The administrators of the high
school in Barrow, Alaska, were tired of seeing students get into trouble and
drop out at a rate of 50 percent. To keep students interested, they started a
football team, which offered them a chance to develop personal skills,
teamwork, and learn life lessons. The problem with football in Barrow, which is
farther north than Iceland, is that it’s hard to plant a grass field. So they
competed on a gravel and dirt field.
Four thousand miles away in
Florida, a woman named Cathy Parker heard about the football team and their
dangerous field. Feeling that God was prompting her to help, and impressed by
the positive changes she saw in the students, she went to work. About a year
later, they dedicated their new field, complete with a beautiful
artificial-turf playing surface. She had raised thousands of dollars to help some
kids she didn’t even know.
This is not about football—or money. It is about remembering “to do good and to share” (Heb. 13:16). The apostle James reminds us that we demonstrate our faith by our actions (2:18). The needs in our world are varied and overwhelming but when we love our neighbor as ourselves, as Jesus said (Mark 12:31), we reach people with God’s love.
