Dan Blessing
Mar 1, 2024 | by Dan Blessing
Mission:
To restore hope to refugees and the communities they impact through soccer.
Vision:
Players from different backgrounds playing soccer together and experiencing the restorative work of Jesus, resulting in everlasting hope, and stronger, joyful communities.
Contact Dan on how to get involved, pray, + give!
GEM Giving Link: https://gemission.org/donatemissionary/daniel-blessing/
Phone/WhatsApp: +420.734.592.773
Ministry Needs
I have joined the leadership team and coaching staff of a Czech soccer club, Ambassadors FC Praha. The club is a Christian organization with a mission to share the gospel through soccer. Since partnering with Ambassadors FC Praha, we have created opportunities for refugee children to play for the club, enabling them to build new friendships, and get better connected within the Czech community.
How the ministry sharing the gospel + making disciples
As a Christian organization, Ambassadors FC Praha is focused on leveraging soccer as a means of sharing the gospel and developing disciples. With every soccer camp, recreational team, competitive team, or off-field outreach event, we take time during training sessions to share our faith through devotionals/testimonies and pray. Throughout the season we also have Bible studies for certain age groups.
Prayer Requests
The Czech Republic is a spiritual dark and atheist country that felt the brutality of Nazism and Communism throughout the 20th century. This era has largely influenced most Czech people to dismiss any hope offered from the Christian gospel. Since 2022 Czechs have shared the burden with the rest of the European community of welcoming those seeking refuge from the war in Ukraine. Please join me in praying for…
- Peace in Ukraine and for the war to end with hope and justice.
- Czech people to have continued grace in making refugees feel welcome.
- Hearts of Czechs and Ukrainians to experience the restoration of the Christian gospel.
- Ambassadors FC Praha to continue to grow and spread its influence in the community.
My Story
It started in the summer of 2017. I took my first trip to Greece to help with a humanitarian crisis that sent hundreds of thousands of refugees from Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa to several Greek islands off the coast of Turkey. While serving in one of the camps I learned a lot about the refugee experience, from the horrors they fled to the dangers they encountered along their journey. And through hearing many of their stories firsthand, they stopped being the nameless faces from the news. They were real people who needed real hope. During the next four years I continued volunteering in refugee camps on a short-term basis. And despite so many differences, I discovered that through soccer, I was able to engage with people on a personal level that helped restore hope and dignity to their lives. By the winter of 2022, I wasn't okay anymore with serving part-time on a problem that needed a full-time effort. So, I decided to enter their story with both feet...and a soccer ball.