Fried or Over Easy?

Blog for Tuesday, August 13th

We started the morning with an early 7:30 wakeup, but it wasn’t nearly as painful since Sam, our outreach coordinator/fearless leader/best friend, showed us that we could order any type of eggs we wanted from the kitchen: a revolutionary discovery.

After that, we headed to Sports Outreach Ministries again for another beautiful morning of worship and devotion. Worship was done in the simplest of forms, yet was so lively and fulfilling. Only voices, no instruments, and amazing acoustics that filled our hearts. We then moved to the field to have a warmup game of dodgeball with the Good News Team (Sports Outreach’s soccer team). We got to teach them how to play, and it didn’t take long for them to completely destroy us. Afterwards, we all debriefed the game and made connections between dodgeball and our walk with the Lord, in hopes to be able to share this game and these lessons with the kids they work with.

At the home visit, the other group met with “Jaja,” a grandmother who lives in a village in Kampala. She told us her story, sharing with us that one of her sons has passed away and the other one is missing, and as a result she is now taking care of her two grandsons. They were so welcoming and excited by our presence, and they even told their friends and neighbors about our arrival and they came and visited us as well.  Their neighbor had a small farm and chopped down four stalks of sugarcane for us to take back and share with everyone else.

After the soccer training and home visit, we had a fun lunch with the Sports Outreach coaches. We headed to Katwe, a slum in Kampala, where the organization’s chess outreach program began, and also the infamous location of Disney’s Queen of Katwe. We did a water filter demonstration and were able to pass out around 20 water filters to the members of the community. As we handed out the filters, their appreciation could be seen through their loving smiles and big hugs.

Afterwards, Robert Katende, the executive director of Sports Outreach Ministry in Kampalagave us a tour of Katwe, pointing out various locations where scenes were shot in the film. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel for dinner, and got to spend more time with Robert, who shared about his multi-year history with the organization, their programs and plans for the future.

Taylor, Hailey, & Natalie

Sports Camp Day 1!

Hello!!  This is Mallory (Junior/Women’s Basketball) and Sam (Junior/Men’s Basketball). Today was our first day of sports camp! We were so overjoyed and elated to finally be able to work with the children we have been so eagerly waiting to meet. In the morning, John, one of Poetice’s leaders, shared a message with us that resonated for our group of athletes. He compared the difference in levels of commitment between our sports and our faith. This challenged us to reflect on how often we overcommit to earthly things, and under commit to growing in our faith. By the time we were done with our devotions, the children were already starting to arrive.

As the children trickled in, we had some free time to play with the kids, joining in on games of dodgeball, volleyball and soccer. Once all the children had arrived, we took them to the worship room where we introduced our plans and our goals for the week. Following some introductions, Emma Schaefer bravely shared her story with everyone at camp. Her story was very relatable and empowering and started the camp off on a good note. After her speech, our leaders Coach V and Coach Kopas shared with the group from 1 Corinthians 12: 12-27. This passage discussed the body of Christ, and that like the different parts of the human body, we all make up the kingdom of God despite our differences.  It’s a great passage for teams, especially as this year the camp has 4 different local soccer teams participating, and the teams are competitors in the same league

After the sermon, the children were split up into four different groups, and each group rotated through different stations such as core and stretching, strength and conditioning, speed and agility and education (today’s topic was nutrition). It was awesome to both teach them and work alongside them, while seeing their smiles. It was obvious that they were learning and trying new things, and they did it with enthusiasm and open minds. Following the stations, all the campers and students broke for lunch.

In the afternoon, the children were split into four groups again, and they engaged in basketball, kickball, ultimate frisbee and volleyball. This portion of the day seemed to be the favorite among the kids, and us students. Learning new sports and playing them helped create a connection between the campers and us. Despite the language barrier and some of the sports being new and different to the kids, the day was filled with so much fun and God’s presence was evident.

