Our friend and colleague from Oxford, England,
Stuart Weir, has developed a unique ministry among the men and women of
Athletics (Track and Field to us Yanks). For the last several years he has
coupled his sportswriting skills and a heart for ministry to forge an impactful
chaplaincy. He is presently in Rome, Italy for a big international Athletics
event and the paragraphs below detail one of his days of ministry at the event.
Stuart understands and embodies the ministry of being present as well as anyone
I know. I hope his experiences serve to challenge and encourage you.
Rome
Wednesday
How I set
new standards in professionalism and other stories in the life of a chaplain at
large.
Caught the 9.00am shuttle to the athletes’ hotel. It was really a “bus” but “shuttle” sounds
more impressive. It was actually a 40 seater bus, which was important as there
were two of us travelling. Nils sat on the right and I on the left. (This
evening I was the only one on the bus so they only sent a 20 seater). I wonder if there is a work for organization
in Italian – probably not as there does not seem to be any!)
There were press conferences from 11 so I sat in a lobby area for
an hour or so while the world walked past.
Within an hour I had spoken to 7 Christian athletes out of the 13 I had
identified in the event. I was looking
out for a Kenyan athlete I had never met and had printed off a photo which I
had on my knee. Three Africans came out
of the dining room, I was wondering if “mine” was among them. One of the others came over pointed at the
photo and at an athlete and said “I thought you
were looking for him”.
Hannah England (Oxford) came past and I wanted to record a short
interview with her for the oxford Mail. I asked if she would give me 10
minutes. She was happy to and did it
there and then. I have followed Hannah’s
career since 2007 and spoken to her in China, Korea, India, Spain and now
Italy!
Allyson Felix was one of the athletes in the press conference so I
arranged beforehand with her than I would ask her a question about faith for
the benefit of other journalists. As
always she gave a good answer.
There was an athlete at the press conference with whom I had had a
brief conversation in Korea in 2011 but had not seen since. This morning I spoke to her at a really busy
moment when she was being hurried from one interview to the next. I just said I
had been praying for her since Korea.
She stopped and almost hugged me! We agreed to speak more after she had
done media. When we sat down together, she shared how tough her injury period
had been until she leant to "give it to the Lord and put her comeback in
his hands". She added that she had
learned that "it is better to jump
with Jesus than without him". A
really encouraging encounter.
I saw one of the athletes on my list and asked if she would do an
interview. She was going into lunch and
said she would see me after lunch. By
the time she came out I was unsure if she was who I know she was. I had to bite the bullet and ask her
name. It was not the one I thought! I did the interview anyhow, pretending I had
always wanted to speak to her. Afterwards
I realized I had forgotten to switch on the recorder! (Got that I failed to
record an interview with an athlete who wasn’t the one I wanted to speak to?)
Spent the afternoon working on the day job and looking out for
athletes. I recorded an interview with
the Kenyan after lunch. At the end of the day I bumped into an athlete from
Botswana whom I had met briefly in Korea but have never had a chance to speak
to since. She was very warm. She was in
a rush but suggested we meet in the morning.
Overall an encouraging day. I spoke to 11 of the 13 I knew, prayed
with 4. The three that I did not know
beforehand, I got 5 minutes with one, 10 minutes with another and will meet the
third tomorrow.
Stuart
J Stuart
Weir
Executive
Director
Verite Sport
19 The Globe
Cumnor
Oxford
OX2 9QA
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