Throwing it back to 2012!
It all started with a walk through the garage, around that bag of soccer balls. My youngest daughter had just finished her senior year of high school soccer. While she hoped to continue to play some in college, she was clearly not going to be bringing a ton of equipment to her dorm room. All those soccer balls acquired from summer soccer camps, the barely-used shin guards from the year the league changed their equipment requirements, and a drawer full of team shirts, tee shirts, shorts, thermal wear, and socks, socks, socks! All of it in good shape, too. I assumed that other families probably had lots of good-but-unneeded soccer gear sitting around unused too. What to do with it all?
It seemed to me that someone, somewhere would be happy to have this equipment, so I started looking for a way to connect with folks in need. If at all possible, I really wanted my donations to go through a Christian group that cared about people’s spiritual needs as well as their physical needs. It didn’t take much time online to find TruthFC. To be honest, I was a little hesitant at first because it is the ministry of one girl, but just a few emails was enough to reassure me that I definitely wanted our equipment to go to out to others through TruthFC! I know that it will be getting into the hands (and onto the feet) of people in countries who otherwise will have no access to decent gear. I’m thrilled to think that by giving people the chance to play the sport they love, new doors are opened for missions organizations to use soccer as a tool to share the Gospel. I love the idea that one girl with a passion can make a real difference, and I am gratified to know that what we give could actually have eternal benefits!
Knowing that other families would probably jump at the chance to donate to missions work, my daughter and I set up a soccer gear collection at our high school. It was easy, and it was fun! We got permission to put an announcement about the collection in the school newsletter, we put a big bucket in the entry hall with a sign describing what equipment we were looking for, and we showed up every couple of days to pick up the donations. We put on a time limit of two weeks, which worked out just about right. And that’s all there was to it! We got quite a lot of equipment, all of it in good shape and some of it new, and the school even donated a complete set of team uniforms that had been replaced by new uniforms the previous year! In fact, my daughter was shocked at how much we collected from a small school in a short period of time!
We’re from New York. TruthFC is located in Colorado. Our family decided to pay the shipping costs as part of our donation. The cost could just as easily have been covered by accepting monetary donations or holding a bake sale. Two big boxes by UPS was all it took to get the gear to TruthFC. Jayla will take care of getting it into the hands of missionaries who will bring it with them around the world!
It was easy, it was fun! I would definitely encourage you to donate to TruthFC, either individually or as a group. It was a great experience. Someone will be blessed by your generosity!
Joyfully,
Diane English
Glenmont, New York
November 8, 2012
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