Ten4tues | Kelsey Timmerman

$10 for Tuesday: Spirit of Soccer

By Kelsey

Every Tuesday I give $10 to an individual or group as part of the $10 for Tuesday (#ten4tues) project. If you have any suggestions please leave them in the comments or email me at Kelsey@kelseytimmerman.com.

For a few weeks I actually gave a crap about soccer.

I think every game I watched had a goal that should have been allowed and wasn’t or was allowed and shouldn’t have been. At times it seemed a little like WWE wrestling. Still, the beauty of soccer is its simplicity.

I once played soccer on a sandbar in a remote village in Honduras (listen to my piece on the World Vision Report). Our goals were marked by wood shavings from a recently carved dugout canoe. That’s the beauty of soccer: all you need is a ball and a little creativity to mark a goal. After that all you need is your two feet.

Although, you can’t take your feet for granted. I learned this while I was in Cambodia with an Organization called Spirit of Soccer. They use soccer clinics to educate kids – now over 80,000 worldwide – about Explosive Remnants of War.

Scotty Lee, the group’s charismatic and hilarious, founder has expanded the program to Bosnia and Herzogovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Cambodia and Iraq.

Currently the SOS team is at the World Cup. As the world puts the beautiful game front and center, I thought now would be a great Tuesday to give SOS $10 for the great work they’re doing that I’ve seen first hand and the great work they’ll continue to do in the future.

I hope you’ll join me. Donate here.

Giving Back, ten4tues

$10 for (3) Tuesdays

By Kelsey

In case you’ve been wondering about the $10 for Tuesday Project, I haven’t stopped. I’ve just been slacking posting about them. I’ve been on a whirlwind tour of Kenya, Ethiopia, and I just arrived in Uganda.

I’ve lived in the slums of Nairobi, visited soleRebels in Addis Ababa, checked in on NURU which has to be one of the coolest and most efficient new NGOs I’ve seen in awhile, and I ran with (and by with I mean an ever increasing distance behind) world champion Kenyans. The audio, photos, and chicken scratches in my moleskine are piling up.

So to catch up on my ten4tues, I thought I’d recap the past three Tuesdays below:

Tuesday #1: The Prophetess

Oh there’s so much to write here. In fact, one of the main reasons I’m so behind on my notes is that I wrote 6,000 words about my night in the slums with the Prophetess and her family. Here’s a brief excerpt from my notes:

“I have a property North of Nairobi,” the Prophetess says. “I owned a store and saved up money to buy it. It has been pending (I think this means undeveloped) since 2004. In my vision I saw the sun coming up over my property and there was a group of mazungus (white folk) building a house on it. When I see your group come, when I saw you, I knew it was God.” She looks up. If this were a movie the camera would rise from her face, pass through the ceiling, out of Mathare, out of Nairobi, Kenya, Africa, Earth, and into the heavens where God would be shaking his head, or laughing, and mumbling, “Lady, I’ve got better things to do.”

I was prophesized! I’m like Quetzalcoatl with more hair! I’m here! I’m the one you’ve been waiting for.

I could’ve said those things. I could’ve played my roll in the drama. “I had the same vision. Let’s build this thing.” I don’t make promises like that. Heck, I still owe books to my translators from WAIW (which I feel awful about). I didn’t know what to say. I was somewhat disappointed. It makes you feel kind of small when someone looks at you and sees a future that you can’t make happen.

“Too bad I’m a mazungu with no money,” I laugh.

After spending the night on her son’s couch, I slipped her $10, which felt like a very insignificant amount. That’s the one rotten thing about showing up in other people’s visions, their expectations are always a bit high.

Tuesday 2: Geesit (totally misspelled) Addis Ababa Ethiopia

Justin at Life in Abundance hooked me up with the groups guesthouse in Addis. I had the entire home to myself. Each morning Geesit would show up and have a pretty killer breakfast spread just for me. When I had to meet the folks at soleRebels, she took me all they way there via 4 taxis. She’s a single mother of two adopted children and a super sweet lady.

