Chillin' Wit' Micah Khan, founder of Cease Murder Diplomats

SECONDS ARE TICKING away, and Micah Khan is edging closer to a South Jersey soccer field as his daughter makes a run toward the goalie with the score tied at 1-1.

Mayah Khan crashes into a pile of pigtails and cleats in front of the net, and the ball narrowly misses the corner before heading out of bounds.

"Aww . . . good try, baby," he yells as Mayah dusts herself off.

Sundays, Khan says, are usually for church, with Saturdays set for soccer, but this makeup game in Medford, Burlington County, will have to suffice for the anti-violence activist.

"The first church is family," he says.

Khan, 32, is the founder of Cease Murder Diplomats, a nonprofit group that aims to stem the murder rate in Camden by mentoring young men and women. Khan says he recently moved to the Fairview section of Camden with his father, Amir Khan, president of an outreach ministry called the Nehemiah Group, to be part of the community he's trying to help.

"My grandfather was in Camden for 50 years as a doctor, so we're following in his footsteps," he says of Dr. Mustapha Khan, who died in 2009. "We need to be there on the ground level."

Khan and his father were in the news in 2010 when they helped clear out a homeless encampment in Camden called "Tent City." Although some of the residents eventually made their way back to Camden, Khan says the experience proved that good things can happen in the city with "just a little bit of action."

"The city talked about doing something for three years, and look what we got done there in three days," he says.

At this moment, though, the most pressing thing is breaking the tie. His daughter narrowly misses another game-winner, and soon time runs out.

"Good game, good game, good game," he says, slapping the hands of his daughter's teammates before Mayah appears. "Good game, princess."

- Jason Nark