3rd Annual Clayton Kershaw Baseball Camp

Last month, we were blessed to host the 3^rd Annual Clayton Kershaw’s baseball camp at the Mercy Street Field of Dreams.  Clayton and Ellen Kershaw’s foundation, Kershaw’s Challenge is a “Christ-centered, others-focused organization that exists to encourage people to use whatever God-given passion, purpose or talent they have been given to make a difference and give back to others in need.” Kershaw’s Challenge has been a generous supporter of our baseball program by donating baseball gloves and hosting an annual baseball camp for West Dallas youth. 

This year, we had amazing weather and over 200 excited kids participate in the camp. It was an honor to once again have the 2014 National League Cy Young award winner and Most Valuable Player teaching and loving on our kids. The goal of the camp is to expose our kids to professional and collegiate baseball training as well as offer them and their families the hope of the Gospel.  

For the third year, the Dallas Baptist University (DBU) baseball team and coaching staff have offered baseball and character instruction throughout the camp. The year, we also partnered with Camp Gladiator who ran a baseball themed fitness and agility training station. Easton baseball provided several bats that our campers were able to use. Volunteers were provided by the Pro Players Foundation, Mercy Street Church, Pro Source baseball, the National Charity League Heart of Dallas Chapter and the Southern Methodist University Community Engagement & Leadership Center. Lunch for participants and their families was provided by Kiolbassa Sausage and the Pro Players Foundation. Active Faith Sports provided wrist bands for every camp participant.  We are extremely grateful for all of those who contributed to making the camp a huge success.  Versa Printing provided the signs and promotional material for the camp.

 

Clayton’s number 22 jersey was retired in honor of his character and the generous support that Kershaw’s Challenge has extended to Mercy Street over the years.  Clayton and a DBU baseball player shared how their faith in Christ has radically shaped their life.  Pastor Jerry Wagner of Mercy Street Church offered the hope of the Gospel and several kids acknowledged their acceptance of this transformative message.  Campers left the Mercy Street Field of Dreams encouraged with an autographed Clayton Kershaw baseball card. Mercy Street sports hopes to use the momentum of the camp to get coaches and players excited about the upcoming spring baseball season which gets kicked off after the first of the year. 

If you are interested in coaching with Mercy Street, please contact Lee@MercyStreetDallas.org. For more information on the Mercy Street baseball program, please visit www.MercyStreetDallas.org/baseball .

Welcome to Our Table

     With thousands of non-profits in North Texas and fundraiser luncheons trending, one could begin to live off them if they needed. On Monday you could enjoy a meal at the Anatole, Tuesday the Hyatt and so on, leaving little need to pack your brown bag anymore.  Just this past week Mercy Street held their annual fall fundraiser luncheon.  But, I sensed it would be a bit different when the Mercy Street team kept saying it was being held, "at the black building next to the bridge."  

     The old abandoned bus warehouse at the foot of the pristine white Calatrava bridge proved to provide the perfect setting for what would be an hour sure to disorient anyone.  Often headlines and newscasts can paint West Dallas as a place to avoid or at least as a place you are sure to confirm you actually did lock your car and hide any belongings.  But, as we pulled up to this warehouse, teenagers (or "leaders" as Mercy Street likes to call them) from the community swarmed us with a warm respectful greeting that told me my stereotypes would have to stay in the car for the afternoon.  

     Our table setting was elegant, feeling like the Anatole, but apparently somehow handmade by the Mercy Street team.  To further disorient me and my luncheon expectations, Mercy Street had selected a keynote speaker few of the guests had ever heard of.  Melissa Hill, wife of Mercy Street's founder, has never written a book or won a championship, but what she would share would quickly help the guests see why she was selected as the keynote.  

     Melissa and her husband helped make sense of why Mercy Street's luncheon was such a set of contrasts.  11 years ago Mercy Street was conceived as a contrast when the Hill family chose to move from the side of town everyone wants to live to the side most people avoid.  Melissa spoke of how God had deeply impressed on them that West Dallas was a place of beauty.  In the abandoned warehouses and low-performing schools and fatherless homes there was beauty to be discovered and celebrated.  

     This substantial non-profit (now 24 staff, 350 volunteers and $2 million budget) finds its underpinnings in this belief, that God wants to spark community restoration as his people engage in mutually transforming relationships with its future leaders.  The way the Hills open their home to the neighborhood has clearly become beautifully ingrained into what today is a non-profit with a love affair for their neighbors.