On Wednesdays I coach a group of 12 girls who have signed up to be on the "Basketball Team" at Bridges Academy, which is amazing since they have never really been on a sports team before and there are no other girls teams for us to play as of now. As you can imagine, trying to get them motivated to run 1.5km to the basketball court and then work hard on the court for an hour only to run another 1.5km back to school, is pretty difficult. The first time I made them run for taking too long of a water break they looked at me like I had two heads. So, I dug down deep and pulled out my best Coach Heather speech about being part of a team, sacrificing, feeling good about yourself... then I told them that I had no idea if they would ever play another team but that I was committed praying every night that they would have that opportunity. Two days later the school got an email from the organizer of the boys league saying they were going to start a girls league next term and the first tournament will be August 13th - I almost fell out of my chair when they mentioned it to me casually! I couldn't wait to tell them, some of them were beyond excited and others were a bit worried since they have never really played a team sport and one girl was most concerned about what color their uniforms will be (girls will be girls)!
This may seem like a silly thing to pray for in the midst of so many other predominant needs, however, this is about more than just basketball. It's about establishing self-confidence, being part of a team, competing and most of all... seeing their Heavenly Father care enough to give them a team to play.
Now, start praying for these girls to get some basics down and have fun competing! As for me, you might want to pray that I'm able to tone down my competitive nature - I think I'm scaring them a bit. I'll get some pics to you soon until then here is a link to pics from this weekend: Pictures from hiking
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