It’s another touchdown for Tim Tebow.
The former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner will be opening “Rising Light Ridge” – a picturesque 3,000-acre camp in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains – yet one more outreach of the Tim Tebow Foundation. The Florida based charity leads out with a mission, “To bring Faith, Hope and Love to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need.”
According to press reports, the foundation purchased the property back in 2016 for $5.15 million. William and Jeannie Haas, co-founders of Rohm and Haas, a Philadelphia chemical company, contributed the necessary funds.
After last week’s groundbreaking ceremony, Tebow shared his vision and plans for the project.
“My heart, and the heart of my foundation, is to be able to bring faith, hope, and love to the world’s most vulnerable people,” Tebow stated. “People who are in crisis, those who have been thrown away, those who need someone to fight for them. On this piece of land — a land that we truly feel has been set apart — we have a vision to do just that.”
Tim Tebow, a former homeschooled child of Christian missionaries to the Philippines, burst onto the scene while playing football at the University of Florida. He led his team to a BCS Championship in 2008 and a near perfect season in 2009. Known for wearing Bible verses in his eye black, the quarterback became a household name during a near mythical season with the NFL’s Denver Broncos, taking the team to the second round of the playoffs in 2012.
Critics routinely lampooned and castigated the quarterback for kneeling in silent prayer on the sidelines of games, as well as for openly expressing his Christian faith and convictions.
Of course, the more the “haters” went after Tim Tebow, the more the respect and admiration for the young man grew.
Rising Light Ridge Camp is intended to be open to anyone – but one of its keynote features will be numerous “Joëlettes,” a one-wheeled chair that’s designed to allow people with mobility challenges access to areas and activities they’d otherwise be unable to reach.
“It doesn’t matter what your ability is. It doesn’t matter what your background is,” camp CEO Matt Anderson told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Here, we’ve got kids with typical backgrounds, typical abilities hanging out, climbing a waterfall with a kid with Down syndrome or a kid with autism. We’re trying to take down those barriers, that fear of the unknown.”
From the very beginning of his life, Tim Tebow has been somebody intimately familiar with defying limitations and exceeding expectations. Many readers will remember that Pam Tebow, Tim’s mom, was told she should abort her future son.
“All the doctors said, ‘You need to have an abortion. You need to get rid of him. You need to get rid of him,’ Tim Tebow recalled. “But she decided that she was gonna trust God [and keep the baby], even when the doctors said it could, it might cost her her life.”
Focus on the Family featured the Tebows’ dramatic and life-affirming story in a 2010 Super Bowl commercial.
Whether it was his chances of making it alive from his mother’s womb, making it in the NFL, or launching a professional baseball career, Tim Tebow has lived by the promise of Scripture that “Nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). Let’s now join him and his team in prayer that they can manifest and relay that same sense of confidence and courage to countless campers in the coming years.
