Summer Project 2016

15 sep 2016

7 minuten om te lezen

What an amazing summer it has been, 4 weeks of summer project that flew by so quickly. So much has happened, it took me some time to really process it all. But one thing was clear, it has been an amazing summer.

On july 12 SportQuest started with training camp, we were blessed to welcome 18 US athletes, 1 Danish athlete, 1 German athlete and 10 Athletes coming from Belgium (I'm gonna overlook the fact some of them were not born here in Belgium) but just an amazing thing to have so many athletes passionate for God and sports and with a willingness to share their Faith and lives with young people here.

Here we were at the beginning of an amazing project, after 5 days of preparing and getting to know everyone. We had workshops, evening service, team practice, devotions but most importantly we had prayer! This year we really focused on Prayer, cause this is an aspect sometimes overlooked but prayer is so important going into missiontrips and in life.

Gent:

My first week I went to Gent, which is so exciting for me, cause it's also the city where I live. It was also exciting cause my team consists of a lot of

returners, people from last year but most of them were not on my team the year before, so I was excited to get to know them better also. In Gent the level of camp for basketball is really high, we have some really talented youth coming to our camp and they love it, and it's not for the high level practices or they are learning so much in our camp. They love it because the atmosphere is different, it's about being positive, they feel loved and appreciated, and they know they opinion matters to us. I also had the amazing blessing of 2 of my kids I coach showing up. They took an half hour drive everyday to come to the camp and see what SportQuest is all about after all the stories they heard from their coach. Camp was amazing from the basketball to the small groups where the kids got the chance to ask Questions about our testimonies. Were some amazing moments in my small group, the one that stands out the most for me, that after a small group moment we got the chance to pray for one of the kids cause he wanted to get back to God! And we got to share with him that God Always loved him and He Always will love him. Friday night we had our SQ night were we had the chance to share the gospel with the kids, but also just a time of fellowship having a BBQ and hanging out with the kids for a final time aswell as their parents. During this evening, there were 2 occasions where a kid referred to SportQuest as family, which is just amazing to hear and just shows how much an impact we have on these young kids life. Next to our camp during the day we did some evening activities also, Tuesday we went swimming with the kids, Wednesday we went to the park and played some beachvolleyball with some of the kids and some people who were already there. But Monday was really special, cause that we went with our team to join some people from Every Nation Church Gent. We went to the city festival called "Gentse Feesten" and went to share some love with the people there by giving free hugs. To be honest I wasn't sure how it would go, but never I would have thought that it would be such an amazing experience. People in Gent are hungry for love. Some of our team members give over 100 hugs in the 2 hours we were there. Just amazing to see strangers running towards you just for a chance to get a hug, young and old were coming to us to get a bit of love in form of hugs, just amazing to be a part off. One girl came to one of our teammember for at least 10 hugs, she kept coming back and by the end of our time they exchanged Facebook info, but it was just humbling to see the power a hug can have on people.

Herentals:

Our second week, we went to Herentals. It has been a place where I had the honour of going before, but last year I sadly couldn't go to Herentals but this year I was back. The youth in this town are amazing young people, and so much fun to hang out with and talk to. Also the volunteers from the church are amazing, Rachel and Ruben who are the coordinators of the camp are 2 amazing persons, who do an awesome job organising this week in Herentals. And it's always an honour and blessing to serve alongside them. This camp is a bit challenging cause this week I'm not helping with

basketball, but I'm helping out with soccer. As a PE teacher I'm used to teaching soccer, but leading a camp is a bit different. But the kids were amazing and gave us all a lot of energy. I was more with the little kids for the soccer part, and that was so much fun. They still beat me in soccer a lot but they had so much energy and were so enthousiastic to play soccer. The most special time of this week was in my small group. Halfway through the camp, we take a break, where we will share a testimony and then we split into our small groups with kids and have the chance to talk about it, and get their opinion and ideas about it. In my small group were around 6 kids and most of them are raised in a Christian family and would call themselves Christian. But you see a lot of them are still searching for answers and that personal relationship with God. We had some amazing in deep talks about everyday subjects like bullying to more Christian topics like prayer and baptism. You could really see the personal growth in some in them everyday, and some really opened up by the end of the week and were honest about their relationship with God. Really awesome moment was when one of the teenagers said that he is really thinking about getting baptised. He is still growing in his relationship with God as I type this blog, and waiting till God puts it on his heart that he need to get baptised. But I'm very proud of him of the growth and the willingness to be critical about himself and challenge himself. It's always amazing to be able to serve in a city like Herantals where SportQuest is loved so much, and kids really look forward all year to the SportQuest week. God has been good to SportQuest opening doors in this city to help us sow seeds into the hearts of young people. Please pray that these young people in Herentals will keep growing and experience God's love for their lives daily!

Brakel:

After the second week of outreach almost all of our athletes go back home, only staff and interns stay and do one more week in Brakel. Reason for this is that Brakel can't get a gym in july so we always do an extra week for them, so they are able to give a SportQuest camp. It's really physically and emotionally hard to do, since we are all really tired. But Brakel is really special to us, and we have really good support from the church but also from a South-African team there. The South-Africa team comes from Hoopstad every year to help the church in Brakel, and to help with our outreach. Some fresh people with lots of energy are of course very welcome for us. Together with the mixture of cultures makes this an interesting week every year. The amazing thing this year is that 5 young people from the church, stayed with us at the church the whole week. They ate, sleep, did bible study's, planned the week, basically did everything together with us. It was just encouraging to see a new generation standing up and taking responsibility. The week is also really amazing to do since it's always us staff going, we basically know all the kids, and they know us. So there is no get to know each other round, but you can just start where you left things. Which provides amazing opportunities during the camp with the kids. Camp was great, with the help of the youth of the church we had an amazing time serving and playing sports. During small group I had the youngest kids, which was actually an amazing time. Most of them come from a Christian family so the kids new mostly the basics of Christianity so when we started talking about purpose, God, life at school, the bible, they were very comfortable talking about it. Better yet they started sharing and evangelising to their friends in the small group who were not Christian. Seeing these 8-10 year olds sharing their faith in their way, is truly one of the most amazing things I experienced that week. We saw a girl from another group give her life to Jesus (praise God!), but these 8 year olds were so full of Christ, and just wanted all of their friends to also know this Jesus they know. They didn't always say the most accurate facts but it made sense to their friends cause they said it in a way they would understand it and they did it out of love! Out of love for their friends but also out of love for Jesus and that love overflowed with them. I know for a long time already that it's by loving on people, being in their lives that you make an impact but deep down I was still very focused on knowledge, scared maybe a bit to not say the right words. But these kids showed me in a real and tangible way it's only about Love, not about my words but about my actions, and saying it in a loving way. It's also a nice image for everyone, cause if 8 year olds can share their faith with their friends, why are we as adults sometimes holding back? Since Brakel, I can't find a reason anymore and I need to thank those 8 year olds for that. I will love on people and share my love for this amazing God as much as I can, in a loving way. Cause this love is for everyone and I want everyone to be in this family!

It has been an amazing 4 weeks of growth, meeting people, investing in youth, getting to know God better,.... 4 weeks that are hard to fully explain in words on a blog, but hopefully these words gave you a glimpse of what I experienced. And most of all make you say praise God, a new generation is coming, God is at work in Belgium. Thank you for reading this all and to be in prayer with me through this journey God is taking me on! Please enjoy some more pics of these amazing 4 weeks