The Mustard Seed baseball team, also known as The Inner-City Sluggers, plays every year during the summer months in a community league with other church groups. Our summer intern Rachel Bushsdrucker wrote about her experience facilitating the baseball team for The Mustard Seed.
It’s been having an amazing summer with the The Inner City Sluggers. With eager participants coming out to the field each week, it has been a true joy for me to spend Tuesday nights with our enthusiastic team. The varying backgrounds and demographics that make up our team serve to enhance our unity and create a diverse dynamic. Some of our players are confident and bold, others are shy and reserved, and still others fall somewhere in the middle. It’s been incredible getting to know each player individually and seeing how their strengths meld together. The broad range of skills that we see out on the field is by no means a limitation – rather, it allows for an environment of constant learning. It is perhaps most rewarding to see the teammates coach one another, sharing their knowledge and skill set, while building each other up.
Watching community members come together to play, encourage, and support each other through sports has facilitated relationships that go beyond the baseball diamond. By providing a fun activity in a safe, accepting environment, new friendships are being formed weekly, and a sense of belonging emerges. I see these friendships lived out throughout the week, as many of our players visit the drop-in or enjoy an evening meal at the church and find themselves among other Sluggers daily.
I believe that The Inner City Sluggers represent more than just a group of people who find themselves together on Tuesdays to eat and hit a ball around – we are, rather, a team full of MVPs who see and experience the value of community and the importance of sharing life.
