Softball Camps! - Explore Archived World Race Alumni Blogs

Most of you who read my blogs know this, but I LOVE SOFTBALL! I played through college, so if you include as far back to t-ball, I played 15 years straight, plus church league a few summers after that. My brother played through college, and parents used to coach us and used to play as well. We even had a dirt pitcher’s mound in our back yard at one time. We were legit. The few times Dad filled in for our pastor to give the sermon, his analogies were usually from baseball! We love watching it together on TV, we love playing together, going to MLB games together, and teaching little kids how to play, as well. We enjoy most sports, but it’s come out of my mouth many times that “The Ricketts family is a baseball family!” We just love it.

When our squad leaders came to us back in Moldova saying there was the opportunity to partner with a ministry who held softball camps in Ukraine, I got SOOOO excited! The squad leaders knew our team was the best fit for this ministry, and before we knew it, it was settled. Sage, Mike, Matthew, Weston and I were especially excited about doing this!

The reason the softball camps are so successful here is because no one here has any clue about how to play baseball/softball. It’s hard to fathom to the American mind, but most people here have never played the game, or even watched it on television. They have no real understanding of the rules or technique. Bruce said missionaries have tried doing soccer camps, but the 5 year olds have better understanding and skill here than most Americans, so it’s hard to find anyone interested in coming, which defeats the evangelistic purpose of camps. Softball has been a big hit here. It would be like a missionary team coming from England to teach us the game of cricket, or something!

We’ve now held two softball camps since being in Ukraine: A two-day camp in the small village of Krasnaya Polyana, and a 4 day overnight camp in Pervomaisk. Bruce has had a lot of equipment donated, so he’s working with around 50 gloves, several bats, a set of bases, and a bag or so of balls. It’s just about perfect for these camps!

The first camp definitely broke me into what to expect from these camps. We pulled up to this old soccer field behind an elementary school… covered in knee-high grass with a cow grazing in the middle and a sunflower field to the side. I think in my mind I imagined this being more like the serious softball pitching/hitting clinics we used to do with our old city league. However, it’s more like the first few t-ball practices with your five-year olds! Even after showing them the proper batting stance, teenage boys still walked up to the plate and stood on it facing the pitcher, ready to bat! We’ve had several people go back for fly balls and do a backwards flip over a bush, feet straight up over their heads! OH man. We’ve had lots of laughs this month!

The kids are just itching to put on a glove and throw the ball, so we just do some basic throwing, fielding, catching, and batting drills. Then we did some mock-innings to explain the game and begin to let them actually play the game. It’s really low key, but a lot of fun! It’s a great way to begin to interact with the kids and build relationships. The last day of the 4 day camp, we did the big final game with the kids. The little kid’s game was first: we split into 3 teams and did a three team rotation. Mike and I coached “Orlee,” which means the Eagles! We did all these crazy warm ups with them that were absolutely ridiculous, but they loved it! Weston and Sage’s team were the Ninja’s, and Matthew and Sasha’s team were the Miners.

Then, we did the older kid’s game, which was Ukraine verses the USA! We had no mercy the first inning, just to show them what baseball can look like. Then we just had some good light-hearted fun, purposely getting into pickles, dropping balls on the field, etc. LOVE IT! We had a chili dinner for everyone while the gospel was presented, and just enjoyed everyone’s company for the last evening.

At some point each day, we’d have a time of sharing testimonies and other stories from our World Race trip, and it was awesome to see the kids respond with questions about it all. I got to share about our time in Thailand in the Red Light District, for example. Bruce also had a big screen and a projector, and we’d show a Christian film like “Evan Almighty” or “Facing the Giants” each night to end the clinic.

Most of the people in this area are surrounded by alcoholism and narcotics abuse, or from a religion that’s more about rules than the Love of God. It was really fun to just love on them and tell them verbally straight up about Jesus. This whole month, God keeps telling me, “Love my children. Love my children.” It’s such a “duh” to love kids, but I’ve realized the lack of Godly love here and the reality of the desire for it in these kids. I’m called to love. Whatever you do in this life is about more than tagging the name of Jesus on top of it. Without love, we have nothing. Don’t just do life in the name of Christ, but with the LOVE of Christ. So, that’s what this month’s been about for me.

More stories coming from Ukraine… but here’s some pics!

This little doll, Victoria, was my little buddy the whole time at the 2 day camp!!