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GoAIA.org AthletesInAction.org Toggle navigation Home About Who We Are History Vision & Mission Statement of Faith Board of Trustees Reports & Financials Logo & Branding Careers Employment Full-time Part-time Intern STINT AIA Institute Discover Media Pro Ministry Sports Complex & Retreat Center Wooden Family Fieldhouse More Resources AIA Gear Cru Contact Campus Opportunities Sports Teams Baseball Basketball Football Golf Soccer Softball Sports Performance Tennis Track Volleyball Wrestling Projects Boston Project East Asia Project Extreme Challenge Puerto Rico South Africa Project Urban Project - Los Angeles X Project Internship Partnership Countries Camps & Retreats Ultimate Training Camp College & High School Spring Break Winter Retreats Event Series Super Bowl Breakfast All Star Breakfast Legends Breakfast Night of Champions Give Opportunity Blog Team Blogs 10 Jul Welcome to the Urban Project – Los Angeles! Welcome to the blog for the Urban Project – Los Angeles (UP-LA). We invite you to visit this page daily to follow the events and course of the Urban Project. After their arrival on June 1st, students (and perhaps a few staff) will use the pages of this blog to share stories, updates, and write (or video!) about the events of the Urban Project from their various perspectives. We believe you’ll see the brilliance and leadership of this generation of student-athletes as they serve and experience and engage and learn from some of the marginalized communities in South Los Angeles. In addition to encouraging and teaching these phenomenal students to continue honoring and upholding the testimony of Jesus Christ in their athletic and personal lives, UP-LA staff and students together will tackle the concepts of culture, ethnicity, class, power, poverty, privilege, race, responsibility, and justice, as well as what the Gospel of Christ has to say about these ever-relevant and important issues. Again, bookmark this page and visit daily to keep up with what’s going on at Athletes in Action’s 2019 Urban Project – Los Angeles. Thanks for checking in. Feel free to share this link through your own social media accounts. 10 Jul Sports and fun at nickerson gardens On Saturday, students, staff, and friends of the Urban Project went to Nickerson Gardens to conduct sports clinics, a craft table, face painting, and then have lunch with the community. If I could describe the day, I would have to say it was a blessing. Nickerson Gardens is a housing development located in Watts area of Los Angeles, California. There are 156 buildings which add up to more than 1,000 units. It is the largest public housing development west of the Mississippi River. Nickerson is also said to be the birth place of the Bounty Hunter set of the Bloods, a well known gang. Being there gave me an opportunity to see, in a very small, limited way, what life in the projects could be like. Our day started with us preparing to arrive at the park. Teams were split up to do a different task in preparation for the day. One team helped with cooking and getting the food ready, another was in charge of arts and crafts, and another in charge of sports activities. Everything was decent and in order before arriving at Nickerson Gardens. When we got there, anticipation was in the air as the Project crew prepared the grounds to receive the kids of Nickerson Gardens. I was tasked with handing out flyers to community members to spread the word about the sports clinics. Basketball, volleyball, kickball, soccer, dance, and arts and crafts were offered to the kids. My station, kickball, was lively and fun! There was a group of kids who were so energetic and excited to launch the kickball as far as they could into the outfield. All of the kids were great, but one you man stood out to me. He was about to finish middle school, was there with his cousin, and both were excited to play kickball. The first thing I noticed about him was that he was not afraid to talk to people. He had just met us and was already so willing to have a conversation with me. He was very polite and it was fun getting to talk to him for the short time he was there. I pray for him and pray that he does is not limited by where he is from, and that he feels empowered to conquer the world and go after his dreams. The day was truly worthwhile because we got to see so many kids outside enjoying the sunshine and just playing. They enjoyed the lunch of hot dogs, chips, and an abundance of Kool-aid. The day ended with a game on the Nickerson Gardens basketball court. Usually the Project team would play a Nickerson Gardens team, but due to another community event, that did not happen. UP-LA ended up just playing each other, with one teammate from the community, but the competitiveness was certainly still there. I am glad I had the pleasure of serving a part of that community for a short amount of time. It gave me a chance to see and be a part of something greater than myself. I really discovered the power of listening to people speak about their experiences, especially kids. Kids need to be listened to and nurtured. I know this memory will be with me the rest of my life. Zoie Campbell University of Northern Colorado 10 Jul Estonia 2019: The Final Stretch in Tartu! Greetings once again from Tallinn. Our time as a team is Estonia is quickly drawing to a close. Just over two weeks ago we entered Estonia for the first time, now we are sad we have to leave so soon. We have seen God work in so many ways in our short two weeks in this beautiful country. We have been blessed to spend time with Estonian believers as well as form relationships with not-yet-Christians. Our last few days in Tartu were quite busy. As mentioned in the earlier blog we had a Bible and sports camp for kids ages 5 to 12 in the mornings for three days and we held a training clinic for distance runners and coaches during the evenings. The kids camp was very successful. We had about 40-50 children there each day. We would start our time with a song, in Estonian, so we attempted to sing along and do the hand motions which accompanied the song. After the song our group led a Bible story and skit. For the last two days we did the stories of David and Goliath and also the story of friends who brought the paralytic to Jesus. In both of these stories we were able to keep the kids entertained and able to present a Biblical truth to them. For some of them this might have been the first time they have ever heard a Bible story or about Jesus. After the Bible story we would go outside for some drills and games. Wednesday we were able to run relay races in the ruins of a cathedral. On Thursday we were trapped inside due to rain so we did the best we could and made stations of games for the kids to play. At the end of the week it was hard to say goodbye to the campers. In the afternoon each day we would try to catch our breath a bit before the training clinic began that evening. The training clinic in Tartu had less people attending it, but we held it in a cafe which was much more confined area which provided more opportunities for interaction. Also in Tartu many of those who attended were college aged, so that gave us younger team members many opportunities to interact with the athletes. On Thursday the spiritual aspect of training was covered as we did in Tallinn. So this provided us an opportunity to talk about how our faith in Christ gives us value and hope outside of our sport. Tiidrek finished the clinic by giving his testimony which was powerful for us Americans, but we pray it also resonated with the people from his own country. After a short hill workout people stayed and talked in the cafe until 11 PM, about two hours after the structured clinic was over. Pray that God would bless the conversations we had and that many seeds would grow from our time at the clinic and the camp. On Friday we had a much needed rest morning. Some of us ran with a new friend we met from the ...