What do a horse trough, a worship band and a bunch of softball girls, parents and coaches all have in common?
The answer is “Church on the Ball Field.”
“Church on the Ball Field” is an event that the Flatland Fastpitch organization put on this past June at the OXY Complex, where softball girls, coaches and parents gathered together to worship and hear the Word of God before the All-Star Showdown softball tournament.
Leading the way, Flatland Fastpitch President Jacob Tucker ran the event and preached the sermon.
“It was really cool,” Tucker said. “You know, folks got out there and worshiped and we had the message and did baptisms, and then we played softball.”
To be exact, four girls were baptized and two of them were even baptized in their uniforms, showing the willingness to play the tournament in a wet uniform.
Those four girls also received Bible’s from Eric Ochoa, who runs Safe at Home, a softball and baseball training facility.
“It was really a cool opportunity,” Tucker said. “The Lord made a way, and it was good. Lives got changed and people got touched.”
Flatland Fastpitch purposely only misses one church day a year to provide everyone involved the opportunity to attend church.
But this year they didn’t have to miss anything because Flatland Fastpitch brought church to them. Girls were impacted for the Kingdom of the Lord and then they played in the All-Star Showdown Tournament right after.
Which is a model that Flatland Fastpitch plans to use moving forward.
“It would be really cool if we could offer that opportunity to do that at different tournaments,” Tucker said. “Whether it be tournaments in Lubbock or tournaments here. Whether it's tournaments that we run or somebody else runs.”
More lives could be reached moving forward with the possibility of “Church on the Ball Field” becoming a more frequent occurrence.
While there are no concrete plans for the future yet, be on the lookout because Tucker ensures its return, because “Church on the Ball Field” embodies how Flatland Fastpitch wants to function as an organization.
“We definitely want folks to know that with Flatland we're going to be bought into our community,” Tucker said. “Because service is what we've been asked to do. We've been asked to serve the Lord, love God and love people, and that's what we do.”
And “Church on the Ball Field” isn’t the only way they do that, they also take care of the needs of others.
Instead of taking money for their pitching and catching clinics, Flatland Fastpitch will sometimes request affordable groceries as payment, such as family sized boxes of oatmeal to donate to the local food pantry.
They also recently provided equipment for the newly established Ropes softball program so that they could host a camp.
Flatland Fastpitch sees needs and meets them, serving the community first.
“Every dime that comes into Flatland Fast Pitch, it goes right back out into the community,” Tucker said.
Whether it’s through “Church on the Ball Field,” donations or lowered costs, Flatland Fastpitch is setting a higher standard for the sports community by putting Christ and the needs of others first.