Chapel-based “Change the World in a Day” offertory focused on Shoot 4 Life this year, raising about $10,000. The money will be put toward building a basketball court in a rural village in Africa.
Shoot 4 Life is a mission partner with BU Mission and uses basketball as a means to educate kids in Central Africa about integrity, environmental awareness and the love of Christ. The organization is run by Vincent Asamoah, a Truett Seminary graduate. He visited Chapel to explain what an impact the courts would make in Africa.
“We believe that a healthy mind lives in a healthy body, so as we continue to teach children how to play basketball, we also help them to understand that we can all work together to keep our environment clean. That, by the grace of God, is going on,” Asamoah said.
He showed a slideshow of current courts and the transition the organization has gone through because of the help of Baylor and other large donors.
“It’s amazing for us to do what we do through the support of Baylor,” Asamoah said.
Baylor has also sent students on mission trips to meet the children. The Baylor softball team visited Shoot 4 Life this past December. A few members of the team visited Chapel to tell their story.
“We had the privilege to go over Christmas break … [and] they all would go back in a heartbeat, because of the life change, because of what it did. It impacted their faith and grew their faith,” said Katherine Johnson, sports chaplain. “You may not get to go, but there’s another way you can give.”
This year, about a third of Chapel students donated to the cause. Ryan Richardson, associate chaplain and director of worship and Chapel, was not discouraged by these relatively low numbers.
“A lot of students have given a lot of money, and it is a spiritual act to give,” Richardson said. “I’m excited that almost a thousand students thought, ‘Hey, there’s something that’s important that God is doing in the world, and I’m going to give to that,’ and they took the steps necessary to give.”
Change the World in a Day began in 2014 when Phi Kappa Chi members asked the worship staff for ways to raise money for an education building and dining facility for Ugandan orphans through I Love Orphans, their charity.
A refugee camp was built in Iraq through the funds raised the next year.
Previous donations had been organized with matching gifts, which means another party would match the amount donated. The next donation will hopefully be arranged this way, said Richardson.
“I think it’s a part of our spiritual posture to think about something other than ourselves. Especially in our society, which is very selfish, it’s important that we continually push ourselves to sacrifice and give,” Richardson said.
Donations are still being accepted for Shoot 4 Life projects and can be made by texting BUCHANGE to 71777 or going online to https://www.baylor.edu/spirituallife/index.php?id=930433.
