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Jubal McDaniel and his non-profit, Northwest Football Ministries, recently returned from Spokane, Washington where he took soccer gear as part of our Community Project program. He shares about the soccer camp went and about meeting and working with Jackson Lino in an update below.

Jackson Lino is the Youth Program Director for Thrive International in Spokane, WA. Jackson immigrated to the US as a refugee and later started working for World Relief in Spokane. His heart is to see immigrant and refugee youth and families thrive in the greater Spokane area. I initially connected with Jackson via Twitter in 2018 and we hosted our first camp together in 2019. The camp takes place over the course of a week during the summer. The first few days include basic skills and lots of scrimmage games. On the final day, the kids organize themselves into teams and we run a tournament. There are two brackets – one for each age group. In addition, our camp provides free cleats, socks, shinguards, jerseys, goodies and snacks for the kids. We would not be able to do this without our church and community partners! 

This year was a massive step in the development of our soccer camp program! We served 60 youth that represented 10 different countries. One of the most exciting developments this year was the additional support from the new USL Spokane group! USL Spokane held a cleat drive for the camp and acquired a donation of soccer balls from Park. This year’s tournament included players from the USA National Military Women’s Soccer Team, who just happened to be training in Spokane! To top it off, a local news outlet came out to feature the youth and Thrive International’s youth program. Absolutely amazing! I cannot wait to see what’s in store for next year! 

When you financially support Soccer Chaplains United a portion of your gift automatically goes to help our community projects and requests. You can give specifically to help cover our costs by making a gift through PushPay — simply select Community Project from the selectable funds. Your financial gift helps us purchase new soccer equipment, sponsor individuals projects and organizations, and to cover associated costs of providing Bibles, soccer equipment, and other outreach tools locally and around the world!