An article in a local newspaper was written about one of our CSO Network churches, Istrouma Bapt
ist Church in Baton Rouge, LA. The sports ministry there is led by M.L. Woodruff. Below is an excerpt:
Mylec Payne, 7, took a mighty swing with his bat and hit the ball so hard the T-ball stand tipped over.
“Way to go,” cheered Thomas Myers, a Runnels High School baseball player who was showing Payne and several dozen other area children how to correctly swing a baseball bat at the Howell Park field Sunday afternoon.
Payne and Myers were just two of nearly 1,000 area children, athletes and volunteers who teamed up for Operation First Base, a free, parishwide baseball clinic held at six BREC parks and at Istrouma Baptist Church’s two fields.
The event had several purposes, said M.L. Woodruff, legendary former Parkview Baptist School baseball coach and now Sports Outreach director for Istrouma Baptist.
One purpose was to provide the children, ages 6-14, an introduction to baseball that is not available to many of them. They also wanted to provide an athletic outlet for kids other than what is now available to them on the streets.
“We want to use the sport of baseball to present the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Woodruff said. “We’re playing baseball in areas of Baton Rouge that don’t have baseball anymore. Baseball has become an elite sport, and many kids just can’t afford it.”
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