Colossians 3:23 “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men”

Americans call the game soccer; the rest of the world calls it football. The World Cup Football games will be held in 2026 in the western hemisphere in the countries of Mexico, The United States and Canada.

Governed and regulated by FIFA (Federation International Football Association) and founded in Paris France in 1904, FIFA sets rules, organizes major tournaments, and develops the sport globally.

Comprised of 211 football associations, FIFA’s outreach is greater in area than the United Nations. FIFA headquarters are in Zurich, Switzerland.

In 1990 a group of us traveled to Brazil to build a church. Our plane landed in Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brazil early one morning in July. We had been on a night flight from Miami and most were tired.

I had been awake most of the flight and my memory is of watching the lightning over the Amazon jungle from 35,000 feet above. For hundreds of miles not a light was to be seen so the lightning show was amazing.

Our international flight had been to Rio de Janeiro. A short lay-over and then a short flight to Vitoria completed our ordeal. Plane seating was a little more spacious then but not much.

We were taken to a hotel in downtown Vitoria and told to “get some rest.” In my case that “rest” word fell on deaf ears and by the time our hosts left and the rest of my compadres were sound asleep, I hit the streets.

Vitoria was a culture and a scene unlike any I had experienced. Like in many tropical cities, the shops and stores had no front doors. A chain like drape was let down at closing time and hoisted up at opening the next day.

Roaming around looking in stores and watching people was exciting and my insatiable and perpetual curiosity was filled to my knee-caps.

Having learned from previous international travel, I exchanged currency as soon as I found a Brazilian bank. There was no language barrier since money and a smile are languages in their own. The unit of currency then was the cruzado and because of a restructuring of the economic system in 1994, became the real (re’-al).

Because of hyper-inflation, the economy went mostly belly-up and some action had to be taken. I remember receiving 1600 cruzados one day for each U.S. dollar and two days later that number had increased to 2000 per dollar. Seeing thousands of worthless coins laying on the streets made an economic statement.

Walking down a side street, the sounds of cheering and yelling had me wondering what was happening and following the shouting, I found a café-bar with dozens of people in the bar and on the sidewalk. They were watching a TV on the wall over the bar.

I supposed they were watching a ball game of some type, regarding the assembly as typical; I moved on down the street. Soon another café-bar with the same type of gathering of people was found.

Brazil was in a World Cup match with Bolivia and the city was on fire with enthusiasm. I assumed the entire country was experiencing that same excitement and later discovered it was the entire world.

Americans being inundated with sports on the local and national level, for the most part, cannot relate to international sports. Our baseball World Series and American football Super Bowl create an excitement in-country, but there is nothing like the international camaraderie and joining of the world like with the World Cup.

Later on into the competition, Brazil won their game. Several of the young people I had gotten to know came by the hotel after our work day and asked me to go on a ride-along with them. We rode around the city waving the green and yellow Brazilian flag.

Horns were honking and people cheering all over Vitoria and I’m sure all over Brazil. I was a Brazilian for a day.

On our final Saturday working on the church, we were pouring a sidewalk. Brazil was playing Argentina that day.

Just before noon, one of our Brazilian concrete mixers came to me, pointed to his watch and said “football, ciao.” Ciao (chow) is goodbye! Nothing took precedence over watching the game.

Oh, if Christians could develop a small portion of that enthusiasm for the Gospel. The World Cup is coming in 2026 to eleven U.S. cities.

A mission field will exist like seldom seen. Our orders are to preach this gospel (Matthew 28: 18-20). What a phenomenal opportunity! The projected attendance potentially will be up to ten million international visitors in the three designated countries.

Acts 1: 8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

The “uttermost” is coming to the western hemisphere and North America this year. Let’s not waste this golden opportunity to share Christ with the world.

We must always teach that eternal salvation is attained by a faith based belief (Ephesians 2: 8) in Christ Jesus crucified (Matthew 27: 35) for the remission of sin (1 John 1: 9), resurrected (Matthew 28: 6) and ascended alive in to Heaven (Acts 1: 9).