Tuesday 3: NURU

NGOs usually have rather specific mission statements and goals, some of them do just exactly what their name says (think Feed the Children), so NURU’s goal seemed somewhat lofty. They want to end poverty. But after visiting their pilot project in Kuria, Kenya, and seeing how they’ve changed the lives of over 5,000 locals in just over 1.5 years, I’m a believer.

One farm I visited went from producing 3 bags per acre to 30 bags per acre. On average NURU farmers produced 500% more corn then they did before. And that’s just their ag projects, never mind their education, water sanitation, health, and finance projects.

I’ll dedicate a longer post to Nuru later. For now I’ll donate $10.

Giving Back, ten4tues

$10 for Tuesday: Home

By Kelsey

Home is where your heart is.

Home is where your story begins.

Home is where you are enslaved to your cat, poopy diapers, and lawn mowing.

Home is a lot of things. Even the ones that don’t exactly fall under the “awesome” category are missed when you aren’t home.

I’m leaving my home in a few days. Next Tuesday I’ll be in Nairobi, Kenya. I’ll be sure to continue the “$10 for Tuesday Project” there. I expect I’ll find some very interesting and worthy causes and people to support during the following 6 weeks, which will lead me from Kenya to Ethiopia, Uganda, and Ireland.

I’m giving my $10 this Tuesday to Muncie Habitat for Humanity because they physically build homes for folks to house all of their emotional treasures. I hope you’ll consider supporting your local Habitat for Humanity too.

–

Way back in 2003 when my home was just outside Raleigh, North Carolina, I wrote an essay about home. Here it is…

//HOME//

What do I miss most when I travel?

Sneakers, blue jeans, and basketball shorts. Come to think of it any item of clothing I don’t have to smell before I put it on. Doggy kisses. Phoned in sports updates from my father, fresh off of ESPN, free of charge. Pizza King. A regular schedule. Kicking my feet up in my own space, in my own recliner at the end of the day. Control of the TV remote. Having a phone. Sitting across a warm bowl of chips and a fresh cup of salsa at El Meson with a certain brown-eyed girl. Having someone to bitch to. Not being stared at. Brownies. The stack of books beside my bed. Fed-EXed cookies from Mom. Kitty stares. My truck and the ability to go where I want, when I want. Brotherly rants via witty e-mails, which are actually not that witty. Charmin toilet paper. My CD’s. DVD’s. NPR on FM. Knowing where I am. Not having to convert all currencies to dollars before making a purchase. Houseplants. My computer. Are you actually still reading this list? Flip-flops. Tick-tocks. Bling-bling. The library. Being alone. Not being alone. The smell of Home.

In order to travel you have to leave familiar people, things, building, smells, and sounds. You have to leave Home. Home is something different to everyone. Even a homeless man has a familiar way of life.

Why do I leave? To meet new people, experience new cultures, smell new smells, taste new tastes, and hear new sounds. Ever been on a trip and seen the sign: “If you lived here you’d be home.”? The imagination longingly turns. If I lived here that man would be my neighbor. This would be my favorite restaurant. In my free time I would go here and do this. When you leave your Home you’re exploring someone else’s.

Visiting a friend who is a fine wine and cheese kind of guy, he asks me, “What’s your favorite cheese to eat with red wine?”

I turn the question over in my head searching for the perfect cheese or at least one that sounds like it: American, Swiss, French (is there French cheese or only dressing?), Colby, cheddar, smoked cheddar with bacon, Velveeta. “I don’t know? I’m just a simple small town Ohioan. I actually include Velveeta on my mental list of fine cheeses.”

“Oh now, don’t give me that. You’re well-traveled; surely you have a favorite cheese with red wine.”

He was right. I have spent a lot of time away from Home, but that doesn’t make me some kind of find food and wine connoisseur. Maybe I am well traveled, but I traveled poorly missing certain lessons along the way, too wrapped up in thoughts of Home to attain certain wisdoms.

When I travel I don’t attain some greater wisdom or some inner knowledge of who I am and what I want to be. I did not leave Switzerland with an aristocratic appreciation of cheese. An extensive vocabulary partitioned by —Types of cheese—- and what they go best with. To me it’s all Swiss cheese. It just so happens that some Swiss cheeses taste better than others. Between us, some are repulsive.

