Swimming lessons.
Posted by Andrew
This is continued from the previous article.
Romark was part of the children’s camp I was helping with. He and 19 other boys would come to a farm a little way out of town each day and there we had our camp. I was Romark’s small group leader. That meant throughout the day, whether we were playing soccer, doing work duties, discussing the lesson, just hanging out or swimming, Romark was with me. It was that last one, swimming, which bonded us together the most.
Swimming was a big drawcard for the boys. The town swimming pool was a fair walk from the community in which they lived, and I’m not sure they could always afford the entry fee and the pool at the farm we were at was always a hit. At the mention of swimming, the boys in my group quickly got changed, showered of and ran to the pool gate where they would wait for me. I guess Romark did the same, I didn’t notice. What I did notice is once we reached the pool and I allowed the boys to jump in (and boy did they jump in), Romark was left standing by the side, possibly shivering.
Now at this point, I have to admit, I had jumped in and was already playing with the other boys by the time I noticed. Romark seemed to be shivering, as I mentioned, and that didn’t add up – it was a barmy thirty-something (that’s mid-to-high eighties for those of you stuck in Fahrenheit) and despite his slight physique, I was sure that Romark could not be cold. I asked one of the kids that was helping us with translation to ask what was wrong. She said that Romark couldn’t swim – in fact he was afraid of water.
That threw me. I live in a land of swimming pools and coastal cities. You learn to swim around about the time you learn to walk. I honestly cannot remember a time when I could not swim, so the idea that a seven year old boy couldn’t swim was definitely something I had to get my head around. Having done that, I decided that I wanted to fix that. I didn’t really know how. I had no recollection of learning how to swim, so I couldn’t rely on that. I decided getting him in the water was a start. I told him that if he wanted, he could hold onto me and we would go in the pool, and that he would be safe with me. Romark, after some convincing, agreed.
Romark
The result was comical indeed. A tiny coloured kid clinging to the neck of a lanky, very white, Sydney kid wading through a pool whilst several other splashed and played around them. He was shaking, even as he clung to me and as I walked through the pool, I kept repeating to him “I’ve got you, you’re okay, I’ve got you.” I’m not sure how much he understood, or how much it changed things, but at least it seemed to help. From there, over the next weeks, I managed to get Romark to loosen his grip a little, then to let me hold him while he kicked and even to jump and splash his way over to me a couple of times. By the end of our time, Romark would happily enter the pool on his own. He wasn’t swimming much, and stuck mostly to the shallow end, but it was a victory for me.
Now I didn’t write this story to blow my own trumpet. I’m not a swimming instructor. I’m sure plenty of people could have done a much better job than I in getting Romark comfortable in the water. The reason I’m writing is because the moment impacted me. This kid, who has been through a lot, there’s no question of that, decided that I was trustworthy enough that he would cling to me in an environment which he saw as hostile. I had the chance to do something for this kid that most fathers do for their children. To me that’s something special.
People give Christianity a lot of flack as a religion. I know, I just spent two and a half months on outreach, trying to effectively get across the message of my faith. People label the Christian faith as a lot of things, and I’m not about to deal with all of them here. What I do say however, is that my understanding of the Christian faith is that it is based around a loving father. I’m not going to quote scripture at you, or even say any more than that, but I believe when I carried Romark around that pool, I had a chance to show him a little slice of God’s love for him.
Articles Feed 