photos by John Clutterbuck

Hi Fighter,

Yes, we’re heading back to Syria, and we’ve got a kick-butt crew, ready to touch gloves with the Syrian Olympic boxing team.

More important than any competition though, we are ready to bring some joy to Syrian kids, and hopefully leave them with some extra cash and sports equipment.

The exact goal of this trip, like all Boxers for Peace missions, is three-fold:

1. To bring joy to Syrian children
2. To build friendships between Syrian and Australian people at a grass-roots level.
3. To give the folks back home a glimpse of the real Syria.

To accomplish this last goal, we are taking a media team with us who will hopefully broadcast our activities across TV and newspapers.  If all else fails, you’ll see my daily updates on Facebook and Twitter, and less regular updates on my blog.

As ever, the exact details of our departure date and itinerary can’t be made clear until we are underway. At this point I’ll say only that within the next few weeks I hope to send you images of us teaching boxing to kids in shelters outside Yarmouk and perhaps even in front of the Great Colonnade in Palmyra!

Once again we are going to need your help to get there. It’s going to cost around $1,500 AUD to get each player to Syria. Some of the team can pay their own way. Others (including me) can’t afford to do so. So I’m aiming to raise between $5,000 and $10,000 AUD within the next two weeks, and whatever we have left-over once we’ve covered our basic costs will be distribute to needy families and organisations where we visit (and these are not difficult to find).

I’ve come up with multiple different ways for you to show your support:

1. Come along to our Fundraiser Dinner next Saturday ($25)
2. Buy a $10 AUD postcard (A6 size)
3. Buy a $20 AUD postcard (A5 size)
4. Buy a $100 AUD poster (A2 size)
5. Buy a $200 AUD poster (A1 size)
6. Buy a $25 USD T-shirt
7. Decide on your own donation

Details of the fundraiser dinner are on its Facebook Event Page or you can download the poster here. You can pay for a ticket and/or postcards and pictures here:

STOP PRESS

I have had to remove the Paypal payment button from here as Paypal has put my account on review and donations are not getting through!

Apparently the very mention of the world ‘Syria’ generates a shut-down response from Paypal, and despite a series of phone calls and letters over the last two weeks, they have thus far refused to discuss the issue with me.

Hopefully this matter can be resoled. In the meantime, if you’d like to support the cause, you can always make a deposit into the Fighting Fathers Ministries bank account:

Bank account name: Fighting Fathers Ministries

BSB 032-067

A/C 226190

The small postcard uses the group photo that appears at the top (slide no.1). The larger postcard uses the image below. Posters come in both designs, so tell me which you’d prefer. Also tell me if you want me or others to sign the poster and I’ll do my best.

T-Shirts are designed and manufactured by T-Spring (click here). The T-shirt promotion only lasts till Thursday, May 5th, and will not be repeated so please grab your T-shirt ASAP if you’d like one.

Decide on your own donation via our Buy me a drink page (though note that all donations here are in US dollars).

Sermon Time … (not this time!)

Rather than pound the pulpit this time, I thought I’d share some pounding of a different sort. This is the video of my last fight – now finally available. Enjoy! 🙂

Before closing today, I need to announce the winner of the Father Dave Selfie competition.

It was a last-minute entry, but the image of Nader (Lionheart) Hamdan putting me in a headlock and punching me in the face seemed to capture everybody’s imagination. With 3 Twitter likes, 89 Facebook likes, and two shares, Nader is a clear winner. Runners up were Fighting Father Tim, Jeannie Kim and Joe Barnes (in that order).

We’re now going to have to work out the prizes, of which there are four:

1. A year’s training at Father Dave’s Old School Boxing Academy
2. A weekend or mid-week stay at Binacrombi
3. Lunch on a Sunday arvo
4. A front-row pew at Holy Trinity Dulwich Hill for life

I’ll be interested to see who takes up option 4.! 🙂

OK Fighter! I probably won’t be posting again until after I’ve reached Syria. Please keep our team in your prayers and please pray for the success of this mission. God knows that the good people of Syria have suffered enough. I pray that we’ll be privileged to contribute something tangible in the work of peace.

May the Lord bless you and strengthen you for the work for which you have been called.

Your brother in the Good Fight,

Dave
www.fatherdave.org
www.fighting-fathers.com
www.holytrinity.org.au
www.binacrombi.com.au
www.israelandpalestine.org
www.prayersforsyria.com
www.zerocostwebsite.net
www.dulwichhillgym.com
www.warriorweekends.com
www.how2changetheworld.com

P.S. Support the work of the Fighting Fathers by joining our online community at  www.fighting-fathers.com. It only costs you $10/month and the first month is free.