Soccer Chaplains United believes that out of our abundance, we are to give graciously and abundantly. This year has provided Soccer Chaplains United with numerous opportunities to send soccer gear across the world. This story highlights a family’s trip from Castle Rock, CO to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and how a few soccer balls impact the corner of their world.
Sydney Dragovich, 13, writes about her recent trip to Africa.
In August, my sister, mom, and I traveled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for ten days to visit the children of Hope for the Fatherless (HFTF). HFTF partners with Believers in Ethiopia and around the world to develop a culture that values and cares for vulnerable children and places them in loving families.
Hope for the Fatherless believes that children deserve to grow up in a home with a family. Until the children of HFTF are adopted into forever families, they live together in a family setting. There are currently two homes that each have ten children, Hope House and Faith House. The children attend great schools, receive medical care and excellent nutrition, and now have people in their lives who know and love them. It is a much better situation than the orphanages they came from – after a year at Hope House, the children are healing and growing physically, mentally, and spiritually.
HFTF also sponsors another ten kids who still live with their moms but are in at-risk situations. Through HFTF support, these children hopefully can stay in their homes and not have their families disrupted.
During our time in Ethiopia, we mostly hung out with the kids and got to know them. We ate together, worshipped together, and played together. Some of the kids speak a little English and loved to practice with us, but most speak Amharic. With that language barrier, playing together was our best form of communication. We played board games, jump rope, and lots of soccer!
Ethiopian children and adults love soccer! The main place for the kids to play soccer is in the street. The street in front of Hope House is a beautiful cobblestone, but it was not very friendly on the traditional soccer balls they had, which were all pretty beat up! When we gave the kids the One World Futbols donated by Soccer Chaplains United, everyone was very excited and immediately wanted to play with them. They love the One World Futbols because, unlike their old ball, it won’t go flat, pop, or fall apart. It is indestructible! Thank you, Soccer Chaplains United, for providing Hope for the Fatherless with these amazing gifts!
Remember, when you support Soccer Chaplains United a portion of your gift automatically goes to help projects and requests like this one for Ethiopia. You can give specifically to help cover our costs by making a gift through PushPay — simply select Community from the selectable funds. Your financial gift helps us purchase new soccer equipment, sponsor an individual or organization in an outreach effort, and to cover associated costs of providing Bibles, soccer equipment, and other outreach tools locally and around the world!
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Valor High School senior, Class of 2019, Colin Kemp spent the month of June in Guatemala with a team of his school peers and a few teachers and mentors. Kemp shares about the trip from his perspective in this post.
to play with the kids and do construction for local churches by day, then pouring into the lives of those who have never seen the true love of Christ by night.
In May of this year, 
By partnering with Soccer Chaplains United, we were able to provide an unexpected surprise for the children, who typically visit the Hope Center for a hot meal, help with their school work, spiritual teaching, and other activities.
rms were a hit for both boys and girls. They were very excited and thankful that they now look like a more official team. Our staff in Honduras regularly organizes soccer tournaments in which the various Hope Centers compete with each other. These uniforms and equipment will be a great benefit for future competitions. Thank you Soccer Chaplains United for making a dream come true.
ticipating in VBS, we also provide the children and their parents with meals and shelter in a nearby school since many of them are coming from distant villages. Most of the adults who come are mothers and during VBS there will be programs for them as well. They will receive training in vocational studies, parenting, marriage, and basic self-care practices among other things to help improve their lives.
The Timothy Project, through Soccer Chaplains United, is returning to the Kingdom of eSwatini for the third year in a row! Never heard of eSwatini? That’s because up until April 2018, the country was named Swaziland. (The king renamed the country in honor of the 50th anniversary of gaining independence.) Despite eSwatini being only the size of New Jersey, and almost literally halfway around the word, the Timothy Project has been connected in 
Timothy Project: Soccer Chaplains United team members had the joy this week to deliver soccer gear that will change lives forever. For the sixth year, Valor Discovery is sending a team of students to Zacapa, Guatemala. Soccer Chaplains United has had the pleasure of supporting the team in the past and is pleased to do so again this year.
In addition to giving a box of eBalls to the team, Soccer Chaplains United gave several dozen traditional soccer balls, in sizes four and five. We gave them cones to mark out a field or run games and drills. We also gave them all the soccer cleats we had on hand.
