Page 73 - October Sun Rays_Oct 2015
P. 73

Making a                                                                                                            Ken and Mary Lou Stubert at home in
Difference                                                                                                          Sun City Texas with the flag of the Ba-
                                                                                                                    hamas and baseball equipment they’ve
                                                                                                                    collected for an island Little League
                                                                                                                    program. Sun City residents, includ-
                                                                                                                    ing the Sun City Softball Club, and
                                                                                                                    Georgetown businesses have donated
                                                                                                                    baseball equpment for the sports pro-
                                                                                                                    gram, which serves a poor community.

                                                                                             PHOTO BY SHERRY MCRAE  when they could. It wasn’t until 2010
                                                                                                                    that God answered Ken’s prayer about
Ken and Mary Lou Stubert                                                                                            how he could use his love of baseball for
serve others through baseball                                                                                       a greater good.

           By Sandy Nielsen               baseball in a poor community on Grand                                     The Stuberts began making pre-
                                          Bahama Island represent prayers                                           retirement trips to Grand Bahama
Just beyond the baseball left field       answered.                                                                 Island, located in the Caribbean about
      fence, the beautiful turquoise                                                                                50 miles off the coast of Southeast
      waters of the Bahamas beckon to     Ken, inspired by his pastor in New                                        Florida. There they became involved
tourists. But turn back to the no-frills  Hampshire where the couple then lived,                                    helping locals rehabilitate the homes
community baseball diamond and you’ll     had prayed for more than a decade                                         of poor island families. A typical home
see a rough field, a rudimentary dugout   that his passion for baseball could                                       would be about 400 square feet, made of
and Little League players who usually     somehow be used to serve God. He and                                      rotting wood and salvage materials, with
share gloves and run bases in flip flops  Mary Lou worked hard at their jobs,                                       no running water and three generations
because they can’t afford shoes.          volunteered for mission trips to Ecuador                                  of a family living there together.
                                          and Mississippi for Hurricane Katrina
For Sun City Texas residents Ken and      relief, and vacationed in the Bahamas                                     Ken remembers building bunk beds for
Mary Lou Stubert, the children playing                                                                              four children in a room so small there
                                                                                                                    was no space even to walk between the
ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG                                                                                                 beds, and the children had to climb into
                                                                                                                    the beds from the doorway. It melted his
                                                                                                                    heart when the children were overjoyed
                                                                                                                    to get the beds. Besides more comfortable
                                                                                                                    bedding, the beds also meant the
                                                                                                                    children each had a space to claim for
                                                                                                                    their own. Previously, they had all slept
                                                                                                                    together on the floor.

                                                                                                                    The Stuberts retired and obtained a
                                                                                                                    home on Grand Bahama Island — a
                                                                                                                    condo in Lucaya near Freeport that
                                                                                                                    they had once thought they would never
                                                                                                                    be able to afford. While visiting their
                                                                                                                    island home in 2010, they encountered
                                                                                                                    the Young Men’s Training Association,
                                                                                                                    a community organization that had
                                                                                                                    an unused baseball field. When Ken
                                                                                                                    asked about plans for the field, the
                                                                                                                    association director said he wanted a
                                                                                                                    children’s baseball program for the area’s
                                                                                                                    poor community but had no funds, no
                                                                                                                    equipment and no coaches. Baseball, like
                                                                                                                    other sports, is not only fun for children
                                                                                                                    but also has a positive effect on child

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