After our time playing sports, we met back in the worship room to close the day, and ½ of our group did Sawyer water filters while the other ½ continued playing with the kids a while after the camp. Poetice staff explained to us how these filters from previous SEED trips are already making a difference in the surrounding communities and what an unbelievable gift these are to these families.  It was remarkable to be able to provide more help.  The kids were amazed during the demonstration to see the water come through the filter completely clean, and it was a chance to share the gospel message of Jesus with them. We guided the children in making their own bucket water filters, which they were able to take home to their families.

When all the kids left for home, we had some free time to spend as a team, followed by dinner and some time of worship. Singing some familiar songs and some new songs alongside each other and the Poetice staff was moving and there could not have been a better end to our day.  We wrapped this awesome day up with debrief and a time to connect about what God is doing in us this week.  We are excited to get back at it tomorrow!

Mallory & Sam

A: It got mugged.

Q: Why don’t crabs give to charity?

 

Rained on, but not Drained out

This Monday we began with an hour-long journey to the Sports Outreach headquarters in Kampala. Once we had arrived, we were greeted by Pastor Benjamin and his delightful staff. We had the pleasure to participate in their morning devotion, which consisted of prayer, worship (singing and dancing), and a message from one of the leaders. Jessica, one of the most talented singers/dancers we have met, challenged us (Terrell and Whitney) to a dance-off during worship! This energy that our new friends possess in their worship is truly a blessing each and every day. The topic of the devotion was over the concept of obedience. While this topic may seem simple, there was plenty of scripture and examples to exemplify the importance of obedience towards God in our own lives.

Following devotion, Pastor Benjamin gave us a special tour of the Sports Outreach facilities. These facilities include: a chess academy, boys and girls shelter, a chapel/dining hall, a well-kept soccer field, and a blacktop basketball court. Beyond learning the layout of the headquarters, Benjamin also thoroughly enjoyed quizzing us on the various types of plant life, which included coffee beans, jackfruit, papaya, mango, and even avocado! Once the tour had ended, we piled into the bus and headed to a nearby slum for two house visits. The first visit was with two women dealing with HIV and the stigma associated with having this disease within the community. This conversation was difficult to hear, but it was the second visit, that rocked us all emotionally. This story was about a single mother of eight children, who tragically lost her eight-year-old son to a tragic accident. Additionally, she had financial problems that she struggled with over the course of several years, all while rearing all eight children.

Following these house visits, we travelled back to the Sports Outreach headquarters for lunch. The meal was nothing short of delicious, and we were blessed with wonderful conversation with the staff as well as visitors from Liberia. Conversations ranged from occupational goals, sports, school, and even politics.

The plan was to spend the entire afternoon with the local kids, teaching them about sports through various stations, such as softball (Whitney and Taylor), dodgeball (Terrell and Carly), basketball (Connor and Ashleigh), soccer (Chris and Anna), and jump-rope (Sidney, Hailey, and Natalie). Dodgeball became the main attraction amongst us all. Unfortunately, after an hour of fun-filled play, rainy conditions did not allow us to continue our sports stations. We then packed up and drove the hour journey once more.

Anna’s encouraging quote of the day, “God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.”

Love/Regards/Best Wishes,

Connor, Whitney, and Terrell

Warm Welcome!

Hello everyone! This is Jo Cook, (junior/softball) and Mackenzie Ralston, (junior/swimmer) writing today. We finally made it to Zambia after two long travel days. From London, we had an eleven hour plane ride to Johannesburg and then a three hour layover there before a short two hour flight to Livingstone. Once in Livingstone, we realized some of the bags were missing so those will hopefully be here tomorrow. John, a Poetice leader, met us at the airport to take us on a two hour bus ride to Choma. Even though we were all tired from all the travel we still managed to play games and bond as a team on the bus ride.

When we arrived to the base where we will be staying, we were welcomed by a swarm of team members and students. They greeted us with hugs, smiles, and so much excitement. Regardless of how exhausted our whole team was feeling, the warm welcome rejuvenated all of us and we are all excited for this week.

After unloading our bags and being shown to our homes for the week, we met back with everyone for snacks. We had popcorn, cookies, coffee, and tea with everyone and just got to know the people from Poetice we will be working alongside this week. We played a couple get-to-know you games that allowed us to find similarities between all of us and we even found some people have the same birthday.

