It was the summer of 2014; four of us from Lord’s Love Church were eagerly preparing for an evangelical mission trip to Ghana. Unfortunately, after a year of planning and fundraising, the trip got cancelled one week prior due to the widespread Ebola crisis in Western Africa. The group was crushed and the girls were in tears. Me personally? I was kind of happy to be honest; It would have been my first mission trip and I was getting progressively nervous about the whole idea. Our team decided to meet up and pray over the situation and I experienced a God moment when somebody asked God for reasoning and purpose. I’ve never heard God’s actual voice but that very instant I experienced a calling to use the extra time we now had to bring the churches of Vancouver together by starting some type of sports league. It actually makes me laugh now thinking about it, because of how utterly random it must have seemed. But our group was definitely united by the Spirit as we all caught hold of the vision and pushed forward together to launch the league.
It has now been 2 years and four Pentasport seasons since our trip got cancelled. Each season has been amazing and memorable in it’s own way, but the inaugural season will always have a special place in my heart. God’s providence was on display, especially because we had no clue what we were doing, none of us had ever organized a sports league afterall:
- The equipment: we bought three different sets of dodgeballs before getting the right type – sigh! (Thank you to Warren at VDL for donating all the balls we currently use).
- The facility: we picked one of the newest schools in Richmond – Brighouse Elementary. Of course it would have a nice big gym right? Well, we didn’t realize that everything BUT the gym was rebuilt. The school was really nice, but the gym was still really small, and really old. Basketball had to be 4 on 4 and the crease was so small for handball that you could literally jump right into the net.
- The teams: Our target was to have eight to twelve teams register; no problem right? We ended up with only four (one of them being our own team).
And yet through all our mishaps, God made everything SO good. Everyone had a blast and many lasting relationships were made. The foundation of Pentasport was firmly set after that first season.
This season we’re playing in a gym three times larger than Brighouse with ten teams signed up. Despite all this, the growth of community across our churches will always be our top priority. Come out and meet everybody! Mark off Thursday, October 20th for our first social of the season – place TBD!
Play hard. Laugh harder. Shine brighter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anthony Ma
Anthony loves playing and watching all sports and is a die-hard Vancouver Canucks fan. He lives on top of a home daycare with his wife Caitlin who you’ll hear from a little later. Being, or atleast feeling like one of the older guys at Pentasport, you might see him hobbling around for a few days after game day.
P.S. Tiffany Syyong, Caitlin Ma, and myself did end up making it to Ghana the next summer (in between Pentasport seasons of course) – Pastor Doug could not make it due to the arrival of baby Cohen:
