Jonathan Maltez – El Salvador

My name is Jonathan Maltez and I grew up in a broken home in a very dangerous neighborhood in El Salvador. Like many young men in my community I was drawn to the excitement of gang life until I saw my best friend die in my arms from gunshot wounds.

It was then that God reached out and rescued me using a Christian soccer program to help change my life.

In El Salvador, where I live, it is a reality that few people want to do anything to change things in our culture in a positive way. People have decided they can’t change the way things are and have resigned themselves to thinking “this is just the way it is”. That’s because they have not met Jesus.

At the age of 18, my passion for soccer met my passion for trying to help others in the name of Jesus. Using the gift of playing this beautiful sport and having the opportunity and resources, I opened a soccer school in a poor community filled with local gang activity.

At the age of 21, sport became my fulltime mission and I set out to start more soccer schools in new locations throughout El Salvador and other locations in LATAM. This mission has now grown to include the training and support of coaches and church leaders to use soccer to reach the lost for Christ. I also serve in a youth center where the majority of people at the center are active gang members. I am running a soccer project, teaching some of the kids to read and write, and also teaching others to speak English.

I believe in the power of a great coach and want to see an army of men and women using the platform of soccer to change the future of El Salvador and disciple the next generation of leaders in His Kingdom.

I also believe I have been clearly called by God to help make a change, in His name, and would like to invite you to join me in prayer and financial support on this mission.