Philippians emerged champions of this year’s Nairobi Christian Church Olympics held at Nairobi City Stadium recently collecting a maximum of 78 points and were distantly followed by the Bereans teens and Bereans campus with 46 and 38 points respectively. Galatians amassed 35 points, Ephesians 33 points; Colossians had 28 points, Macedonians 23 points and Thessalonians 18 points.
The day started on a positive note with Evangelist Mike Odwallo sharing a message which prepared the Christians for the games. He emphasized on the need for physical training stating that physical training requires discipline which produces a fruitfulness of righteousness and peace. He challenged the congregation to be equally physically fit.
Frederick Odhiambo took the participants through aerobics and it was great to have a feel of the only Stadium in Kenya with the Fifa funded artificial turf. The level of fitness and lack of adequate preparation was evident in the track events as the competition took toll on the athletes with some lacking the final killer sprint towards the finishing line. For the UB40 & UB50 category Galatians topped with 38 points, closely followed by Macedonias with 32 points, Ephesians 16 points, Thessalonians 14 points. Philippians and Colossians were tied at the end with 10 points each.
There were some light moments during the tug of war between the married and single men when the rope could not sustain the pressure and gave way. This forced the organizers to trim the number of men to 8 on each side but it all ended in a draw.
The winners were presented with medals at a colourful ceremony during the Sunday service at the Umoja Sanctuary on the 16th of June. They received gold, silver and bronze respectively presented by the Lead Evangelist John Maleya while the winning teams received trophies and balls to help them keep up with their training. The other disciplines that got awarded were volleyball which went to Ephesians, Soccer to Philippians and Netball which went to Ephesians. The children also had their own service and activities before joining the rest of the team to bolster the cheering squads in their respective regions donning their respective teams’ dress code colours. It was great to see the young and old alike cheering their teams and enjoying fellowship as God’s Spirit was alive among the disciples.
