A moment I will never forget

Basketball camp ended this morning and there is a moment I will never forget. It was not when Dereck Mushyamunda cooked a mouse at camp fire and ate it. It was not when Cole my son who was attending camp tried a piece of mouse that night. Both were moments etched in my mind forever. But there was a moment that brought tears to my eyes.

The last night of Basketball camp we have a carnival filled with basketball skill games. The money raised goes to the Mushyamunda village (in Zimbabwe) so they do not have to eat mice. Even though according to Dereck and Cole, mice taste pretty good.The games cost $5 each with some big prizes to those who win. One of the games that is played at the carnival is Knock-out. The game of knock-out is played with two balls. The players line up in a single file line and take turns shooting a free throw. When a free throw attempt is taken and missed the player must get the rebound and try to make a lay-up before the player behind him makes a shot. If he fails to make the shot before the player behind him, he is out of the game.

Johnny, the autistic kid decided to play. Without anyone saying a word, the player behind him made sure that Johnny always made his shot first. When the kid behind got out, the next kid did the same thing (and these kids were some of the top players in the camp). It got down to five kids left. Then four. Then three. Then two. And the last man standing was Johnny. He won the first game of knock-out.

He was interviewed after the game and Johnny said, "This was the greatest day of my life!"

Now I am pretty sure none of the boys at camp will see this blog, but I want to thank the young men at boys basketball camp for making this the greatest week of camp I have ever had. I will never forget that moment as we learned first hand what Jesus meant when he said, "Whatever you do to the least of these you do to me."