While much of the public's attention has been on NFL players who kneel during the national anthem, Washington Redskins star cornerback Josh Norman is focused on giving back to his community.
Norman, who grew up in Greenwood, South Carolina, placed a full-page ad in the town’s newspaper last week asking every church in town to send him a letter stating “the concerns of the church and the needs of the youth.”
Norman, 29, wrote that he won’t be able to fulfill every need, but he’ll do his “very best with what God has blessed me.” However, he said he will read and respond to every letter.
Norman, who spent his first four seasons in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers, is no stranger to acts of kindness. He regularly gives away his game cleats to children or veterans. Over the Veterans Day weekend this year, Norman handed a special set of cleats to the commandant of the Marine Corps.
As one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks, Norman has been blessed with a handsome income. When he left the Panthers at the end of the 2015 season, Washington signed him to a 5-year contract worth $75 million.
To the Shepard's of the Churches of Greenwood, S.C.Your persistent prayers and devotion to the people of your congregation, to whom God has given you stewardship over has not gone unnoticed. For the need of the people in your church and the community you serve is always above rapport. This season, God has laid it on my heart as a servant of the crown to reach out and touch every church in Greenwood, SC with my tithes and offering of love and peace. It is my wish that everyone in your place of worship be touched by this blessing that I've been blessed by and now giving unto you.
I request that every church send me back a letter stating the concerns of the church and the needs of the youth. I can't fulfill the entire list, but I am going to do my very best with what God has blessed me with to uphold the needs and the standards of your church. If you would send the letter to the address: 21300 Redskins Park Drive Ashburn, VA 20147. I also ask if your letters be delivered no later than December 12th. I will read through each one and get back to you all respectfully. I truly thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being that beacon of hope to look up to and strive for greatness in your teachings and vessels on earth to reach our Father who is in heaven.
Share with the Lord's people who are in need.
Practice hospitality. Romans 12:13
—Joshua Ricardo Norman
