Hello 2012!

From Phil:

January saw the start of preseason football. Due to weather conditions the Miskolc team rents an Elementary school gym on Mondays and a High School gym on Thursdays in order to hold conditioning practices during the months of January and February. The Nyiregyhaza Tigers rent a city gym on Wednesdays and Saturdays also due to weather conditions. So football is back in full swing with a minimum of four practices a week in two different cities.

FOOTBALL’S PROBLEM - EQUIPMENT In the past week we have seen 10 new potential players (high school students) come to practice. They are interested in playing football and they know about the game as the NFL is broadcasted live on the national Hungarian sport channel every Sunday. HOWEVER, minimum wage in Miskolc is $2.50 and for a player to buy all the necessary equipment to be able to play cost a months pay.

GoodSports as a registered U.S. Nonprofit has the ability to give tax deductible receipts not only for monetary donations but for EQUIPMENT donations as well.

Also in January we started our nanny appreciation project in which every month we will do something special for the nannies, as a way of thanking them for taking care of the kids and all their hard work. For January we cooked lunch on a Saturday in order to give the nannies the day off. We severed them first and presented them with thank you cards signed by the kids.

As the new year starts GoodSports is looking forward to another busy summer camp season. Currently GoodSports is budgeting to be able to take 10 kids from the Miskolc orphanage to the English/sports camp in Debrecen. This is the same camp I participated in last year and the same camp where 4 kids from the orphanage were baptized last year. We would like to take more than 10 kids, however, we simply don’t have the funds. The cost is $130.00 per camper and I would strongly encourage you to consider helping send a child from the Miskolc orphanage to this camp. A place where he/she will hear, see, feel and experience God’s love.

January was an exceptionally good month at the Avasi Gimnazium, and I was asked to/ given the opportunity to stay on for another year as the native conversational English teacher.