It has been such a blessing to working for Eagles Wings Disc
Golf over the past few months. It always feels good to be doing work that feels
directly related to the ministry over doing personal support raising. I have
rather enjoyed writing curriculum for the programs we are running across the
country. But with limited time and so many ways to help the ministry, my time
actually running program has been limited. This is part of the reason why a
chance to go to a disc golf tournament and actually run program is a
Every year Eagles Wings Disc Golf picks one or two big
tournaments to go to as a team. These are times where we get to be together as
a staff and to run program together. It is always a blessing to be with the
team. This year we all decided to show up at the Glass Blown Open in Emporia,
KS. This tournament has become one of the biggest tournaments of the year with
over 1,100 disc golfers signed up to play in the tournament and many more that
come to be part of the festivities. This provides an amazing opportunity to
make an impact in the community that we all love.
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| The clinic with Emporia Baptist Church |
The Sunday before the tournament began we were able to
partner with the local Baptist church to run a disc golf clinic. The church
helped us spread the word and we ended up with a good turnout of young and old from
the local community who were interested in trying disc golf out for the first
time. Everyone had a great time, but there was one young boy who threw an
approach shot into the basket from about 100 feet away and appeared to be on
top of the world. We hope that all of the people at this clinic we blessed
during the time and continue to play and get involved with community at the
Baptist church or one of the other great local churches.
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| Building a temporary bridge. |
In preparation for the Junior Challenge event to be run
after the main Glass Blown Open, we as a team at Eagles Wings prepped the
course and the local middle school. We picked up trash, painted lines for out
of bounds and marked tee pads. We also did a little bit of yard maintenance on
some over grown trees and rebuilt a temporary bridge over a little stream that
runs through the course. The course looked great for the kids who were so
excited to play.
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| The announcement of the Eagles Wings Chapel |
After the players meeting on Wednesday night we also
partnered with a local Presbyterian church to host a chapel service. We also
partnered with a group from a camp in Colorado who came to the tournament to
volunteer. We had a speaker and musicians from the camp who were part of the
service and helped us connect many of the Christians who came to this year’s
Glass Blown Open. We had a great turnout for the chapel service. There were
many old friends who had been to one of our chapels before and many new friends
who we met there. It was super encouraging for everyone.
I was blessed to play in the tournament and watch many of
the people who attended our Chapel service play really well. I always have fun
play and meeting new people on the course. We had really good weather until
Saturday when the final round of the tournament we canceled due to excessive
rain and lightning. The weather was such that we almost missed out on the
opportunity to be part of the end of tournament celebration which had to be
moved indoors. But we were still able to be present and share with others from
the tournament what Eagles Wings is up to.
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| Glass Blown Open Junior Challenge |
While I did not personally get to be part of the Junior Challenge, Eagles Wings had a big presence at the event. Despite moving half of the festivities inside because of the weather we had three staff from Eagles Wings there helping out. I heard there were plenty of smiles to go around and that Eagles Wings might be invited back to help out with future youth events in Emporia, KS.
