- By Dan Veaner
- Around Town
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Sharpsteen has directed the camp for the past couple of years, but says it couldn't be done without parishioners who volunteer for both sports and moral coaching. "We like to use different age groups," Sharpsteen says. "Some of our older parishioners come out to be huddle coaches who deal more with the spiritual end of it. They can be there to cheer the children as they are learning the athletic part, but they are also there to coach spiritually. It's nice because everybody can be involved in it. It's not just for younger people."
 Camp Director Rachael Sharpsteen. The fields may be empty now, but they will be teeming with kids from K-6th grade when Mega Sports Camp comes to Asbury Church August 17 - 21 |
But the people it is targeted at are the kids. The camp focuses on specific sports each year. Last year kids could choose from among soccer, football, or cheerleading. This year the choices are cheerleading, baseball, and soccer. The program provides an energetic approach to merging lessons from the Bible with everyday goals and behavior.
"Our desire as a church is to meet people where they're at," says Pastor David Quigley. "We like to say that we are a family-friendly church that seeks to share the love of God in a contemporary way. Our desire is to serve our community however we can and share God's love with them in all sorts of fun and creative ways."
The congregation does this in many ways. Their popular booth at the Fire Department Carnival last week featured balloons, face painting, plants, and games. Mega Sports Camp features rallies with music and singing, sports and Bible stories.
"They get some sports training and we also do what we call huddle groups," Sharpsteen explains. "They get together in their small groups and learn about a sports player and their life story and how they have achieved a certain goal. At a second huddle time they get more in depth and talk about life issues, or the Bible story, or the theme for the day. Then we come back to meet in a big group and talk about the Bible story. We work on the goal, read scripture verse, and sing worship songs."
"It's character education," Quigley says. "You deal with courage. You deal with integrity, things you want kids to do."
Sharpsteen says that Quigley has experience coaching baseball and participates as a coach. But she says that you don't have to know about sports to coach or help run the camp. "it's really interesting how the program is written, because you don't have to be able to play sports or be good at them at all," she says. "The curriculum includes coach guides that show you how to run drills and things that help kids learn. However, we do try to utilize those who do enjoy sports to be coaches, because I think there is more excitement there."
The game plan for the first day is identifying strengths and weaknesses. "That all ties in with the story of Moses and how he ends up losing his temper and what happens as a result of that," Sharpsteen says. "It's about how God turns that around and because of it he is able to grow strong. And then the Lord uses him in a great and mighty way."
On the sports side they'll learn about Mia Hamm, who scored more goals internationally than any other player in the history of soccer. The focus will be on how she identified her own strengths and weaknesses, and used that knowledge to reach her goals. On the field the kids will do the same thing to improve in sports skills and reach the goal of the day.
"We make a team effort," Sharpsteen says. "They may notice a kid isn't good at kicking, so all the kids work on kicking. We keep it positive and say we're going to make this better or become stronger. We utilize the day's lesson focus throughout the camp. The more they hear it the more it sticks."
On the second day kids will learn about Moses in the dessert and the 1981 Los Angeles Lakers. The lesson will be 'Our opponent may not be who we think it is, and God is always stronger than our opponent. Day three will look at executing the plan. They'll learn how Moses confronted Pharoah, and kids will learn New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick's story and developing a plan. Day four has to do with trusting the plan you have made. Kids will learn about Moses aparting the waters of the Red Sea and the 2000 Tennessee Titans. The last day is about finishing the plan, studying football midfielder Zindine and bringing in Moses' final days as an example.
Quigley is enthusiastic about how the camp brings people together. "The people that we have serving are great people," he says. "They have great hearts. They work well with children. We're grateful for all the talents and gifts God has brought us through our people and how we get to share them with our community."
Shapsteen says that kids retain a lot of what they learn during the week. "It is surprising, because at the end of the camp the kids can tell you every day's memory verse, goal... they are really good at remembering things like that," she says. "At the end of the week they get awards for knowing all of that, so they are rewarded for what they learn, team effort, and how they interact. We strive to support the kids and not tear anybody down. The last thing we want is for a kid to feel like a failure, because no one's a failure. We want them to feel this is a place that they can come and feel safe."
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