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Dylan
& Tom in South Africa
During
the summer of 2008, myself and Tom Hocking spent 2 weeks
in South Africa with an organisation called Christians in
Sport. Christians in Sport is a sports ministry which aims
to share the good news of Jesus Christ through sport.
We
began the tour in Cape Town, moving along the Garden Route
to George and on to Port Elizabeth. The tour party consisted
of players from Wales, England and Ireland and had the makings
of an early British & Irish Lions squad!
We
played 4 games during 10 days, against the Cape Buccaneers,
George U’23’s, The PE Crusaders (Where we played
on St Georges Park) and Despatch (The home of South African
legend centre Dannie Gerber). We ended the tour winning
the ‘series’ 3-1 with a last minute nail biting
win against Despatch 17-12. This was a fantastic feat considering
we had 2 training sessions together, the whole trip.
One
of the main reasons we were there was to get involved in
community work. Some of the community work took place in
local schools and ‘townships’. This was a really
humbling experience as the poverty among the people was
something you would only tend to see on TV. The townships
had a massive problem with Aids, which meant large percentages
of the ‘township’ , both young and old, had
very low life expectancy. During our time there, we helped
provide food parcels for families and run sports activities
for the kids.
It
is with the support of Ystrad Rhondda Rugby Club that we
were able make a difference on this trip through their sponsorship
and donation of kit. The kit will be distributed to the
township of Missionvale which will be a fantastic boost
for the people of the community.
Dylan
on Ystrad & Christianity
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