Page 2 - Goals For Bowls

THE HISTORY OF GOALS FOR BOWLS - THEN AND NOW
Growing up I was always taught to give back to my community and to serve others less fortunate. When I had children, I wanted to pass that along to them I did that with both my children, however, my daughter had other plans as she grew older!
For years if we weren’t at soccer practice or game, we were at the Community Enrichment Center (CEC) Food Pantry serving others. At this point, we have now been involved with CEC for 15 years. Sarah’s Senior year at A&M and the end of regular soccer season, she began to question what came next with her soccer career coming to an end. Due to having 2 surgeries for Compartment Syndrome on all 4 compartments on both legs, she knew she would no longer be able to play at a higher level after college. She had always known she wanted to start a non-profit, just didn’t know what or when. At that time, she read a book written by the founder of Tom’s Shoes, Blake Mycoskie called Start Something That Matters and there it was! Why not now and that was the beginning of Goals For Bowls! She knew with certainty that marrying the things she loved the most was what she was supposed to do! Playing soccer, serving other by feeding children and sharing the Gospel! The perfect Trifecta!
Many years before that, I taught AWANA’s at church and I clearly remember when Sarah was asked at the Closing Ceremony by the Pastor what she wanted to do when she grew up, she answered “I want to teach others about Jesus around the world through soccer!”. She was 7 years old. God planted that desire in her at an early age.
So, in December 2016 the dream was going to become a reality. The SEC Network did a commercial on Sarah and a local Attorney that was an Aggie reached out to see how he could help! He was the one that got our 501c3 status for us and helped get everything set up! Our first mission trip was 6 months later when we headed to Ghana! Our purpose was to take soccer balls and feed children; therefore, we found a manufacturer in Pakistan and had them produce our well made soccer balls to withstand the rocks and concrete these children play on in other countries. For every soccer ball we sold, it provided one soccer ball for a child in an underprivileged country for our next trip. One for one, just like Tom Shoes. The money was different. We had no overhead to worry about – all the balls were kept at Susan’s office in an extra office and since we didn’t take any salary, pay all of our own expenses of travel, accommodations and food or pay overhead, we have been able to utilize every dollar donation for food for our next trip!
People have long asked – why Ghana? That one is easy too! Sarah grew up going to this elite soccer camp every summer for years in the hills of Montecito, California. There was a group of young soccer players from Ghana that were sponsored through wealthy American families through a program called Right To Dream Program and it gave these young men the opportunity to get a great education at a Boarding School and play soccer. All these young men went on to play at top Division 1 schools, get their degree and several of them went on to play professional. These were the boys Sarah played soccer with. They shared their stories of the home in Ghana and how soccer truly changed their lives. It is so much more than a ball.
Fast forward and now at the end of 2022, we have completed 8 mission trips to 7 different countries: Ghana, Puebla Mexico, Juarez Mexico, the Philippines, Peru, Botswana, South Africa, and Guatemala. Over these trips, we have taken 300 soccer balls, given out 460 New Testament Bibles, shared a Free Bible app with the Bible in over 1300 languages more times than we can remember, provided 75,000 meals and have given out 75 clean water filter systems.
Even though the bulk of our work has been international, Goals For Bowls is active in our community as well having been a member of the Hurst Euless Bedford (HEB) Chamber of Commerce since 2018. GFB has been the recipient of the Leadership HEB Class of 2019 placing small libraries around town and bringing awareness to reading for children in our area. The children could come by and choose a free book at any time!