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Ball Project exists because every child deserves to play. Learn more about the Power of Play.

Indianapolis based Ball Project partner Immaculate Heart of Mary Church partners with Friends of Honduran Children on a work trip each year. For the last 2 years Ball Project provided balls for them to take on the trip for kids.

Here is a nice update from the trip this year from our friend Chad Mills who went on both trips:

I made a return trip to Honduras earlier this month for some work with my Immaculate Heart of Mary friends. While it was different as I knew what to expect, it was equally as amazing….perhaps more so.  I looked forward to seeing some of the faces of the children I grew close to last year.  You can’t believe how quickly those bonds form.  They are like a sponge when it comes to soaking up whatever love and attention they can get.  I looked forward to the work we would do…something completely foreign to most people in our culture.  And thanks to the generosity of The Ball Project, I looked forward to delivering three dozen new soccer balls.  I still vividly remember last year, observing small children playing with whatever objects they came across…fragments of boards, or rocks…an old discarded pipe…using sheet metal to construct a rudimentary fort.  Then to see the joy and appreciation in their faces when I brought some new soccer balls last year…it was very special.  This year we had even more to give…enough to give a couple to each of the twelve homes at the Nuevo Paraiso orphanage…a few to the older boys Santiago Apostol home there, and a few to Pedro Atala orphange in the city of Tegucigalpa.  

Just as it was for me last year, it’s extremely difficult to leave that special place and return to the way we live.  It’s such a stark contrast.   One of the themes our group talked frequently about this year, was not being focused on the outcome.  Rather, just be present in the moments we are able to give..in the process.  I don’t know if I’ll have the chance to go back there again next year.  If I do, I don’t know if those soccer balls will still be around, or if the same kids will still be around for that matter.  Focusing on the “what if’s” for those children can be disheartening.  I just feel very grateful to have been given this opportunity, now two years in a row, to spend a few days with them.  We played together, worked together, worshiped together, and loved together.  For a part of the world that has so little…it’s a place that has already given me so much.      

For more on Friends of Honduran children and the work we do, please visit https://www.fhcindiana.org/

Thanks so much, Ball Project, for being part of this mission!

Here are some more pictures from the recent trip:

As always, Ball Project is grateful for our partners in our neighborhood & around the world working to build communities & help children play!