“It was amazing!!”

Afterwards, we prayed with heavy hearts that God would use us to offer the hope Jesus to a suffering world.

Finally, we visited our brothers and sisters at Nazareth Baptist Church in West New York. We presented not only the 30 Hour Famine, but also the X Fund. Several teens expressed interest in joining this movement of purity that is rescuing child prostitutes around the globe. And I’m pretty confident they’ll be fasting with us for the next famine-right Josh??

If you’d like to join us in saving lives from starvation, we’ll be sending our 30 Hour Famine donations this weekend.  All funds will be split between World Vision and Bethesda Outreach this weekend. Donate Here!

Next National Date for the Famine is April 24-25. You in??

More info coming on our Monday post-if we make it

He changes our lives and brings people together as He chooses. He gave Dan the idea of using basketball to help children in poverty around the world, allowed his friends to join him, and now lives in our area (and around the globe!) are being changed. One of the lives that is being transformed is a beautiful little girl named Hawie.

Here are a few facts about Hawie, where she’s from, and how she has become a part of the Ball For Lives family.

HAWIE:

• Hawie is an 11 year old girl from Ethiopia. She lives with her grandmother.
• Her household duties include: running errands and carrying water.
• Hawie loves playing with dolls and running.
• Hawie lives in Dendi Wered a city that has roughly 40,000 residents (70km from Addis Ababa, one of the major cities in Ethiopia.)

FAST FACTS ABOUT ETHIOPIA:

• Religion: Christianity: 60%, Muslim: 32%, Other: 8%.
• Literacy rate for women: 35%.
• Percentage of population using impoverished drinking water sources: Urban households: 96%.
• Percentage of population using adequate sanitation facilities: 27%.
• Life expectancy for women: 58 years old.
• Percentage of population living under $1.25 a day: 39%.

HOW SHE BECAME PART OF BALL FOR LIVES:

Hawie became part of the Ball For Lives family through generous donations from a wonderful family in Ohio and the tennis team that Dan coaches at Memorial. We knew we wanted to do something special with these funds.

We looked into sponsoring a child. We were directed to Compassion International and learned about their work all around the globe. Through donations and sponsorships, lives (just like Hawie’s!) are being changed for the sake of the Gospel.

We ask that you would pray for Hawie and her grandmother. Pray that they would be encouraged by the ministry that Compassion has in Ethiopia and are blessed by the work being done for them. Pray that Hawie would come to realize the great love that Christ has for her.

-ash

How does it all fit together?

Our focus is still helping Bethesda Outreach rescue African orphans. AIDS is still leaving millions of children orphans, and we want to see Bethesda villages spread throughout Africa. However, we get behind other causes and organizations for 4 specific reasons:

1. AIDS is only one of the reasons why Sub-Saharan Africa has so many millions of orphans. War, disease, and kidnapping are just a few of the many contributing factors. We want to highlight these different causes and partner with organizations working against these issues in order to rescue more orphans.

2. African orphans are subjected to many horrors besides a life without parents. Some are trafficked as sex slaves while others are used as child soldiers. Many die of malaria. Ball for Lives continues to assist organizations that are saving orphans from these horrific lifestyles.

3. The more organizations we partner with, the more people find out about Ball for Lives. As more people that find out about us, more attention goes to Bethesda Outreach!

4. No one organization will by itself make the greatest difference possible. Bethesda recognizes this when they partner with local churches and social organizations. While our focus is aiding Bethesda, we believe that a group of solid organizations can make the greatest difference.

“Ball for Lives uses basketball to rescue African orphans and children in poverty around the world.”

With this philosophy, we can focus on rescuing African orphans through Bethesda Outreach, yet not be limited in helping those the Lord leads us to help.

Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

We do it by benefitting other non-profit organizations that are working in areas of extreme poverty. God has connected us to some AMAZING organizations and enabled us to donate thousands of dollars to their work! Check out the following chart (made so wonderfully by Morgan Cook) to see how your donations became a part of something much bigger to make an incredible difference!     

And literally over 97% of these donations were given since August (when Ashley dribbled the NYC Half Marathon)! Over $8,000 in 5 months!! In our first year as a non-profit!!!

If you’ve been following Ball for Lives at all, you know we are not about the numbers of how much money we raise. At the same time, we want to praise God and give thanks to all of you who have been involved. Praise Him for all the lives that were touched through these donations: the children rescued from prostitution, the Darfuri people who were given rest, the hundreds of children now protected from malaria through mosquito nets,  families all over the world that were blessed through our Christmas gift donations, the orphans of South Africa who now have families at Bethesda, a little girl named Hawie in Ethiopia–so many lives that we will never fully comprehend until we meet Jesus someday. And I haven’t even mentioned the lives here that were changed in the process.

All Glory to God! His mercy endures forever.

