Ngata United FC

A few weeks before Colleen and I went home in June, I looked up my old soccer club (South Central Select from Greenwood, Indiana, now called South Central Soccer Academy)  on the internet and emailed the marketing director to see if they’d be interested in donating anything to my team in Ngata.  Jeremy Neely, VP and marketing  director of SCSA wrote me back and was amazingly receptive to the idea.  While we were home, my dad and I went down to the SCSA fields (a trip we used to make together 3-4 times a week) to meet Jeremy.  He was incredibly nice and gave so much… jerseys, balls, T-shirts, shorts, cleats, pennies, socks, medals, backpacks… it was amazing!  Fortunately we had some additional bags to use for coming back to Kenya, because we had 2 and a half bags of football gear! 

The last few weeks, I’ve been so excited about giving these things to the team!  I had some of the shirts resized and numbers put on the few that didn’t have them, then last week made a big presentation of the gifts to the team at practice.  It really is so much fun to give things away!  We sorted all of the shirts (about 50) and gave some to the junior squad, keeping the red ones to use as their first set of uniforms.  They were so excited!  Then the senior team tried on all of their new gear and posed for some pictures – they especially loved the red jerseys and the backpacks!

After presenting all the gifts and getting team pictures, we had a meeting with speeches and thanks, where the guys expressed their gratitude to me and to SCSA.  I wish I had taken a camera with a video recorder so I could share it!  They were really touched that people in the US want to send them things and support what they are doing.  They said that without the cleats and other donations, they wouldn’t have been able to join the district league that we began a few weeks ago. 

Most of the guys on the team are poorer on the socio-economic scale, and with unemployment in Kenya being around 40%, they don’t have any job prospects.  The football team, Ngata United FC, is really the best thing that many of them feel they have going in life.  Some of the older guys around the team have told me what a great thing it is because it really keeps guys from getting into gangs, alcohol, violence, drugs, etc.  Being supported and encouraged by “wazungu” (white people) from the US is an incredible blessing for them.  We are so thankful to Jeremy Neely and all of South Central Soccer Academy for their generous donation, and we hope to make you proud in your former uniforms this season! 

This past Sunday, we had our third league match on our home ground.  Despite the fact that the linesman didn’t understand the offsides rule, we won 3-1.  It was our first game wearing the kits donated by SCSA, and the guys were excited that they looked so good in all red.  Attendance at home matches continues to go up, as we typically have 150-200 people from town watching on the sideline.  It was a gorgeous day and a great win (we now have 7 points from 3 matches in the league).  The only bad thing was that I missed a wide open header!  The guys teased me a bit after the game, but I definitely deserved it… Here’s a post-victory picture:

It always amazes me how sports can make us feel… some of my most happy and most disappointing moments have been on a basketball court or football pitch.  I love seeing how excited the guys get after we score a goal or win – without sounding too hyperbolic, I really thing that football brings hope to the community.  I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with the guys since we’ve been back, and more have been coming to church with me.  Please pray that this team can continue to be a ministry and bring hope to the players, our opponents, and the town of Ngata.

The guys were asking me if it was possible for me to make them a website, so I made the team a facebook page.  If you’d like to keep up with us, you can “like” the page at facebook.com/NgataUnitedFC.  Also, you can CLICK HERE to see an album of pictures from when we were distributing the uniforms, and CLICK HERE to see one from our game on Sunday.  A big thanks to the lovely Colleen Wittig for taking most of these photographs. 

Thanks so much for your prayers and support,

Cason

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”  -  1 Corinthians 9:24

Some of our fans from the Baby Center came with Colleen to a practice:

Tossing my buddy Brandon into the African sky at football practice – he loves it and keeps saying “tena… tena…” which means “again… again…”:

Some of the cutest fans from our game on Sunday that were all crowded around Colleen:

And finally one of our post game prayer… please keep these guys in your prayers!:

Thanks so much for reading!  God Bless!