I am happy with being able to place names, faces, and experiences with certain places. Kosovo and Bosnia were always dark “No Man’s” lands dominated by the violence of warfare, until I played PlayStation with a 22 year old Kosovar, and before I discussed the siege of Sarajevo with a Bosniak over dinner. Hawaii would just be a tropical paradise if I hadn’t neared hypothermia at the summit of Mauna Loa. I would not follow the civil war in Nepal if I wasn’t able to remember the kind, smiling faces of individual Buddhist monks, the young street beggar girl who attacked me with a stick, and the smell and buttery warmth of salt tea.

If I have gained anything from my travels it’s not a well-traveled savviness, envied by others, but an increased caring. I care more about other nations and their people, having visited them. I listen to the news not for entertainment, but with concern. I care for them because I appreciate their differences, and most of all I recognize our similarities. It’s their Home I visit and realize how not so different it is from my own.

Before boarding the plane on my first trip with no definite return time, I was excited and nervous. A one-way ticket “outta here” is a thing to be excited and nervous about. Where will I be in a month? What will I be eating? Where will I sleep? What the hell am I doing? Who knows?

On the other end of things, stepping onto the last plane- the one Home- is always the best. Home, for me, never changes. Sure, buildings, faces, smells, and dogs, may come and go, but Home never changes. After all it’s where the heart is, no matter how far away.

Running through the sprinkler. The back porch. Reading the newspaper. Samurai Jack. Thick chocolate milk shakes. Everyone knows my name. Comfortable silences. Garfield. The alarm clock, much better than a watch’s. Memories and photographs. My basketball. Customer service…

ten4tues

In which I give $10 to a complete stranger

By Kelsey

Why?

Because it’s Tuesday.

Because this dude drives a 1990 Ford Taurus and he owes on it! (My favorite shorts aren’t even that old!)

Because he works at Wal-Mart.

Because he wrote this letter:

Dear Kelsey, I believe it is a great ministry to others for you to give them $10. Money really does add up. If I could only find someone to give me $60,000 to pay off my loans that I’m stuck with now that college is over, that would be amazing! It’s a bummer I’m unable to use my degree as I have wished since the economy is low. I attended Bethany Bible College for five years in Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada. I’m originally from Michigan (which is the worst economy in the United States) and have been relocated to New Jersey where I did my internship. I’m currently working at Wal-mart which doesn’t give much pay, therefor I’m living with a family I stayed with during my internship. I have two separate loans to pay off including the cost of a car (1990 Ford Taurus! I pray to God is never breaks down, or I’m a goner), room and board and food. And money needed to take my Woman out! In due time I know things will look up, and it may not be for awhile, but I’ll get there somehow. Well there’s everything in a nutshell. Thought if I was to receive $10 from anyone, midas well give you something worth reading. I really would love to give money away to many people, help my family and friends get out of debt, help the homeless here and over seas. O joy what it would be!

God Bless You!

Sincerely,
Gary Woods, Jr

Gary also referred to the $10 4 Tuesday project as a ministry, which makes it seem to have a higher purpose and is good for my ego. That said, I just emailed Gary for his address. $10 will probably pay half of what he owes on his car!

ten4tues

$110 for Tuesday

By Kelsey

I’ve never rooted so hard to not win $110.

My heart was leaping and falling and hanging on every loose ball, offensive rebound, and free throw during the NCAA Championship game between Butler and Duke.

I was literally leaping and falling on Butler’s last two shots. When the buzzer sounded I was a puddle of rabid, heart-broken fan on the floor. And I was $110 richer since I picked Duke to win it all.

The funny thing is, I’m a Duke fan. In fact, the last time I jumped around the living room like an absolute idiot during March Madness was when Laettner hit the shot to beat Kentucky.

There was just something wrong with my pocketbook profiting and my heart suffering. I didn’t want the money. I didn’t deserve the money. So this Tuesday I gave my winnings – all $110 – to Life in Abundance who I will be working with on a film in Kenya by the end of the month.

In a matter of few weeks a half-courter won’t seem so desperate. A game won’t seem so important. Neither will $110.

ten4tues

The #ten4tues Project: Bold in Broken Places

By Kelsey

Why do we go the places we go? What do we expect to find when we get there?

