Church Uses Soccer to Connect with Brazilian Kids

Tens of thousands of fans have traveled to Brazil to get front row seats to the World Cup. Among the travelers are Christians, who are using the event as a unique opportunity to spread the Gospel.

A group of men from the Christ Community Church in Illinois traveled to Manaus to visit their sister church, but that wasn't their main goal for the week.

Their mission: to keep the local children out of trouble and share the love of Christ. They do this by playing soccer with the kids and providing them with sports equipment.

"We send teams down pretty regularly but it really was convenient to come down during the World Cup and support what they are doing down here," Pete Sutton, one of the soccer outreach players, said.

Even though the church members have been playing together for years, they were no match for the local kids.

"It's fun. Whenever we talk about soccer we seem to understand each other. We can't understand each other when we are talking about anything else. Soccer seems to be a language down here," Caleb Sutton, another soccer outreach player, said.

The church group is also setting up medical teams and English language learning camps.