In our first Community Project request for 2024, the football gear has landed! Or, at least part of it in Benin and is now in the hands of local leader Dorothé and the children that he is teaching soccer to and also sharing about the love of Jesus.
Last month, Lucia Eberle, made a request for soccer gear through her EPC church in Texas. It was a quick turnaround because there was an opportunity to meet her church pastor in Phoenix and get the gear back to Texas with no shipping charges (🙌Southwest – two bags fly free). What was really exciting for me as I “pulled” the project, was the way that some of the quantities and sizes seemed to “just happen.” Of course, I have been doing this long enough to know that it’s part of how God works.
One neat part to the project, Lucia made a glancing reference that Dorothé was hopeful to start a women’s team — I just had enough to outfit a team.
The original request:
- approx. 35-50 sets of soccer shirts and shorts
- 2 sets of goalkeeper gear
What we were able to provide:
| 31 | Gold Men’s Jerseys (2-m, 1-l, 23-resized, 5-xl) |
| 13 | Gold Women’s Jerseys (modesty fabric sewn and deeper V-neck style) |
| 42 | Shorts {red at bottom} (1-s, 17-m, 19-l, 4-xl, 1-xxl) |
| 14 | Shorts [other] (1-s, 6-m, 5-l, 2-xl) |
| 36 | Soccer socks |
| 40 | compression shorts (12-s, 8-m, 20-l) |
| 54 | compression shirts (16-m, 26-l, 12-xl) |
| 9 | Short sleeve staff shirts (5-m, 4-l) |
| 38 | gray training tops (23-m, 8-l, 7-xl) |
| 1 | GK glove [new] |
| 2 | GK shirt/short/sock sets (large – 1 shirt, 2 shorts; medium – 1 shirt, 2 shorts) |
Lucia was blown away by the amount of gear and for her most recent trip (see pictures below) she was only able to take one bag to begin and so mixed some of the items from bag one and two in Texas to take with her.
I didn’t realize how much there would be and that I would be able to get it so soon!
Lucia, when she received the gear
Lucia wrote me recently and sent the pictures (above) from her first trip and delivery. Here is from her email below:
Good afternoon just came back to see the soccer teams from Dorothé
He started 30 years ago and it’s all free
Now he has also added teen girls and little ones
What a true joy to see how God is using his love for soccer and young people to bring so much hope to the youth of Benin
Thank you for the hope and the way to encourage these young people
He accepts all youth, Muslim or Christian, and shares the gospel
The kids and Dorothé were so encouraged
Thank you
Dorothé wanted to wait to open the bag with the kids so I brought it this afternoon and he saw inside what there was.
Friends, we know how meaningful these things are for Dorothé and the children that he is reaching out to with love and care. Thank you for your continued support to provide gear and finances for our projects to keep going out around the world!
Remember, when you 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 from the selectable funds. Your financial gift helps us purchase new soccer equipment, sponsor individuals or organizations, and cover associated costs of providing Bibles, soccer equipment, and other outreach tools locally and around the world!
