This fundraiser — supporting Champions in Action — is the third of three $300 fundraisers for my 30th birthday. So...please join me in putting together $300 to support the life-changing work that Champions in Action mentors are doing every day.
Champions in Action is a Christian nonprofit organization in Guatemala that connects disadvantaged youth to life-changing mentors through soccer.
As a nation, Guatemala is known throughout the world for its rich history, welcoming culture, and beautiful natural landscape. However, the country has also been plagued for years by wide economic disparity and high levels of violent crime and gang activity.
So Champions in Action set out with a wild dream to empower local mentors to connect with boys and girls in the “red zones” of Guatemala — marginalized inner-city areas where father figures and positive adult influence are scarce, and where poverty, gangs, violent crime, broken families, and domestic abuse are realities that many children see.
In Guatemala and throughout the world, soccer transcends lines of class, ethnicity, geography, and language, and it brings people together like few other things can. So, seeing the vast potential of mentoring in the lives of at-risk youth, Champions in Action set out to connect thousands of disadvantaged youth to life-changing mentors — using soccer as a catalyst. Mentors make a difference in kids' lives physically, socially, educationally, and spiritually. Mentors don't just coach soccer; they coach life too.
The idea behind everything is that the Church can and should get outside of its four walls and take Jesus's message of hope, healing, joy, and restoration to the streets, literally. Soccer field by soccer field, Champions in Action is reclaiming places that used to be breeding grounds for crime, gangs, and gender-targeted violence, and turning them into places where boys and girls are encouraged make good decisions, and follow their dreams, and know Jesus Christ. Champions in Action’s own dream is to see a generation empowered — by mentoring, by soccer, and by the gospel — to transform themselves, their families, their communities, and their nation.
(This is the third and final fundraiser for my 30th birthday. The first was for Impact Water in Honduras, and the second was for International Justice Mission.)
