City Spending $1 Million on Police Department Study
Forum Features Final Three Eyeing Compton Center Provost Position
College Hot Topic at NAACP, Concerned Citizens Candidates Forum
Churches Uniting to Form Interfaith Youth Sports League
Compton Students Practice to Make Perfect on Job Interviews
School District to Benefit from Governor’s Revisions to State Budget Proposal
City, Sheriff’s Department Celebrate New Substation at Gateway Towne Center
Joseph
Phillips:
Good Cops: The Men and Women Patrolling Our Streets Care
Churches
Uniting to Form Interfaith Youth Sports League
Ministry aims
to ‘build and shape lives from the inside out through sports,
recreation and fitness’
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – As
their families and friends watched and cheered on the sidelines, the
7- to 9-year-olds battled it out on the basketball court. And it was
all in the name of God.
Last Saturday, May 17, a first-year peewee basketball league played
the final game of its season at the The Salvation Army Compton Corps
Community Center, which boasts a basketball court and gym.
Oye Waddell and his Eternal Sports Outreach ministry have teamed with
a handful of local churches to spread the word of the Lord while keeping
kids off the streets this spring.
“We’re a sports ministry. We partner with churches in the
city of Compton to get kids participating, to give them something to
do
that’s positive, to bring churches together and to spread the
word of Jesus Christ,” Waddell said.
The three-year-old sports ministry just this year partnered with The
Salvation Army on Santa Fe Avenue and launched the peewee league March
14. Games were held on Saturdays and players practiced during the week
throughout the 10-week season.
The parachurch ministry consists of Citizens of Zion, Faith Inspirational,
Double Rock, Holy Chapel and The Salvation Army, each of which has
its own team that competed against one another.
Waddell, who attends New Dawn Christian Village in Los Angeles, said
he wants to expand the program to include more Compton churches and
is actively trying to partner with additional houses of worship.
“We want to get all of the churches in Compton involved so we
can use sports to get kids off the street,” Waddell said.
Plans are being developed to start peewee leagues that will allow the
youngsters to learn the rules of additional sports like soccer and
football.
On Sunday, the players and their parents gathered at The Salvation
Army again, but this time in the chapel for a friends and family day
and player awards ceremony.
“What a better way to reach people than through sports,” said
Waddell. “Everyone is interested in sports.”
ADVERTISE | CLASSIFIEDS | ABOUT US | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBE | HOME
This site and its contents ©2008 thecomptonbulletin.com