After the snack break we were lead to the worship center where our team introduced ourselves and we got introduced to each team member who works at Poetice. We also got to meet some students who are joining us for the week who just participated for the last 3 months in Poetice’s School for Justice and Mission which trains and equips students from all over the world (6 different countries) for lives of mission. We were all then able to have a short session of worship all together. Team members prayed over us individually and for what the upcoming week will hold for us.  Most of us found this to be very powerful. We all saw God working today when we heard people we met an hour ago pray for our specific worries and thoughts going into this trip. It was personal to where we were at, and it was incredible for some of us to see God speak to us through the staff members who prayed.

We finished the night with dinner and team debrief. We did a short devotion on Mark 4, the parable of the sower, and each member of our group had some time to think about where our hearts are at in responding to Jesus in our own lives.  And we all discussed moments when we saw God working and got to talk about highlights of the day. We ended our meeting with prayer. Overall, it was an amazing first day here and we are all looking forward to tomorrow.

Jo and Mackenzie

Joke of the day:
Answer from yesterday: Plane chocolate

Today’s joke: Why can’t a bicycle stand up?

Sunday Funday

This morning we got to experience a service at a local church! The church was the Nateete Praise Church in the Nateete area of Kampala. We think we can speak for everyone when we say that at first, we were totally out of our comfort zone. The dancing and singing were unlike anything we had ever participated in. They were super welcoming and very willing to teach us some of their dance moves, so if you see students breaking out some killer moves…it’s probably us. Connor, Carly, and I (Anna) got a chance to share our testimonies and some words from scripture. It was so powerful being able to witness these two very different groups worshiping the same God through the universal language of dance. After church we came back to the hotel for lunch and got to try some traditional Ugandan food!

After lunch we went back to the church and split into a group to do the water filter demonstration and to get a tour of their school. They called the school the “Catch-Up School” because kids from ages 3-12 would come to learn the basics. Some of the older kids had never gone to school before due to the lack of finances in their family, so they had to catch-up on what they had missed out on. Becky was the woman who gave us our tour and was one of the volunteer teachers at the school. She was so passionate about sharing education with the kids and instilling the love of God within them. Although they are currently located in a temporary shack with little school equipment, they are making the best out of their situation and even start exams tomorrow!

The first water filter demonstration went smoothly. Kirk talked through a demonstration with a crowd in the church, while Chris, Terrell, Hailey, Connor, and I (Ashleigh) drilled holes in buckets to help get the people get started on building their own filtration system. The water filter consists of any large bucket, and then a small filter provided by Sawyer is attached to the drilled hole. We filled a bucket with water gathered from a local source and added some dirt to it for dramatic effect. Seeing the excitement on everyone’s face when Kirk drank the newly filtered and clear water was humbling.

After this, we came back together to go on some home visits. We met three inspiring, single mothers making many sacrifices to give their children meals, a home, and an education. One of the mothers had just given birth to twins, a boy and a girl (named Joshua and Ruth), and she let all of us take turns holding the babies. She shared her inspiring story of her difficult time giving birth and how she overcame it to bring both of her babies home healthy. We were all touched by all of the mothers’ vulnerability and strength, and thankful for the opportunity to be welcomed into their homes.

We think every one of us got to hold our fair share of children’s hands today. It was a day filled with smiles and love. We miss you Mom!

Anna and Ashleigh

Don’t Worry Mom

Throughout the past three days we have been preparing mentally and physically for the amazing opportunity to travel to Uganda. We spent some of the preparation on Hope’s campus, but we are now on our way.

Our group of twelve individuals have become a team as we bonded together and have started to create new friendships.  Part of this process happened as we shared our personal testimonies with each other.

We are excited about the opportunities to partner with Sports Outreach and engage with them in their sports and chess ministries. We also have been busy practicing and learning chess, awaiting the opportunity to play with the people we will meet in Uganda.

