Meet Brazilian Baseball Association

Brazilian Baseball and Softball Association (ABBS) uses baseball to share the gospel with the children of São José dos Campos, Brazil. Youth from these communities lack access to quality education and community infrastructure and are at high risk of involvement with drugs, crime, and trafficking from a young age.

The director of ABBS came to Christ as a teen through JEAME’s prison ministry. After experiencing the transforming power of the gospel, he desired to point other young people to the hope he had found in Christ. ABBS developed out of this desire and has been growing for over 20 years now.

Players attend weekly baseball skills sessions and Bible studies. Each participant is given a new Bible, and the kids are excited to get to write their names and baseball positions on the inside covers. The director’s local church welcomes young people and their families into their fold for discipleship and fellowship, providing them with an alternative to the sense of “community” found in gang participation.

Brazil, the largest country in South America, shares a border with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador. Its largest city is São Paulo, home to about 23 million people. Brazil’s national team has won the World Cup soccer finals more than any other nation, and several famous soccer players hail from there. Baseball, however, is a relatively new and novel sport.

“Up to one-third of the populations of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo live in crime-filled slums… The battles between ganglords and police often make victims of the innocent. Brazil has 8 million children at risk, 7 million child laborers, and 600,000 girls in prostitution. Some churches and agencies help children through orphanages and job training ministries, but it is not enough.”