December 31, 2001
JANNA KAY HOLIDAY shows a South African girl the correct position for fielding a grounder. (All photos by Sue Sprenkle/ IMB)
A WHOLE NEW BALLGAME:
Texas natives use sports in evangelism
___By Sue Sprenkle
___International Mission Board
___JOHANNESBURG, South Africa--A sharp crack of the bat sends the base runners in motion. The shortstop moves smoothly to his left, fields the ball and tosses it to the third baseman. The third baseman grabs the baseball out of his glove and throws the ball as hard as he can at the muddy, square base barely a foot away.
___Cheers erupt from every player as the ball rolls to the outfield. The barefoot left fielder doesn't retrieve the ball; instead he turns a few cartwheels in celebration.
JANNA KAY HOLIDAY compares the fundamentals of hitting a baseball to keeping your eyes on Jesus Christ.
___"No man, you're playing the wrong sport. This isn't cricket," shouts the coach. "We're playing baseball. You have to touch the base in order to get the out--not knock it over with the ball."
KURT HOLIDAY teaches a boy how to throw.
___The coach, International Mission Board missionary Kurt Holiday, shakes his head as the celebration continues and looks to his wife, Janna Kay, for a little support. It's too late; she's already hiding her face trying to conceal her laughter. Finally, Holiday smiles and throws his hands up in defeat.
___Coaching baseball in Africa is definitely different than any team the Texas natives ever coached in the United States. When you factor in the different types of "delay of game"--such as shooing chickens off the field, chasing down baboons that have stolen rolling baseballs or waiting on women carrying jugs of water across the middle of the field--there is just no comparison to the American version of the sport.
___Most South Africans never have heard of baseball, let alone watched a game. Teaching the game literally begins at first base. Despite the lack of knowledge, most schools welcome the Baptist coaching duo into their communities with open arms.
___The Holidays, who are natives of Waco and Houston, bring not only baseball with them but an important message about Jesus Christ.
___"We use baseball as a way to build relationships within the communities," Holiday explained. "We come in and do some coaching clinics, and after each clinic we do some Bible studies. After a few practices, we have a game where the parents come watch. And then we try to start some adult Bible studies, which we hope eventually lead into new churches."
___The Holidays teach baseball fundamentals to anyone who asks, but their main focus is in the colored communities in the Greater Johannesburg area. Many coloreds, called this because of their mixed races, live in informal settlements made up of houses built out of tin or scraps. During South African apartheid times, the coloreds were not accepted by the black community or the white communities simply because of their mixed races.
___Colored schools readily open their doors for the not-so-traditional baseball practice. One headmaster said his students have nothing to do after school but walk around and find trouble. The combination of Bible study and baseball is exactly
KURT HOLIDAY leads a high school team Bible study.
what his students need, he said.
NOT SURE what to do with the glove, this student uses it to shade himself from the harsh sun.
___Players show up for practice wearing everything from school uniforms and bulky black dress shoes to well-worn T-shirts and no shoes at all. No one seems to notice the bright, white baseball pants Holiday wears. They only see the bag full of child-sized gloves and bats being unloaded from the car.
___The 10- and 11-year-olds dive into the gear, but they aren't quite sure which hand the baseball glove is supposed to fit on. One left-handed boy wears a right-handed glove on the wrong hand. Another decides the glove makes a better shade from the hot sun and places it on his head before proceeding to play catch barehanded.
___Holiday calls the group to gather around him and begins to explain the fundamentals of throwing.
___"I'm a Christian, so I call this the cross position," he says as he demonstrates how to separate the glove and ball for the proper throwing position. "It's like the cross Jesus died on."
___During batting practice, Holiday tells the young players to keep their eye on the ball and never to stray from it.
___"How easy is it to hit the ball if you aren't looking at it?" he asks. "It's the same with Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus and keep them there."
___Over on another corner of the soccer field turned baseball field, Mrs. Holiday teaches how to field a ground ball. The groups takes a short rest as a woman pushing a wheelbarrow filled with Jeri cans of water cuts across the playing field.
___"You know, it's a mistake for people to assume they can't use their gifts on the mission field," she says as she tosses another grounder. "We are a family of baseball fanatics and here we are, in a sports-mad country, teaching about the two things we love the most--Jesus Christ and baseball.
___"It just doesn't get any better than that."
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