Teenagers often dream of taking a spring break trip to Mexico.
For Jon DeOliveira, the fantasy started to take shape more than four years ago. But unlike most young men, DeOliveira sought more than fun in the sun. He yearned to make a difference.
Earlier this month, the Cascade High School junior finally fulfilled his long-held wish, combining his equally strong passions for soccer and community service on a mission trip to San Vicente, Mexico.
DeOliveira took the trip along with more than 20 peers from his youth group at Calvary Chapel Lake Stevens. The experience was unforgettable, the Cascade midfielder said.
“I felt like I had to do it. Church has just been my second life besides soccer, so I’ve been really involved,” said DeOliveira, who missed two Cascade games during the trip that began March 30 and ended April 7.
The journey started with a 40-hour train ride followed by a three-hour van ride. In San Vicente, youth group members helped at a women’s shelter and an orphanage, doing a variety of construction and clean-up projects. Calvary Chapel Lake Stevens sends high school students there every spring to help abandoned mothers from the shelter get back on their feet, find work and live on their own, said Shane Algard, the church’s youth pastor, who went on the trip.
DeOliveira made valuable contributions, Algard said. One day he spent eight hours laying blocks and bricks at a deteriorated home. He also helped secure a fence that protects helpless children from aggressive wild dogs.
The most memorable part of the trip, DeOliveira said, was playing soccer with nearly 60 ecstatic children. They live in very poor conditions and play on a slick, dirt playground. Instead of using a conventional soccer goal, they create makeshift ones with things like tires and sheds.
Despite a language barrier – all the kids spoke Spanish – DeOliveira connected with the youngsters. A shared interest in soccer transcended their lack of verbal communication.
“Just playing with the kids was awesome. Even though I couldn’t speak to them because they all spoke Spanish, I could still play soccer with them,” DeOliveira said.
In the course of playing for hours and hours, DeOliveira demonstrated a bicycle kick for the children.
“They were freakin’ out,” he said.
The children didn’t want the fun to end, he said: “We were all so tired. We couldn’t stop them.”
“Once the kids saw him with the soccer ball,” Algard said, “they were swarming around him the whole time.”
DeOliveira, who said he’d like to do more mission trips in the future, found out about the Mexico trip when he was in the seventh grade. Age requirements and soccer commitments kept him from going in the past, but nothing could deny him this year.
“My mind was set on going,” he said of the trip, which cost $400 per person.
DeOliveira is a third-year varsity player who starts for Cascade, which has a record of 7-3 in the Western Conference North Division and overall. The Bruins have won five straight games and upset previously unbeaten and nationally ranked Snohomish (9-1) on Friday.
DeOliveira was relieved when he returned from Mexico to learn that the Bruins went 2-0 during his absence. It was difficult for him to leave the team, and it was equally challenging to convince Cascade coach Daghan Kesim to let DeOliveira go.
“I usually don’t accept players leaving for spring break,” Kesim said, “but this was a pretty good reason. I told (DeOliveira) the only exceptions were this or getting married.”
In the end, Oliveira found a perfect way to balance his love of soccer with his drive to improve the lives of the underprivileged.
Said Algard: “To me, it just shows dedication to his faith and how important it was to want to help people and serve.”
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