Christmas Eve is a week away!! Need a last minute gift? Why not buy products made straight from Uganda! Here are links to some other great organizations doing the same thing:

Love 146

Save Darfur

Malaria No More

I hate shopping, but I’ve spent hours shopping for these kinds of gifts AND I’VE LOVED IT!! As we celebrate God giving us the greatest gift of all (Himself), let us give gifts that offer hope to the suffering people He loves so much.   

 AND

Now imagine giving Christmas gifts to the poorest of the poor all over the world. You can do it!! Organizations such as World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse  offer opportunities to give very unique gifts such as ducks, chickens, goats, mosquito nets, and blankets to the poorest of the world. Ducks? Chickens?? That’s right, these types of gifts can radically change people’s lives all over the world. Even better, you can give your gift in honor of someone you know! They’ll receive a card letting them know which gift  was given in their honor. Imagine the lives you could change and the people you could inspire through these gifts. Check out this video: 

This is from our own Whitney Rodgers:

“Several years ago one of my friends made a donation in my name to an organization helping orphans in Africa and it really meant the world to me. So much more than some little trinket that I would keep around for a few years and then get rid of. I still remember it to this day, it made such an impact on me.

The most wonderful thing about these gifts is that we can’t even begin to comprehend their impact on someone’s life on the other side of the world!  The way God can use these gifts to change someone’s whole existence is unfathomable to us.  Not only that, it could also change the life of your loved one who is honored with the gift. Ever heard of “pay it forward”? Your gift may start a chain reaction!  Think of all the people who will have clean drinking water, school books, farm animals, and best of all, the Gospel!!”

Get involved by joining Samaritan’s Purse and World Vision and give your unique gift to honor someone special!

Imagine the people in your youth group, Sunday School class, or small group encouraging each other in the pursuit of sexual purity WHILE rescuing child prostitutes around the world. Now imagine this effort you’ve started spreading throughout your church!

See how we started it at Fairview Gospel Church:

Here’s how to get The X Fund started at your church:

1. Find a male and female leader for this project. Both people must be mature in Christ and capable of mentoring others.

2. Seek out people in your church that you think would want to participate in The X Fund. Look for people that have a desire to follow Christ and are willing to be open about their struggle for purity.

3. Bring this group together and present the X Fund. You can use our last BallforLives.com post “The X Fund” to help explain how the project works.

4. Have girls and guys meet separately and define Biblically what sexual purity is so everyone is on the same page. Then, organize the groups into partners (again, gender segregated) and begin putting The X Fund into action!

5. After collecting change and donating the total from your first month, make an announcement to the entire church on a Sunday morning inviting them to join The X Fund. You can hold another meeting for anyone else interested in joining.

We would be happy to send someone from Ball for Lives to present this vision to your youth group, Sunday School class, small group, or entire church. Contact Occh at occh@ballforlives.com.

Imagine what God would do with this effort in the lives of His children at your church. He can use YOU to make it happen!

Imagine from LOVE146 on Vimeo.

How does this video make you feel? Angry? Upset? Disgusted? It should. But one thing I hope this video inspires you to realize is the opportunity we have to make sex about something so wonderful, insead of something so selfish.

When teenagers hear the word “virgin” what’s the typical response? It’s usually in the context of a joke, or making fun of someone right? But what about after watching this video? Is the idea of being innocent such a joke any more?

Think about how badly these girls would prize their virginity if they had the chance. If one of these little girls was given a brand new start in America, do you think she would lose her virginity in high school, or do you think she would save herself for a man who loved her to the point of committing himself to her in marriage?

You see, these girls have no chance to save the priceless gift of their sexuality because their innocence is stolen from them. We have every chance at it (WE GET TO CHOOSE!) and our culture tells us to throw it right away.

I truly believe that each of us knows deep down in our hearts that our sexuality is worth far more than the media tells us. Whether you’ve lost your virginity or not, you deserve someone who will wait for you. You can live sexually pure.

So what if we offered you a chance to be a part of a movement that is inspiring people in our own communities to make sex about something greater than cheap, temporary pleasure we see on TV? What if this same effort rescued children from sex slavery so they could have the chance to save their virginity for something wonderful?

We invite you to join the X Fund. Here are the basics:

-Find a friend who is also serious about saving himself/herself sexually for marriage.

-Every day you save yourself sexually, you put away a quarter, dime, nickel-whatever you decide. Your partner does the same, and each week you exchange the change you’ve set aside. This gives both of you accountability and encouragement for staying pure.

-Each month, you gather your change and donate it to Ball for Lives. We take all the money donated from across the country and send it to organizations (like Love146) that are rescuing child prostitues.

YOUR PURITY=A CHANCE FOR THEM TO BE PURE!

Much more info is on the way about The X Fund (like why we’re calling it that) and how you can bring it to your school, youth group, and church.

Don’t settle with your life! See the amazing opportunity God has given you. So many others are wishing for that chance.

Check out these Open Run Pics !

Over 50 students and faculty members played in the Open Run!

Want this kind of tournament at your school? Remember, a group of students at Memorial brought 4-One to their school. You can do the same!

Pictures and video from the Main Event coming soon!