Blessed are the flexible - Barracks Road Primary

April 28, 2008

My main assignment today was to follow the Sports Ministry as they went to Herbert Morrison Technical High School and capture workshops and a Soccer match. This particular school was a much anticipated place of ministry for the Sports team. You can just see the excitement and look of anticipation in their eyes. As we waited in the lobby to meet the players and the students of the school, the Sports team spent their time passing out the Best Dressed 50 Fest fliers. This was a very productive time for the team, but some news was about to come their way that was gonna test the first rule for all Missionaries – Blessed are the Flexible. As it turns out, there was a miscommunication with the school and long story short – there was going to be no meeting, no match, no workshops, nothing. From that point – we knew it has to be in God’s hands…

I noticed that our driver is playing Christian music throughout the whole ride. When we prayed together, he joined our group in prayer. God’s plan was in the works… Apparently, the bus driver has a son that attends Barracks Road Primary School, a school that was not on the list of places that we were going to visit this week. He offered to take us over there to see if the Sports team could take their ministry there, join them, and work with the students. Being the only real option (the other was to go back to the hotel) we drove over and the administration welcomed us in! As we arrived we were greeted by some of the most energetic and sweetest kids you could ever meet. We ended up catching them right as they were going to begin their daily devotional and were blessed enough to sing and pray with the entire school. From that point, the team split to visit classrooms and many of them began to talk to students individually, laughing and sharing with them, and in some cases, sharing how to have a relationship with Jesus with these kids. I was able to capture so many pictures of these moments – God was showing me so much through this experience. But, there was one picture that captures the theme of the day and the activities that the team and the kids shared, all in one.

This picture was of the soccer field that the kids play on every day. Only one goal on one side, huge rocks everywhere, uneven ground, trash, hills, and these two large concrete slabs directly in the middle of what was their field. Blessed are the flexible indeed. They played on this field because it was their home - and loved every minute of it. It didn’t matter to them, they just played through it all… All these little bumps in the road just added character to them. You truly did have to work with what was given to you, but in the end they were still able to play the game and have an amazing time doing it. The Sports team and the kids ended up playing a very competitive and fun game. This time was filled with so many smiles, so much interaction, and such an amazing blessing.

This was just the first half of the day…with the heat, the activity, and the length of our day, the team could have easily stopped there… But, the other half of the sports team called from another school and said that they could use our help… so what real choice is there? – haha… Barracks Road Primary was so much fun, and being my first school visit, it was a good one to start on… and we didn't even plan on coming here...