The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

AS they anticipate 2014 as a year of great growth and achievement for sports in the Bahamas, the Bahamas Olympic Committee looks to give thanks and showcase the religious aspect of all athletes in the country.

The BOC is scheduled to host a service of thanksgiving at New Covenant Baptist Church on January 26.

BOC president Wellington Miller said that all athletes in the Bahamas are invited to attend to give thanks for a successful 2013 and look ahead to further development this year.

“This is indeed an historic day for the BOC as we prepare to host a thanksgiving service for athletes. Everybody has their thanksgiving service at the beginning of the year, uniformed officers, the judicial system and we figured we need God’s grace too. We will have a praise and worship service to give God thanks for his many blessings upon sports. We have invited all the schools and their sports programmes.

“We have invited all the sporting organisations to come forward and give praise on that day. We are looking at all sports, competition sports, mind sports and recreational sports, once you take part in sports we believe you should be there and be a part of that,” he said.

“Athletes pray a lot. You see them on the field of play all the time with their lips moving or you can look at them and see them giving God thanks. Athletes are very spiritual and they know of God’s grace to them, we just want to pray with them and for them.”

Trajean Jadorett, senior pastor at New Covenant Baptist, applauded the BOC for their representation of the Bahamas and foresight to put God first as they head into a new sporting year.

“The BOC is an organisation I believe has been run in the last couple years with surgeon-sturdy hands. The integrity is beyond reproach. The level of excellence this committee has shown to the world must have made the Bahamas proud,” he said. “Whenever we are embarking on any endeavour, I believe we should put God first and this is exactly what is being done. We are putting God first so that God can speak to and through us that we might again say something to the nation that would help us look at things in a more profound way in the sporting arena. This organisation deserves a load of gratitude from the Bahamas for the kind of work they have done.”

BOC vice president Joseph Smith said it will give the public an opportunity to showcase an often overlooked side of an athlete’s character.

“We saw it fitting to showcase the other side of the athlete. In most cases persons at large, all they see is an athlete playing a sport or they think they just play games and go home and their is no spirituality to that athlete. We want to show them that their is another side, there is a spiritual side,” he said.

“We are looking for every sporting entity. There are Christians in every sport in this Bahamaland. We see it when we go to different venues and it is incorporated in everything that they do. We saw is fitting that we come together as a nation, nation-building. We know there is crime occurring at a very high rate in this country and if we can get athletes to understand that if other persons can see them filled with God, then who knows, this can go a mighty long way. This is a very important year for sports. We have CAC and a lot of events we will go to this year and the BOC, we are doing our part in piggybacking with the government, piggybacking with the athletes to let them know that we are here to serve God.”