Tiny voices of excitement emanated out of Mrs. Wallace’s classroom at East End Primary, a beautiful school way out in the east with the beach and ocean as a backdrop. It is day 2 of ministry work and the Sports Ministry Team started off the day with kindergarteners all the way up to 6th graders. As we introduced ourselves you could feel the joy that these students had. Smiles upon smiles lit up the room like a light bulb. During my introduction I had asked the kids if they liked basketball and the whole entire back room threw their hands in the air and cheered with glee. Also to a surprise when my teammate Alan introduced his sport volleyball, the whole room must have gone crazy! It is Just looking at Alan’s face you could just see how overjoyed and glad he was that there was such a huge interest for a sport that was not usually as popular as the others here in the Caymans. As the kids dispersed into the different sports activities we offered, the ambiance of the school started fill with the sounds of basketballs bouncing, volleyballs being bumped, soccer balls being kicked, the squeaking of skateboard wheels turning, and the sight of kids spinning vibrant colored parachutes in large circles. There was even a loud cry from a 5-year old child idled in a chair for time out that added to the soundtrack. I think everyone would agree that just seeing the smiles on these kids’ faces really touched our hearts. One of the greatest things I witnessed today that amazed me was when Shelly our prayer leader lead the kids in prayer, I noticed how disciplined these students were, keeping their eyes shut for the whole entire prayer, with their hands folded and heads bowed. It was astonishing to me to see that children at this age are already exposed to prayer, and how passionate they looked being involved with in it. It was definitely a great site to see.
On a random note, it’s interesting when we go to these schools that it is necessary for us to be flexible on the activities we present because we don’t know what the interests or skill levels the students may have. For example, there’s no point to conduct an American football clinic if no one wants to play. Anyways, our next stop was at St. Ignatius. I’ll be honest this school was off the hook. We started off with our usually routine, introductions, presentation of our activities, then break up into groups. The truth was St. Ignatius was not like any of the other schools. Everyone had so much passion running through blood. The group playing soccer had a real good game. There was a very talented kid on the team that dribbled with ease, shook and booked, and made most of all the goals. Looked like my teammates Randy, Corey, and Bre had to burn off a little sweat. The highlight was during the skateboard clinic. I saw a young female fall off the skateboard hard onto the hard concrete tennis court. But soon after I saw her back on the board trying and trying to ride the deck until she got the hang out it. My team leader Steve even mentioned how determined she was and wouldn’t give up.
As we concluded with the session we walked into the cafeteria filled with the lower class grades students for lunch. Upon ordering our food the team split up and sat at different tables throughout the room so that we could engage and have conversations with the students. There were so many memorable incidents that happened during this time. First, when I got my lunch and moved about the room toward the back to find a place to sit, the table to the right of me asked me to sit there. Next, the table diagonal to me yelled out, “sit here!” Then suddenly the table to the left of me shouted out, “sit here!” So I looked at all of them and asked, “where do I sit?” As soon as I said that all three tables started wilding out, yelling, they were pointing at their tables trying to persuade me to sit down. Next thing I knew, the principal shouts out in a very loud voice telling all the kids to be quiet and to sit down threatening to take away their recess period. “Your behavior is notrocious!” he explained. At this point the whole entire room became dead quiet. All I could do was look at the kids and say I’ll sit here in the middle so I can talk to everybody. Oops my bad. Other than that we all had the opportunity to engage with the school. As our conversations got deeper, we found ourselves as somewhat celebrities to these kids. Papers started getting shoved into our hands and the kids were asking for our autographs. Soon enough we each must have signed at least 20 or more papers. Cody had cut his hair yesterday and was known today as the Mohawk guy. Our presence at their school really got them to act outside the norm.
The biggest impact I think we made today was during our revisit to George Hicks. We had another opportunity to engage with the students we worked with yesterday. The highlight for the day for me was when my teammate Rod connected with Justin. Justin could not really walk and was confined to a seated walker. Rod, a professional skateboarder, taught him how to ride a skateboard. Justin strapped on the helmet, and Rod placed the board under his feet. As Rod guided him down the open area, Justin started to maneuver the board on his own. The smile on his face was definitely priceless. Conducting these sports clinics is not what makes this ministry so great. It is how much our efforts reaching out to these kids make an impact for them. Today was a great day to be truly touched by the youth.
- Marlino, Sports