Kristi Scott is wrestling with each of these questions. She is traveling to Peru to work at an orphanage for an entire year. This Tuesday as part of The #ten4tues Project, I’ll be giving $10 to Kristi.

For Kristi it’s a journey of faith and a desire to get our of her comfort zone. Some of the best experiences of my life — the ones where I thought “this is living” — have taken place out of my own comfort zone. That’s why I’m so excited to help support Kristi on her journey.

Kristi was kind enough to do a guest post on her motivations, hesitations, and expectations.

Checkout Kristi’s Blog Bold in Broken Places. And if you’re interested, please, chip in.

–

This is my third time rewriting this guest post. Not because Kelsey sent back my previous drafts. He didn’t see them. When he asked me to write a guest post about my upcoming year-long trip to Peru, I was so excited! And intimidated. I started my blog in order to get the word out about my volunteer trip to a Trujillo orphanage. I never expected a real blogger/writer to ask me to write something for his blog. When Kelsey asked me why I was going to Peru for an entire year, the intimidation factor plus the fact that I wasn’t sure how to explain led me to rewrite this post so many times. So, why am I volunteering at an orphanage in Peru for an entire year?

Mary Kaech posted something this past week on a Food for the Hungry blog. It was about what she learned from three Nicaraguan boys at a trash dump. Here’s the part that inspired this final draft:

“The boys quickly covered themselves and scowled at the idea of having their picture taken like this. The boy with green shorts attempted to cover his bare chest with his little hands, but it wasn’t working. I’ll never forget the face he gave me – wide, fierce, unblinking eyes staring straight into mine.

If you look closely at these facial expressions, you will find children who know this is not right. They know they were created for more than this.“

Through various experiences, God has shown me things that make me care about people I never thought I would care about. And when I did start caring, I realized how ridiculous it was for me not to care. I realized how ridiculous it was to be so caught up in my small worries (What am I going to wear today? What should my career goals be?). I want to be somewhere where I have to look into faces like the children Mary met. Why am I going for a year instead of a month or six months? I want to be there long enough to know that the children at the orphanage were created for more than what they were given at the beginning of their precious lives. I want to be affected to the point where I am unable to live my life with my small worries as the focus.

A month would have changed me enough. Six months would have changed me a lot. But a year will change me in an uncomfortable way that will affect everything I do from that year on. If it were up to me, I would stay in my comfortable life in Southern California. I would stay close to the family and friends who are easy for me to relate to and love. Those who hardly offend me and are cut from the same middle-class American cloth I was cut from. But there is Jesus Christ, who’s been telling me to go where I will not be comfortable all the time. He has called me to discomfort. He’s given me the grace to obey and do what He calls me to. To be bold in the broken places of a child’s heart, who I don’t have much in common with save for being a broken human myself.

There is so much more depth to why I am going an entire year, but I believe that is the best way I can describe it here. Deciding to move to Peru for a year wasn’t the hard part. The hard part will be actually having to live in Peru for a year.

ten4tues

To the Power of 10

By Kelsey

$10 is barely enough to buy three milk shakes.

(Yes, I quantify fiscal responsibility in milk shakes. Just as when I was a kid I calculated car rides in Scooby-Doo episodes.)

But $10 can have a big impact. By donating $10 every Tuesday to an organization or individual of my choosing, I’ve been introduced to some amazing people doing some amazing things. Last week, an author friend of mine (Rebecka Vigus) decided to donate $10, a host of books, and do an event at the library of a librarian friend of mine. Next week, I’m posting a guest post from a recent college grad heading to South America for a year to work in an orphanage.

If I was interested in sloganizing my #ten4tues project, I’d say it was, “Better than a round of milk shakes!”

Last week a friend of mine – who just happened to be the second member of my Underwear’s Facebook fan page (I had nothing to do with it) – pointed me to an unemployed man who is giving $10 away to a stranger every day.

Reed, the dude giving away $10 each day, writes the Year of Giving blog about his efforts to give the money away (sometimes it’s tough, like his recent trip in West Virginia where the first three people wouldn’t accept it) and then he introduces the person who he have the $10 to.

His blog is funny and touching and frustrating and a testament to the power of 10.

