The Sahelian

What do you get when you combine approximately 80 kids, aged 5 – 18, smiling faces, proud parents, lots of sun, (and incidentally lots of suncsreen), a running track, a shot put, a high jump, a long jump and various other sports equipment? You get Sahel Academy’s Annual Track and Field Day. In tribute to the 2008 Olympics, this year’s event was called Sahel Academy Games.

This eventful day took place on Friday, November 21^st at the National Stadium in Niamey, Niger. All of the students had been divided into teams and selected a leader. The teams worked together to create a ‘country’ name, a song/cheer, a banner and a flag. All of these were judged and scores added to their total points.

The day’s activities began with each team performing their cheer and all in attendance saw and heard enthusiastic performances from Team Tanjawak, Team Sparta, Team Pantheropolis and Team Kaspia.

The entire student body was divided into teams, each of the 4 teams consisting of kids from kindergarten to grade 12. Each team member competed against his/her own grade level, gaining points for their respective teams. They received points for winning and points for participating.

Compete comes from Latin and means ‘to come together, to agree, to be suitable; to strive consciously or unconsciously for an objective’. If one were to observe the dynamics of Sahel students on their track and field day, this is exactly what one would have seen. In fact, I think this particular dictionary definition for ‘competition’ could be replaced with the following words: ‘Sahel Academy students’.

One of the missions of Sahel Academy is to ‘demonstrate Christ-like character’. What better way for this to be tested than through good old competition? I am happy to report that even a casual observer could see that these students passed the test with flying colors. They definitely ‘came-together’, most of them consciously striving for victory as their objective - but not at the expense of a fellow ‘Sahel-ite’. No matter what their age or what team they were on, everyone was cheered for in a big way. If someone was struggling, you could be sure you would see someone in the same race stop and inquire if help was needed. I saw this with my own eyes!

During one of the races I observed the following: One of the older students (who shall remain nameless) had gathered together the younger students on her team to cheer for a particular race in which someone not on her team was running. For the sake of anonymity, I’ll call the runner ‘Bob’. The kiddos were on the sidelines shouting, “Go Bob, Go!” They were jumping up and down wildly, encouraging ‘Bob’ with all of their hearts. I was enjoying watching them so much that I’m not even sure who won. When the race was over, one of the cheering tykes stopped jumping up and down and turned innocently to ‘Nameless’ and said in a very matter of fact way, “Who was Bob?” It was classic. They were all about encouraging whoever they could. It didn’t even matter who it was.

Sahel Academy is a Christian School, founded on Christian principles so with that in mind I’m going to take the liberty to make a biblical correlation. Track and Field Day is about competing for a prize – working together as a team to gather the most points to win. The Apostle Paul compares our Christian walk to a race too – reaching for the goal of the upward call. The Message translation says it like this. “So let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision—You’ll see it yet! Now that we’re on the right track, let’s stay on it.” Phil 3:14

So…running races and striving to win should be a great reminder to us to run for the prize that really matters. Let’s ‘stay on the right track’! ~Danette Childs