The Greatest Gift We Can Give (4th Basketball Camp)

While serving the kids over the years here in Korea I’ve learned that the greatest gift I can give the kids is love. Big gifts, nice meals, comedy shows, amazing camps, new clothes, and other things are all nice, but without love behind them they can all end up empty. What these kids are truly hungry for is love: patience, kindness, commitment, discipline, safety, genuine concern and care. I’ve seen some super talented people do very creative and fun things with the kids, but I didn’t see a lasting impression. I’ve also seen some less talented people who have genuine love spend time with the kids and, while it can be hard to see initially, an impression is left. The seeds of love have an affect.

We held our 4th annual basketball camp last Monday for 18 boys from two different children homes. Most of the boys don’t play basketball, but because they knew our staff (Jerusalem Ministry) and volunteers would be there all the boys committed. Two alumni from the camp who are now both in college left their school in the countryside at 6am to get to our camp location. One of those boys, out of fear he wouldn’t wake up, pulled an all-nighter in order to make the camp. That is wild! To be honest, our basketball camp isn’t as fun compared to our soccer camp or arts and crafts camp. We just do a bunch of drills in the morning and then play some pickup games in the afternoon, and most of these boys are horrible at basketball and rarely if ever play the game. So why do they want to go to the camp? I honestly believe it is because of the genuine love our volunteers and staff have for them. When our volunteers cheer for the boys during the game the boys light up. When we speak and interact with them they drink in the attention and care. They feel safe to fail at the game and look bad as they try. Rather than be insecure, they can laugh and keep trying because they’re in a safe, loving place. I’m so thankful for these camps and for the amazing, loving volunteers that serve with us!

Here are some pictures from the camp (just a one day camp held at Seoul National University)…

Starting the camp with prayer…

Dribbling drills

Practicing lay-up form (some of these boys had never played before)

A shooting drill

This is the college student who stayed up all night in order to be at the camp…

He had fun serving as a volunteer this year and giving the younger boys (some of whom he grew up with) good attention

Happy boys

For the last hour of the camp day we played 5 on 5 basketball between two teams of the boys and volunteers mixed together. Here I’m giving my boys a mini pep talk before the game.

Let the game begin!

Action shot

Action shot 2

Action shot 3

Amidst the game the volunteers did a great job of encouraging the boys and teaching them how to run around effectively

Afterwards we lined up to shake hands

Group pic

While love is the greatest thing we can give, good food is important too. The boys loved being treated to chicken and pizza at the end of the camp day.

We’re thankful to our sponsors who helped make this all possible!

Blessings!