Last Spring I had the privilege of being in Kingston Jamaica's most impoverished sides of town participating in a week long soccer camp. While most people are going on vacays and visiting pristine beaches, this amazing group of coaches and pastors got together and sacrificed their time and did something that will forever change the lives of 85 kids. I will never forget the kids faces as we spent time sharing the love of Christ and our love of football (soccer). Every morning we got up with the sun and downed some great Blue Mountain Jamaican coffee, did our devos and then headed off to a high school soccer field which was more dirt than grass. Each day we were on the field for 8 hours. We'd sing songs and then we'd share a story about the love of Jesus. And then we got to work on soccer skills with premier soccer coaches from all over Jamaica. It was a soccer players dream to be a part of this and it was something never dreamed of by these kids. We fed them lunch every day and as we did we realized that for most of these kids, that this was their only real meal of the day. Many of us shed tears as we saw groups of kids going through the trash collecting the leftovers from the lunches we just served..
You see, we could only do so much. We could only help the 85 kids we were ministering to. We came away from that camp asking the question, "Can we do more?" This trip started as a dream in my friend Doug's head. He prayed first and asked for God's help. He saw this trip in his mind's eye. But he didn't stop there. He put feet to this dream. He made this dream a goal. He started asking for support from local businesses and he asked for help from those that know how to coordinate these trips. Because of Doug's willingness to make a difference, all of us on the team experienced God's grace and love for a week in Jamaica. We were given the ability to share Christ's love with 85 kids who's lives where forever changed by that week.
What are you doing today to make a difference in someone's life?
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