By Ari, Maddie, and Kyra
Today was our last day of sports camp and we had a FIELD DAY! We woke up and ate breakfast with the boy campers that spent the night. Many of us are loving buying coffee from the Poetice coffee house in the mornings, so that’s what we did during breakfast. Afterwards, the girl campers started arriving around 9:00am. Today was special because every camper got to invite a friend, so our group got much larger, and so did our outreach! It was encouraging to see how many campers brought friends and wanted to share this ministry with others. At 10:00 am we had worship and a message from John, one of the leaders here at Poetice. During worship, we sang “Our God is So Big,” which many of us have grown up hearing. It was amazing to see that they sing this song, even halfway across the world; our God is SO Big! Then, we dove into the field day events which included: disc golf throw, softball throw, softball hit, standing long jump, push-up contest, running race, volleyball hits, and the impossible catch (basketball). The campers were split into 8 groups and rotated through the stations. The winner from each group in each station went on to the finals, which were held after lunch. During finals, the campers that were not competing were big encouragers for their peers. The kids would lift each other in the air after winning and it was powerful to see their sportsmanship. After field day events, we had a tug-of-war competition. The competition ended when the camp boys went against the Hope and Poetice men because they pulled the rope so hard that it snapped in half and all the boys fell.
As the final sport event of the evening our Seed team played a softball game against the Poetice staff while the campers watched and cheered. It was the first time many of the campers had ever watched a softball game and they LOVED it. Of course, our Seed team won. Poetice is planning on building a permanent softball field so that the kids here can play every day!
To cap off the week we had awards for the campers. We recognized the winners from the field day event finals and gave them prizes. Then we recognized the male and female standout campers. They were so excited about their prizes that included Hope t-shirts, fidget spinners, and candy. After awards, it was time for the campers to go home (sad face). We took some pictures with campers that we can’t wait to share when we return! We also had one camper ask to pray for us before he left. During our debrief, many of us shared that his prayer was one of the most powerful prayers we have heard.
After the campers left, we had dinner, downtime, and got to socialize with our team members. This was one of the first times we’ve been able to spend some free time with each other, which was great. We are excited to travel to Macha tomorrow to see another sports ministry group in action! We miss our dads, dogs, and dessert.
Sorry about the late post, today’s blog will be up later tonight!