Late Friday morning we departed for Chicago.  After a long eight-hour flight, we safely arrived to the Amsterdam Airport, and are anxiously awaiting our flight to Entebbe. Once we arrive tonight, we will hopefully have a good night’s sleep before we attend church and begin our time with our new friends in the morning.  We are excited to see God work through us in the coming weeks, and are very appreciative for all the prayers we are receiving.

P.S. Don’t worry Mom, I took my malaria medication today!

Carly and Chris

Training and Traveling

Hello everyone! This is Arinn, (sophomore/softball); Emma, (junior/swimmer); and Andrew and Sean (seniors/Men’s Lacrosse). First off we want to thank you for your prayers as we’ve been training and preparing. Our team appreciates it so so much! When we first arrived for training on Wednesday, we each shared a word that captured how we were feeling, and there was a wide range of emotions as we are heading out for something totally new and different for some of us.  Wednesday/Thursday/Friday we had training which included some Bible study time, team bonding, learning about entering new cultures, organizing our sports camp plans, sharing meals together, learning about the Sawyer water filters we will be bringing, spraying our clothes with Sawyer repellant, and most importantly…getting to know the members of the team on a deeper level. We also packed FOUR large bags of all sports equipment that we will be brining with us for this wonderful adventure to Zambia! Friday morning we got to pray in a large group with the team going to Uganda as they left a little earlier than we did. Before our team went to lunch we sat down together and got to share our testimonies and life journeys to one another. We finished this up on the first part of the bus ride to Chicago. This was really great for our team to start to get to know each other and see the unique stories of everyone’s lives. By the time we left campus, we shared another word to check in, and many of the anxious, nervous feelings had turned to eagerness and excitement. We are so excited to get there and get started, and the travel is already underway.

We got to Chicago and got some food before our flight took off. The first flight was about 7-8 hours which, some of us were able to sleep, some weren’t…so the movies were a nice perk for those who couldn’t sleep. We arrived in London this morning about 10:30am local time, and have a long layover here before the long flight to Johannesburg. After going through security we found an open gate and many of us tried to catch up on some sleep while others played cards or read. Our flight tonight is around 7pm London time, so we will be playing lots of games as a team and getting dinner together tonight. Thanks again for all your support and prayers!

Emma/Sean/Arinn/Andrew – 4 of the 14 members of Z Squad.

Shout out to our teammates and friends from Team Z & Zam Fam…the first 2 SEED teams to go to Zambia in the summers of 2017 and 2018.  Several of us are here because of the powerful stories they shared of their SEED experiences!

Joke of the day: What kind of chocolate do they sell at the airport?
Answer: Revealed tomorrow!

Ready to Go!!!!!

We made it to O’hare, checked in, got through security, students are getting dinner, and we will be boarding our flight to London soon!  Emma and Andrew are up for today’s blog, but we won’t have time to get it posted before we need to board.  With the long layover we have in London tomorrow, they’ll join forces with Arinn and Sean to give a recap of our pre-trip training on campus at Hope, and our first day of travel!  Wanted to let parents and loved ones know things are going smoothly, share a team picture from our training on installing the Sawyer water filters, and let you know we plan to get something posted tomorrow!  It’s been a great two days with this group, Coach Kopas and I are excited to lead this crew, and the team is eagerly anticipating what the next 13 days has in store for us!!

Coach V

Zambia Here We Come!

For the third consecutive year, the SEED program is excited to send 12 student-athletes and two coaches to Zambia to partner with Poetice International.

It is their mission, “to empower the church to fight for justice. Through transformational development, Poetice pursues physical and spiritual restoration for the widowed, the orphaned, the vulnerable, the exploited, the sick and the poor.”

The team returns to campus on Wednesday, August 7 and will depart for Zambia on Friday, August 9.

While on the ground in Zambia, our student-athletes will host sports clinics and connect with youth in the community. The team will also partner with Sawyer to distribute water filters to local families.

View the team calendar for a glimpse of how Hope College students will utilize their passion for sport to share the love of Christ with individuals around the world!

Check back over the next two weeks to read updates from the team to hear more about their experiences on the ground and how God is on the move in Zambia.

2019 Zambia Team Calendar