by Aaron Earls
After his record breaking performance in the 2014 World Cup as the goalkeeper for Team USA, Tim Howard received calls from President Obama and numerous other government officials to congratulate him on helping the U.S. advance into the knockout stage.
But Howard recently made his own special congratulation call of sorts. The goalie recorded a video thanking staffers at Lifeway’s Camp Ridgecrest for their support of Team USA and their sacrifice of spending a summer teaching campers about Christ.
Howard has been open about his own faith, telling Cru, “The most important thing in my life is Christ. He’s more important to me than winning or losing or whether I’m playing or not. Everything else is just a bonus.”
Howard put together the video as a surprise to be shown at the end-of-the-summer staff banquet on Friday night, says Sam Pineda assistant director of Camp Ridgecrest for Boys.
“We have about 85 summer staff,” says Pineda. “When the video was played, they went crazy!”
According to Pineda, the camp started doing World Cup and USA-themed activities this summer like chants after meals, a soccer game played with more than 270 campers, and camp viewings of World Cup matches.
They often posted videos of these on social media, which is where Howard, a neighbor of a summer staffer, saw them. After talking with the staffer about the videos, the world famous goalkeeper agreed to record a message.
In it, he commended the staff for giving up their summer to invest in the lives of young kids. Howard said he knew personally of the lasting benefits that come from serving children.
He also thanked them for their support of Team USA, telling the staffers, “We felt it all the way down in Brazil.”
Before ending the video, Howard noted that from all he has seen and heard he could “really sense God’s presence at Camp Ridgecrest. And I think of all things, that’s the coolest and most inspiring – that God presence is there amongst you all.”
Aaron Earls (@WardrobeDoor) is online editor of FactsAndTrends.net.
