By BRENT STUBBS
Senior Sports Reporter
bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
SPORTS World Ministries, a nationally known non-profit organisation that sends former professional athletes across the United States to share their personal life experiences and encourage students to make positive choices with a message of hope, is coming to the Bahamas.
Devon McDonald, the president of the organisation based in Indianapolis, Indiana, intends to bring at least four of the 11 former pro football players and women’s softball players, to participate in the first event to be held outside of the USA.
McDonald, a former national champion with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who went on to play in the National Football League with the Indianapolis Colts (1993-95) and Arizona Cardinals (1995-96), was in town to form a local committee that will assist their organisation when they return in October.
“We share a massage for about 45 minutes, but at the end of it, we share our testimony of what God has done for us,” McDonald said. “One day I was in the dark and I met him and today I’m living in the light. Do I make mistakes, yes I do, but I’m not the same person that I was before because I met Jesus Christ.”
Having spent two days familiarising a group of Bahamians, including Jackie Bain, Pastor Jeffery Wood, Ministers Clinton Minnis, Dave ‘Ruff Neck Pastor’ Burrows, Sharmaine Adderley, Brent Stubbs and Tyrone Sawyer, the sports director at the Ministry of Tourism with their programme, McDonald said he felt they formed a marriage with the two countries.
“We use athletics and athletics is big. The fact that I came from the sports world as a former NFL player, I know how important sports is in life,” said McDonald, who also played from 2000-02 with the Tampa Bay Storm. “So I believe bringing Sports World here to the island is the ideal thing because you are so liberated in speaking about the Lord, Jesus Christ.
“So we are excited about bringing Sports World here and speaking into the schools and putting on a football and softball camp for the youngsters so that they can understand that it’s not just about playing sports.”
Sports World intends to make their inaugural stop in the Bahamas during the first week of October as they participate in the festivities that surround Youth Month. In addition to forming the local organising committee, McDonald paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson.
However, Johnson was in a meeting and instead, McDonald and the group met with Evon Wisdom, the director of sports in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, who gave the blessing on both ministries for the hosting the event.
“I think it’s very, very important because it deals with something we call character education,” Wisdom said. “A lot of the church schools always had a chaplin or a religious official affiliated with the sports teams. The reason they did was to pray for the team and give them the spiritual guidance.
“So I think it’s so important for us to bring character education back and the values back in sports. I think this will go far in getting our young people to understand that sports is a means to an end, but it is also a developmental thing that can inspire you in life.”
Bain, who has worked in the financial field for the past 30 years, said she was able to meet the philanthropist for Sports World and through their association, they have seen the need to bring the programme to the Bahamas.
“I’m very excited about it because Devon and their team are helping young people to make positive choices,” Bain said. “I think it’s timely because we do have problems with our young people in this country and any person who comes with a Christian background and helping our young people in making positive choices, we welcome them.”
Sawyer said it’s a tremendous Christ-centered initiative to bring to the Bahamas and he expressed his gratitude to Bain in making it possible for Sports World to come here and share their expertise with the local community, particularly the students in the various schools.
And Minnis, who has worked with a number of local youth organisations, said this will encourage young people to make positive choices.
“Any help we can get to facilitate changing the culture of our people is critical,” Minnis said. “Some young people in this generation appear to be spaced out. They don’t know how to make the right choices and so we need every strategy and every help we can to get to push the young people in the direction that they need to go to deviate away from the crimes that they are getting caught up in.”
Additionally, Minnis said he hopes that Sports World will be able to utilise those Bahamians who have also succeeded in their sporting endeavours so they can bring some ownership to what the visitors will impart in their lives.
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