Pacific Northwest Soccer Tournament Changes Lives in Sierra Leone
POSTED ON Feb 03, 2012
Patrick is a passionate soccer player himself, and is grateful for his sponsors—a team that competes in the Kitsap Cup.
The high school team Wi Suk has competed and won their division of the Kitsap Cup for the past seven years. The team plays to sponsor a young boy from Sierra Leone named Edward.
Patrick's nickname is "Current" because he flies down the field like electricity.
Rural Sierra Leone and Kitsap County, Washington, are about as far away from each other as you can get—geographically, economically, and culturally. But on New Year's Day, children and adults from these two different worlds were enjoying the same thing: the first soccer games of 2012. Both tournaments were a joyful celebration of the new year. But the soccer competition in the United States had a greater purpose. Each team played to sponsor a child in Sierra Leone for all of 2012.
The "Kitsap Cup," hosted at the Olympic Soccer and Sports Center in Bremerton, Washington, has become an annual affair, and each year raises enough money to support at least twelve children through Children of the Nations' (COTN) sponsorship program. After each team member makes a donation to play, they are assigned a child to "play for." After the game, team members are encouraged to write letters to their child, and the left over T-shirts from the cup are sent to COTN's children in Sierra Leone.
The tournament only lasts a day, but the money each team raises will make a difference for their child the entire year. For eighteen-year-old Patrick, support from the Kitsap Cup has been life changing. A soccer player himself, Patrick is a testament to the transformation sponsorship brings. Patrick was attending a high school in Freetown before he became a part of COTN. But he says he learned very little there. "The teachers were not always good," he explains. "You could miss your exams but give the teachers money and still pass them. COTN's school is not like that."
Patrick grew up in Freetown with his parents, but his father couldn't find work in the city, and took off in search of a job when Patrick was still very young. When his father finally found a job as a security guard at COTN's ministry center in Banta Mokelleh, Patrick's mother, who struggled to feed and send all six of her children to school, encouraged Patrick to join his father in Banta, where he could be a part of COTN's Village Partnership Program.
Patrick admits he didn't like COTN when he first came, because he had no friends. But soon he met Karim, an older boy from COTN's Children's Village. "Karim invited me to come to church, so I went there with him," Patrick recounts. "On the Saturday then there was a football [soccer] game, and Karim invited me to come and watch. After that I started to train with the team." Patrick explains that his mother never let him play the sport because his brother had taken it more seriously than school, and ended up without many options. But with a top-rate school, and a great team, Patrick flourished both on the field and in the classroom. His nickname became "Current" because he flies down the field like electricity. And he began making plans for his future—he hopes to become a lawyer. Patrick asks that his sponsors "pray that I can continue my education and also my football career."
Besides getting to play soccer and attend a good school, Patrick explains that his life is spiritually and socially different. "When I was in Freetown I didn't go to church," he says. "But when I came to COTN, I started to go to church again. When I was in Freetown I had been living a bad life, but here I have friends that advise me and that has helped me to change."
It's amazing to think that this transformation came about through an annual soccer competition. But Patrick is just one of many children whose lives have been changed by this event. His gratitude is immense. "I just want to thank my sponsors, because they're helping me go through my education," he says.
You can transform the life of a child like Patrick. Sponsor a child today!