Praying and Paintball

While paintball and Christ are not exactly synonymous with one another, I was lucky to experience both this past Saturday, March 13 in Rome, Georgia.

Six years ago, Kevin Bradberry and I started a scenario paintball team as a part of the men’s ministry in order to show that having tons of fun and being Christ-centered can be achieved. Also, what a great way to get out all that male aggression! While I have not been directly involved with the Renegade Ratels in about three years, Kevin has kept it going, and the team has grown from six individuals to about fifty, all as a result of his hard work.

Not only was it wonderful to be a part of the Renegade Ratels again, I was grateful that the game, called Flag Wars, was family friendly and Christ oriented. About 200 individuals came out, of all different ages. We all were able to pray together before we started shooting one another, and the referees patrolling the field made sure that anyone using vulgar language or not in keeping with the rules were swiftly taken out. The game lasted from 9am to about 5pm, and our team managed to bring 8 people, including Kevin’s dad and brother. All in all, we just had a really fantastic time.

And one more interesting thing happened, and that had to do with the Most Valuable player (MVP) medal, awarded to one member of each team, in this case Red and White, at the end of the game. The generals on each side chose a player on their side to receive this medal. The referees too patrolled the field to observe how the players interact with one another, and if one from each team showed great sportsman-like conduct.These two players were voted on by the refs. Well, I could not believe my ears when they called my name. I was awarded the sportsmanship award and even though our team had been awarded with most valuable team twice before, it was a great surprise to be shown that individually I was great on the field. Honestly, I see it as a credit to the entire team-without them, I would never have received anything. Julie was also thrilled, since it seemed to justify me spending 100 dollars to get out there!

Truthfully I had no idea how they chose me or singled me out of over 200 other ‘masked’ players. Hmmm, isn’t this how a Christian should be? Impacting others around us without even knowing? Then at the end of the day being recognized by Christ as doing what it takes to Glorify Him, not that this is the goal of a Christian to be recognized, quite frankly, just go about being what Christ wants you to be or do and impacting those around you on the spiritual ‘battlefield’…

Christ can be truly present in everything, even paintball!