This article appears in the Spring 2026 issue of the FCA Donor Publication. The FCA publication is a gift from our FCA staff to all donors giving $50 or more annually. For more information about giving, visit here.
In Valle de la Pascua, a suburban community in the central plains of Venezuela, a coach who saw how sports can influence others began praying for ways to move her kids program to intentionally align with her God-given desire to share the Gospel while creating a welcoming and quality space to play.
This was the vision of ministry leader Maria Castro in 2019, but it would be no easy feat. The socioeconomics of Venezuela prove a significant and complex challenge for coaches in low-resourced areas. Play spaces often deteriorate quickly due to a lack of funding for field maintenance, and a lack of equipment and necessary apparel like athletic shoes and uniforms create a gap in training.
Youth crave a safe and stable environment. Many come from dysfunctional home lives and are plagued by trauma, low self-esteem and mental health struggles.
Castro had a burden for the local youth who roamed the streets. At the time, she was a teacher and volunteer with her church’s children’s ministry who had also started discipling four athletes from a Christian futsal league. She understood the importance of sports and wanted to find a way to share the good news of Jesus with the local youth. She, her daughters and a young man named Carlos, one the athletes she had discipled, planned a project called Fumplus, an after-school program where kids played futsal, a soccer variant played with a smaller ball and on a smaller, harder court, or in the street. Carlos would lead the play, and Castro would lead Bible study.
They started with one ball and a Bible and planned to serve 12 kids on Saturdays—a true volunteer-based, grass-roots program. At the first meeting, 100 kids showed up.
As they cared for the kids each week, Castro began to feel God calling her to do more than evangelize. How could she more intentionally combine her love for God with the sports that were so impactful to the kids?
One community over, FCA Leader Gustavo Rivero Diaz was leading a coaches Huddle. Castro heard about the Huddle from Carlos and began attending, eager to experience it for herself. She received an FCA Athletes Bible and learned about the vision of FCA.
“Oh!” Castro exclaimed. “This is the answer to my prayers.”
Hungry for discipleship and focused direction, questions still lingered. How could they better serve these kids from an under-resourced community? They’d need uniforms and balls, but there were no resources. How could they raise support? What did complete buy-in to the program look like?
Diaz, whose transformational purpose is to “guide coaches to walk in love and to take advantage of the influence that they have so they can transform lives,” began working with Castro and her volunteers to best set them up for success. They began to create a vision plan to develop the ministry more intentionally through sports and set up a structure that would create sustainability and support.
Each week, they began training on leadership, chaplaincy and coaching development, as well as taking the steps to legally establish Fumplus. Benefiting from mentorship, sharing tools and best practices, and connecting with other like-minded people in the community, Fumplus began to flourish.
Coaches went through 3Dimensional Coaching® and learned how to transform their coaching approach. A soccer academy grew as God led them to form more organized leagues, tournaments and camps. Soon, they were reaching other communities as well. Today, Fumplus serves 650 athletes and 25 coaches.
“FCA gave value and meaning to what we started on the streets,” Castro said. "It made me feel that I was not alone at a time when I felt overwhelmed.”
Diaz and his team of coaches and volunteers continue to walk together with Castro and the Fumplus team, discipling and providing tools and resources to further empower their ministry.
“My transformational purpose links with the FCA vision to see the world transformed by Jesus through the influence of coaches and athletes,” Diaz said. “It means to pour ourselves into others. And that’s what Jesus did; He gave Himself for us.”
As this coaching family grew in its purpose and passion to align sports with God’s global mission, the Lord gave them a greater vision for local transformation. One of their most recent projects was revitalizing a rundown court. With chipped paint, debris and overgrown brush, it was not a proper place to play. So the community came together to restore and renovate with funds and manpower raised for a complete court overhaul. Now, the evenly paved court is safe to play on. The fresh blue paint pops and newly planted trees along the fence lines enhance the site.
“This was a neglected place without a coach to lead this space, and now I have the opportunity to train and guide these kids to achieve their purpose and direction as they grow in a relationship with Jesus,” Carlos said. “I am grateful to God for being able to serve on the field where I used to play as a child.”
It wasn’t just a cosmetic uplift, but also a lifting of spirits.
“These athletes and coaches feel seen, empowered and proud of their place to live,” Diaz said.
This empowerment has led to transformed lives, such as that of 12-year-old Yogdiel Gil Rodriguez. A shy child who lives close to the field, Rodriguez would watch training time from the parameter — intrigued but never approaching the group. But when Coach Luis, one of the Fumplus coaches, noticed Rodriguez’s daily presence, he approached Rodriguez and invited him to play. Rodriguez’s apprehension changed to excitement, and he accepted. But as quickly as his smile appeared, it went away. His mother, a single parent of three, was unemployed and didn’t have the money for the registration fee.
His mother met with the coach and explained their situation, revealing she was concerned with her son’s activities with his friends and growing gang involvement, as well as his low grades at school. The registration fee was waived and Rodriguez was able to participate as he committed to his school studies.
Rodriguez’s countenance has brightened since joining Fumplus. He is making new friends, improving his grades and attending the Huddle led by Coach Luis and Castro. His mother has noticed a radical change in her son that can only be attributed to a more positive environment. He is now surrounded by coaches who care, teammates who build him up and the grace of the Gospel that he hears and experiences regularly.
Fumplus began as a program and has since developed into a sports academy for soccer leagues and young athletes to compete while learning about the God who loves them — all while under the care of coaches who have their best interests at heart. This process of transformational coaching and overflowing into under-resourced communities has shown Diaz about the work and ways of God.
“God has shown me His love and humility,” he said. “It has been a struggle. But we have seen God’s hand in everything through these coaches and athletes — that they were engaged, equipped and empowered for God’s glory.”
Castro believes FCA came at a strategic time not only in her life, but also in the lives of those in Valle de la Pascua. “God used FCA to unite us with a family of coaches and athletes with the same calling, and to tell us that we are not alone,” she said.
Through Castro and Diaz’s team of empowered coaches and volunteers, hundreds of lives are being changed. When a coach knows the why behind the what, with a full trust in God, there’s nothing that can get in the way.
“I find joy and praise the Lord because of the things that are happening in the community,” Diaz said. “We live in a broken world that challenges us to act in the same way as the world acts. But the only way that we can go through this world is going the opposite way — Jesus’ way — doing good. The best gift that we can give to the sports community is coaches with the character of God.”
Please pray for Gustavo and his ministry, for wisdom, support and protection. And pray for coaches like Maria who are serving athletes with the Good News of Jesus.
To learn more about what God is doing in Latin America South, consider supporting further efforts like this basketball/soccer court renovation.
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