Frontline Sports Day

Last weekend, I had one of my most memorable days yet. On Saturdays, I have been volunteering with Frontline Ministry, a ministry that serves street kids in Kampala. It is part of Calvary Chapel, the church I attend in the city. Normally, Saturday are pretty quiet. There are usually between 30 and 40 boys between ages approx. 8 and 14. We will watch movies, play cards, or color with them. Then we will have a short Bible study in Luganda and then serve them lunch.

The kids live on the street for a variety of reasons. Some have had their parents pass away leaving them no other choice. Others have run a away from abusive parents or other poor living conditions. In any case, they live in some tough circumstances. Some of them sleep in abandoned buildings or buildings under construction. Police hassle them and so they have a problem with authority figures. They tend to be rough around the edges and get into fights easily. I have heard (though never seen) that some of them carry weapons. Some of them do drugs as well. A couple weeks ago, a couple of boys asked me if I had any cocaine. They said that they needed it to sleep because they were staying in dangerous areas of town.

Despite their rough circumstances, they have great hearts. There are not many that are their every week which makes it hard to form relationships with them (especially since many do not speak English). Every week, however, I meet new kids that just want to be loved. It won't take long for one of the younger ones to find their way into my lap or hanging on my arm. They accumulate lots of dirt by living on the streets, wearing the same clothes every day, so I always leave covered in dirt.

This past Saturday was a special event. We had a day long sports day that included lots of football as well as basketball, floor hockey, ultimate frisbee, and volleyball. They were all really good at football and were pretty terrible at all the others. It was fun either way. After lots of advertising, more than 200 kids showed up. It was awesome to have such a great turnout. We split them up into teams of about 12 and just played with them all day long.

My team was the Green Zebras and we had a great group of boys. They were all really well behaved and you could tell they were having a blast. There isn't much else to say so here are a few photos from the day. At the end of the day, I realized that I didn't actually take any photos of them actually playing. Oh well...

Enjoy!

This is Matthias, one of the more regular boys. He is always smiling...it's probably because he is always up to something.

All the boys in line getting checked for drugs and weapons before they get on the buses.

Explaining to the police why there are hundreds of street kids gathered in the middle of the city.

This is my team. Go Green Zebras!

We had acrobats and dancers for entertainment at midday. They were pretty sweet.

Here is one of the stunts they did.

Preparing all of the food...

Lots and lots of beans, rice and cassava.

All of the boys sitting down at the end of the day, learning about forgiveness.

This is Wilson. He won most improved from last year to this year. Not improved athletically, but in terms of character.

This is Moses. He is also one of the regulars. He is one of the boys that is always hanging on me. (He stole my name tag.)