Sports-Fest 2022: Encourage to Build One Another

Beaming smiles and warm personalities welcomed us as we stepped onto their floor for the very first time. After an hour of a very tiring travel, we finally arrived at Davao City Missionary Baptist Church, the venue for this year’s sports-fest. It was a two-storey building, erected at Batalla Village, somewhere in Davao Region. The ground floor, where their church was, had a very welcoming ambience, while, the second floor, their parsonage, was spacious-enough for all campers.

A sports-fest is their church’s annual activity, especially, for their youth. It is a way to encourage their young people to take part in different activities such as sports, develop an active participation, create enjoyment, and fun without external pressure or reward, as well as to perform all of these goals in a godly way. This year, fortuitously, we managed to partake in this very momentous activity along with the bonhomie of other delegates.

In this article, I will try and be going to remember and recapitulate all those crucial activities we did, at the top of my memory.

The Arrival and Registration

There were sixteen (16) of us who participated in the sports-fest. We arrived at exactly 8:30 AM and the people there were very felicitous. Everyone was smiling to us even if it was still our first time joining the said activity, and even shook hands with them. After a couple of minutes of our arrival, we fixed and organized all luggages in a designated area. We also registered ourselves, and paid a registration fee of P 50.00 ($0.89) for our meal, which is good for 2 days. Someone also took us to a quick tour in the whole area. Afterwards, we all settled ourselves inside the church since a lot of delegates were already coming.

The Acquaintance, Cheers and Yells and Indoor Games

At exactly 9:30 in the morning, the officers and facilitators of the said event randomly sorted and grouped all of us according to four colors: green, red, yellow and blue. I belonged to green team, having two of church mates with me. We were tasked to create a yell and a banner that would represent our team. At first, we were all hesitant to speak because we haven't known each other. I spoke first so that everyone will follow, so, everyone did.

Everyone extrapolated to name our team ‘Green Ekklesia’. Afterwards, we presented our cheers and yells, and, competed in the flag raising contest. We won the first place because two of teammates, Raz and Jake, were too fast and gumptious. Lastly, we played some indoor games which were ‘food racing’ and ‘hola-hoop relay’. Haplessly, we didn't win the game, yet, we enjoyed it. We relaxed, had our lunch, and prepared ourselves for the ball games.

Ball and Board Games

This was the most exciting and awaited part of this sports-fest which was comprised of basketball, volleyball, badminton, chess, and scrabble. Every team must provide representatives to every sport. I was one of the representatives for the volleyball, badminton (doubles), and the representative for badminton (single). I felt perturb that time since it was my first time playing those games in an actual court.

Playing volleyball was the most embarrassing, yet a good experience for me. During the first match, I wasn't able to catch the ball and just even watched it land on my front. The audience were laughing at me, but, I dealt it with full confidence and laughed myself as well. Another embarrassing moment was when I did not know how to serve a ball, however, my team still won the first place due to coordination and communication.

We also won as champion in basketball, as well as on chess. On the other hand, we lost the match against our opponents in the sports badminton, and scrabble, yet, it was indeed a remarkable and memorable experience.

I commend my teams for not just being good at sports, but also for possessing the spirit of sportsmanship throughout the game.

Body Band, 4-Pics-1-Word, Comical Skit

Body band is a game which aims each members of the group to produce sound without the use of instruments and other materials, but the body alone. In this game, we were not able to win it because, although, all of us were good, but one group really nailed it.

4-Pics-1-Word is a game wherein the facilitators will show us four pictures, and we will guess the word behind those pictures. We were given some papers and a pen. We, unfortunately, did not win this one because the other group did better.

Comical Skit is a short, comedy performance about a particular topic. Comedy is not really my thing, so, I had to overcome this one and get out of my comfort zone. The theme of this year's sports-fest was “Encourage to Build One Another.” We relate our concept to this, as a result, we won this game since my group members were naturally-born comedian as well.

All in all, our team won as first-runner up, however, I learned that the said activity was more than just winning: it was all about sportsmanship, communication, interaction, and encouraging everyone to build one another. This experience is what I can say as one of my most memorable experience I will treasure forever. I met a lot of new people, conquered all my fears, got out of my comfort zone, became active physically and most importantly, built a connection and relationship among other people for a short period of time. As the theme says, ‘encourage to build one another’, we must encourage everyone, especially the weak, tired and lonely, and, build them the way we think is the right thing to do, especially in a godly and righteous way.