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Seven-year-old Kadrioan Santiago, left, and Aaron Shaffer, 11, work their upper-body strength Wednesday while pulling themselves along the Heart Adventure Course at Shannon Johnson Elementary during the Sports Blast Day Camp sponsored by Crossroads Fellowship Church in Berea. Nancy Taggart
Healthy hearts, spiritual minds
Camp combines religion, sports
BEREA —
Pastor Jonas Hill of Crossroads Fellowship Church has found a way to teach the Bible through sports, while giving the county’s youth a place to have fun and learn to be healthy.
The Sports Blast Day Camp, a two-week free camp focuses each day on a different athletic event.
Around 100 kids are participating in the camp, Hill said.
“Our focus is to make sure they learn about God and have fun and have the opportunity to do something they haven’t done,” Hill said. “We bring in kids that are under privileged and introduce a sport through the word of God. The No. 1 priority is to get the word of God to them. No. 2, we want to open up opportunities for them.”
During the morning, campers learn how a sport relates to religious teachings and during the afternoon they participate in the sport.
For example, students learned how golf is a sport that relies on patience before playing a round of miniature golf.
They learned on Tuesday that even if one rolls a gutter ball on their first attempt in bowling, they are given a second chance, much as religion teaches of second chances.
After learning about bowling they spent the afternoon at Galaxy Bowling and Family Entertainment Center.
“There are so many kids that don’t have anything to do during the summer,” said Susan Hill, Jonas’ wife. “This is something for them to participate in.”
On Wednesday, campers learned about the heart, before going to Shannon Johnson Elementary School to participate in the Heart Adventure, an obstacle course that takes participants through a makeshift heart.
“We talked about the heart, the natural heart and it’s jobs and responsibilities, then we talked about what does our spiritual heart do,” Jonas Hill said.
Children used rubber balls and scooters to work their way through the course, which was split into two sides to represent each side of the heart.
At the end of the course, campers used a stethoscope to listen to their own heart.
“This is a fun way to get out and get exercise and learn about the Lord,” said camper Joshua Williams, 10.
While most campers 13-and-under were working their way through the course, older campers were learning how to minister to the younger kids, said Jonas Hill.
“It’s good to get involved with the little kids and help them learn and it’s good for the older kids like me to have fun and to get good exercise,” said Austin McCollum, 17. “I’m learning a lot of stuff I didn’t know.”
Brittany Carter, 19, a sports management major at Pensacola Christian College in Florida, said she has been able to use the experience to learn to work with children.
Carter has been working with fourth-grade campers.
“I’m with them every day,” she said. “We do everything together. It’s definitely an eye-opener, but it’s been a lot of fun.”
Campers were expected to learn today about tennis and on Friday about skating.
“We learn a lot about sports and the words from the Bible,” said Tre McCreath, 10. “At the same time (Jonas Hill) is teaching us about sports he’s combining it with the Bible.”
Tim Mandell can be reached at tmandell@richmondregister.com or 623-1669 ext. 6696.
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