teams. The winner of our conference will have a spot in the big league (Brazilian footballs equivalent of the NFL....except not that high level of play) for next year. We played our first league game against the Natal Scorpions who have been around for eight years. 

It was an away game and the trek turned out to be way longer than the long trip we had planned. We left at a little before 5 in the afternoon on Saturday and didn't arrive until almost 5 in the morning. Needless to say; in a huge room full of guys with the little time we had left to sleep, we didn't get quality rest. On our way to the stadium we went to the wrong place and ended up on a long walk to the stadium where the home team didn't have our changing room ready for us. After waiting in the hot sun for a while, they finally found a place for us. The level of the competition calls for lots of registration and they informed us that two of our main players would not be playing. Thankfully, after a few phone calls and conversations we straightened that out, but all that led to a talk with the team about overcoming adversity. 

On Thursday of last week we had picked up Tyler Rust from the airport. Tyler came to both play football and help with the church plant. He played at the University of Northwestern in Minnesota (not the D1 team). He had one official practice with the team and we put him in a few plays. He ended up scoring our two touchdowns in the game. 

On our first offensive drive our quarterback called a great audible and threaded a pass between two defenders to Tyler who turned and ran untouched 40 yards to the touchdown. We then ended up getting scored on and on our next drive threw a pick six putting us down 13-6. It stayed that way through half time even though our offense did well in its drives. 

In the second half our defense held strong while our offense continued hammering away. One drive started at our one yard line and we drove steadily all the way to the six on the other end where a miscommunication led to an interception. They got the ball on the 1 yard line and we stuffed their first play and an initial safety call was overturned.We drove the ball down the field and Rodrigo found Tyler in the back of the end zone. We then ran it for the two point conversion and went up 14-13. Our defense held strong once again and the offense was able to run out the clock. We kneeled a couple of times and then they dumped a bunch of ice water on me. I hate cold water, but it had never felt better. 

Then the hugs came. There is something spiritual about football and it felt very strong as we celebrated our hard fought victory. Getting to know these guys has had its share of frustrations and joys, but this is a big step as we get involved in each other's lives. When I pray, I pray for fruit with the team. As I talked to a Pastor and his wife who had a son playing on the other team, they said they thought our team would have more prayers going up for the win. I told them that the prayers may actually be working against us as we may need more humiliation before we recognize our need for a Savior! Since yesterday the team has certainly recognized the role losing has played in the team's development. 

My mind still reeled as we arrived home this morning at 5 AM; what a rough couple of nights, but a good outcome. Besides the game I was able to have several great conversations including being able to share the gospel again. Praise the Lord and to Him be the glory for this ministry that has opened so many doors. Next month our mission ABWE's The Message magazine will run a story on this ministry. In it I say that we could put hundreds of missionary football players in Brazil to be on teams, be examples, teach football, but best of all, share the gospel!    

Family life

I grab my phone once again to try to film what I just witnessed. Anna Claire quotes Thumper from Bambi when he talks about eating his greens while Evelyn and Sarah coach her through and play the part of Thumper's mama. We make her repeat it to get it on video to show to our family.

This happens pretty much daily. Anna Claire says and does something cute or Evelyn shows responsibility and tells about the hilarious happenings at school. Yesterday Evelyn set up a cookie/brownie/lemonade stand and sold out. She learned about economics and responsibility and had a heart for giving through it all!

Family life has its share of stresses, like 1000 mooooms yelled out each day, but overall it has been fun and a huge joy. I wish I could say that I were the perfect father, but alas I can only say that the girls have a perfect mother. Well, pretty much. She does a great job giving attention and teaching them. She is the one who "puts up with them" when she needs to during the day. But she has done a great job of finding a balance in play and work. So much so that Evelyn gladly does her chore chart when asked and even when not asked. Both girls love helping their mother in the kitchen. Well, Anna Claire enjoys the process, using the word help may be exaggerating a little bit.

As Evelyn and I played Monopoly the other day I heard the sound of scissors cutting and then watched as my light brown hair fell in front of me. As my eyes popped out of my head I turned to see Anna Claire's popped out as well. "What in the world are you doing?" I couldn't really get too mad though, cause who would think? Anna Claire had already practiced on her own hair a month ago when she started working on one side of her own head. Crazy little energy bomb!


On the Fourth of July we had a wonderful family day. We started off with a good breakfast and talk with my parents and then headed off to the park. The girls played there for a while and then we came home, grilled and ate a delicious lunch. In the afternoon we played hide and seek in the yard. Evelyn continues to grow in strategy in all the games she plays as well as improving her inherited competitiveness (by way of her father) that can be a little strong at times.



Sarah and I love laying down on Sunday nights after the Bible study in our home has brought several families together. We know that the work is not about ourselves and it brings great satisfaction. We often find moments of laughter together during the day as our crazy life unfolds or our crazy girls act themselves. After each game I coach I relish the time after when I can just be with my family and hug and talk to them.

Although I still lecture them on me not being responsible for dressing their dolls, I do enjoy playing with the girls. Time with them is set aside as well as random wish granting. Children bring joy to life. If we become so indulged in our work that we see them of little importance, we miss out on one of God's greatest blessings in our life. Even more important than them is my wife! Any wife can be the greatest joy giver or greatest joy killer. Be careful who you marry! And once you marry, value your wife as the precious jewel that she is and that I know I have.

I hope you don't read this seeing arrogance on my part in regards to my family; my prayer is that it be a challenge to have a thriving family life!