NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Nearly 25 years ago Mike Haywood asked the Virginia Baptist Mission Board to send a sports camp team to Temple Baptist Church in Newport News, Va. The following year when he requested another team he learned there was no team that summer, so he decided to form his own‚ and has been doing so every summer since.
Mike Haywood
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Now each summer over 400 children attend the Peninsula Baptist Association’s sports camps at 10 different churches. While many of the children come from those churches, about a fourth of them are brought by friends or come from the nearby neighborhoods.
The camps have five goals:
- Evangelism: Daily devotionals with Bible stories and age-appropriate discussions.
- Awareness: Introducing children to many sports, both popular and less well-known.
- Self-esteem: Encouraging young people to enjoy the game regardless of their ability.
- Fellowship: Interaction through sports enhances mental and emotional development.
- Leadership training: High school and college students get on-the-job training at the camps.
One of Peninsula Baptist Association’s camps in 2011.
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What started as a camp for children has turned into a training ground for future leaders.
“Hopefully we are adding to the leadership development of our high school and college kids,” says Haywood, who is youth and family ministries coordinator for the association.
One future leader is Travis Wash. He grew up attending the sports camps and has taught basketball and lead devotions at them since he was a freshman in high school. He attended Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, Pa., on an athletic scholarship.
“God has given sports as a big avenue for us to use to get his name out,” says Wash. He received an offer to play professionally in Italy but turned it down. His passion for working with children in the states has kept him here.
“You can use sports to show kids the love of Jesus Christ. Not only do they hear that name, but the way we teach the sports, it has biblical application,” he says.
Another graduate from what some now refer to as the “Haywood Leadership School” is Melanie Beck. A social work major at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, she will graduate this spring.
“I have a passion for children, for helping them, teaching them and just preparing them for what they are going to encounter later in life,” she says.
Beck says Haywood’s contributions are not only for the children, “but for the leaders, too. He is making us into better leaders ourselves, and he is a mentor to us in our lives. He does it without us even realizing it.”
Haywood picks a memorable quote from each summer’s camps. This year a younger campers was asked what God was like and replied: “Well, I’ll tell you. Every time I lose a balloon it goes up to heaven, and God is keeping all my balloons for me, and when I go to heaven, he’s gonna give them all back.”
There must be many balloons in heaven by now.
Mike Vacarelli is on the staff of the Peninsula Baptist Association. This article was printed in the James River Review.