Giving Back, ten4tues

The #ten4tues Project: Donated to NPR

By Kelsey

This Tuesday I supported my local NPR station. You should to.

Here’s why.

I’d also like to point folks to a cause carried over from my “Free Money” post two weeks ago. Ginger needs $10 to buy her recently adopted dog a seat belt. If you’re interested, I’ll hook you up with Ginger.

ten4tues

See Kids Dream

By Kelsey

One of the main things – and perhaps the most important – I hope to instill in my daughter is caring for her fellow man regardless of geographic location, ideology, orientation, creed, or color. There are a lot of organizations that accept donations and do amazing things with them. But there are few that truly empower kids as givers and show them how important it is to be part of a community of caring.

That’s why I’m giving $10 to See Kids Dream based in Columbus, Ohio, as part of my #ten4tues project. Join me if you want!

See Kids Dream Mission Statement

See Kids Dream is a charitable organization with a core purpose of empowering children to connect communities. The programs we offer engage children of all ages, abilities, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and cultural backgrounds in ways which help them to achieve their fullest individual potential. They foster connections and enhance community resources by cultivating the creativity, leadership and the natural desire of children to provide benefit to others and their communities at large.

Giving Back, ten4tues

Free Money update…

By Kelsey

Wow! This week’s #ten4tues has been amazing.

Who knew that offering free money would introduce me to so many worthy causes supported by new friends and old? This is definitely something I’ll replicate in the future.

The tough part was choosing who to give the money to. Here were my top selections:

1)Kristi Scott is going to Trujillo, Peru to work at an orphanage. She writes that “the orphanage houses about 40 Peruvian children from various backgrounds including abuse, neglect, and extreme poverty.”

My thoughts: I spent a week at an orphanage in Guatemala and the experience has never left me. Giving to Kristi is a two-birds-with-one-stone kind of thing. It exposes orphans to a talented and passionate young woman. And it exposes a talented and passionate young woman to an experience that will likely shape the rest of her life.

2) Michelle wants me to give her $10 bucks so she can take it to the Fallston Animal Rescue Movement. Michelle writes, “They rescue dogs that have to be put down at other shelters because they need to be nursed back to health or need some behavioral training. The dogs stay with foster families until they are well, and then they are adopted out. There are 15 people involved (not counting the foster families), and they are all volunteers. Their main cost is vet bills; last year’s total was $80,000.”

My thoughts: I was raised by dogs. Sort of. And while I call myself a dog lover, I don’t really do enough to support less fortunate ones. I follow @aplacetobark on Twitter and that’s about it. Giving ten bucks to Michelle would allow her to support a cause that should be more important to me. Also, it’s my understanding that the family that runs the shelter makes up gaps in funding out of their own pocket. That’s passion that deserves support.

3. Virginia, a superhero librarian, wrote, “ $10 will purchase two books to give to high school ninth graders who may have never owned a book before–the program, started by our Friends of the Library group is popular with the kids, many who haven’t come to the library before–but soon realize we are here to help–we have free materials they can borrow–and there are computers!”

My thoughts: Where would I be without books and without libraries. I’ve written about this before. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting multiple libraries around the country since my book came out, and I’m a huge fan. The experience has completely changed the way I see librarians. They are lovers of knowledge and a great resource, but they are also quasi-social workers at the front lines of fighting poverty through education and literacy (including computer literacy).

4. James is going back to Liberia where he’ll assist at a medical clinic and more importantly return as a reinvigorated supporter of the Liberan people’s recovery from a decade long civil war.

My thoughts: James is a great guy that I’ve gotten to know over the last year. He gives to the Muncie community in so many important ways. A few hours ago, we were at lunch discussing our upcoming trips to Africa and I could hear how important this trip was to James.

All of these projects are worthy of my $10. I hope that someone will step forward after reading the above and give to them. If you do, please report back. Unfortunately I can barely afford to give $10 to one group per week. I believe someone once said, “I only regret that I have but one $10 bill to give …”

That said, I chose James for the following reasons: his Facebook post inspired the “Free Money” idea and I could take a photo of him with my $10.

I hope to support the other individuals in upcoming Tuesdays and shine more light on the great work they are doing.