One World Futbol

One World Futbol makes an unpoppable soccer ball. You can try to pop it! You can squash the air right out of it, but it just fills back up.

You’ve probably seen pictures of kids in refugee camps or slums receiving soccer balls as gifts. But what happens when the balls pop? Those children don’t have lush soccer fields to play on. They play right in the road. What happens when they kick the ball into a barbed-wire fence? Or into some thorn bushes? Even if they avoid those scenarios, the ball skids over the rocks in the road. Eventually it tears a hole and pops, or a stray dog gets hold of it and bites through it.

The One World Futbol is immune to all that damage.

A Giving Spirit

A big shout-out to Chris Haft of MLB.com for writing a really flattering and well-timed article about my efforts to be a man after God’s own heart. In a piece headlined Affeldt’s giving spirit lasts year-round, Chris wrote about our upcoming Something to Eat event in Redwood City on December 3. Here’s an excerpt:

Now Affeldt is directing his attention and passion toward “Something to Eat.” Approximately 400 students — members of Generation Alive, the non-profit organization Affeldt founded — will gather in Redwood City, Calif., on Dec. 3 to package meals for the Kenyans. Affeldt intends to fly in from his home in Spokane, Wash., to assist in the effort. Northern California Urban Development, based in East Palo Alto, will partner with Generation Alive to further the cause.

Affeldt’s proud of the volunteers for Generation Alive, a group formed to empower young people through active service. Many of the students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, yet recognize the need to help others.

“It’s an awesome sight to see in a world that seems so selfish at times,” said Affeldt, 32. “You see kids serving people just out of purely wanting to make a difference.”

It’s a great piece. Chris nailed it. Read the full article here.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the King of Kings, I’ve been reflecting on the purpose of life.  You know, why we’re here.  I’ll be writing about this between now and Christmas.  See you Tuesday.

Something to Eat

Last week I wrote that we’re supposed to be a church as a whole, a church everywhere in the world. We’re supposed to go out into the communities of the world to figure out who needs help. And then we’re supposed to get together and help!

This is exactly what we’ll be doing in Redwood City, California on December 3, and I would love to meet some of my readers there. Please contact us at Generation Alive to volunteer. We’re going to package 135,000 meals to send to southern Ethiopia, so that starving refugees will have something to eat.

More on My Calling

We’re called to all kinds of different ministries. We’re the Body of Christ! Some of us are hands, some of us are feet, some of us are eyes, some of us are ears, some of us are His voice.

Some of us do studies on the problems of poverty and slavery, and others come up with programs or ministries to alleviate those problems. If no one conducted those studies or created those ministries, I wouldn’t have even heard of the problems of the poor.

There are a lot of people called to help and they don’t even know it yet. I didn’t know I was called until three years ago.

Gifts of the Spirit

You might not have the ability to donate eight thousand dollars to build a well. But so what? We’re not asking one person to do it. We’re asking communities. We’re asking churches.

Suppose you’ve got seven hundred people in your church. Go and talk to them about building a well. Tell them how eight thousand dollars will change a community of fifteen hundred people. A well will erase ninety percent of diseases in that community. With a well, that community will flourish.

Someone in that church is going to give you five hundred dollars. Someone else will give you twenty-five dollars. Eventually, I’ll bet within two months, you can raise eight thousand dollars. And now your church can take care of a community of people.

You can do that. That’s a possibility. A very easy possibility.

REACHing Out

Generation Alive focuses on four interlocking projects that will restore life to the poorest of the poor:

• Abolishing human trafficking

• Building orphanages

• Digging wells

• Providing food

When we rescue children from traffickers, they need a place to live. So we’re building orphanages.

When we build an orphanage, we need to provide access to clean water. So we dig wells.

Now the kids not only have shelter, but they have clean water to drink. They need food as well, so we host Feed the Hunger events and send food.

This is the initial part of the project. Shelter, clean water, and nutritious food are the initial things that get the kids going. These are the things that heal them and get their bodies working the way they should. Now their minds begin to develop. We can start thinking about their education. We’ve got to send them to school.

Be Transformed

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1-2

Recently I’ve been writing about the vision of Generation Alive’s REACH program. I’ve written about how I believe young kids, especially youth groups, can serve like Jesus. I’ve written about how these kids can change the world. I think I’ve even mentioned that it’s fulfilling and fun to change the world in Jesus’ name!

Last time I outlined how one youth group, through the course of one or two years, can take an impoverished community of people that are going to die, and literally breathe life into them. Now think about what happens to those kids as they grow up knowing they have done something this powerful.

How to Change the World

Last time I showed you how a youth group of a hundred kids can change the lives of an entire community in just three months. All they have to do is raise eighty dollars each. Eight thousand dollars will pay to put in a well that will deliver clean water and eliminate 90% of disease.

Now, when those kids realize that they did this awesome thing, they’re going to say, “Man, we love doing this. We’d like to do this again!”

Well, they can! The next step in the REACH program is food. The cost is 25 cents a meal. For eight thousand dollars, you can buy a lot of meals! Not only will the kids package the meals, they’ll pray over them and ship them too. First they put in a well, and now they’ll be sending nutritious food.

They’ll have fun doing that too, and they’ll want to do it yet again.