Big Dreams

  

19-year-old Indian Maitri Patel is an ideal role model for millions of girls because she has reached her goal and the dream of her life. Ever since she saw her first airplane at age 8, she has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Now Maitri has got a commercial pilot’s license, after completing her flight training in a record time of 11 months. She has become India’s youngest commercial pilot.

Maitri wanted to become a pilot since childhood and after completing her class XII education from Metas Adventist School, Surat, Gujarat, Maitri went to the United States to complete her pilot training program. Maitri's father Kantilal Patel is a farmer and her mother works in health care. Instead of saving for her wedding, as is often usual in India, Patel’s father invested in her education. He sold a piece of his ancestral land to pay for the flight training course fees

Metas Adventist School is an English-language Seventh-day Adventist school that has served Surat since 1942. Its mission is “To touch the lives and to transform people by teaching, by healing and by creating a better community for man and God."[1]

I never wanted to become a pilot, but since I like to travel, and in my youth jobs as flight attendants still seemed somehow exotic, I would have liked to become a stewardess. But that was out of the question because I would certainly have had problems with the working hours. So I crossed off from my list of desirable professions all those in which it would have been difficult to keep the Sabbath. If Maitri had shared these convictions, she would never have become a pilot. But then, she probably wasn't an Adventist girl.

Although I am by no means athletically gifted myself, I have always been interested in sports, especially tennis and track and field. With my background, I never questioned how difficult it would be to make athletic dreams come true and to achieve peak performance while keeping the Sabbath. I have never heard of tennis players who share my beliefs.

But then, are we not convinced that exercise and sports are good and healthy. Since our health message is not only based on the factor of food, but we also consider further seven principles to be good for our health,  should it not be a matter of course that we let our children train in sports clubs. And that's where the problem comes in: games and competitions usually take place on Saturdays. There again a conflict arises. As Adventists, we are often so cut off from the rest of society that we prefer not to be active in sports clubs at all.

The easy answer is, of course,  the example of Brazilian soccer goalkeeper Carlos Vítor da Costa Ressurreição, who turned down a contract with the Chapecoense soccer team because he wanted to keep the Sabbath. This decision probably saved his life because he was not on the team at the plane crash in Medellín on November 29, 2016, that killed 71 of the 77 people on board. The team was on its way to the Copa Sudamericana finals. Ressurreição had rejected the contract with Serie A team Chapecoense because the latter was not willing to include a clause that would exempt him from training and playing on Saturdays. Ressurreição received a new contract from his old club Paraná Soccer Technical Center Club that allowed him to keep his belief in observing the Sabbath on Saturdays. This is a wonderful experience.

The story of Usain Bolt is also interesting. He grew up in the Adventist church in Jamaica. However, he never became a member. Perhaps it was also because then he would not have been able to participate in most competitions. His mother was always supportive of him, though. Nick Ripatrazone wrote on July 27, 2017[2] :

"Usain Bolt is the greatest Catholic track and field athlete in the world. He holds the world records in the 100 and 200 meters. He has won eight Olympic gold medals. He has become a living legend in a track and field discipline known for producing superstars. His pre- and post-race rituals are purely Catholic, yet the faith of one of the world's most talked-about athletes is an open secret.

Born and raised in Sherwood Content, Jamaica, Bolt grew up in a Seventh-day Adventist home. Although he attended a Seventh-day Adventist church in his youth, he did not become a member as an adult. As a Catholic, he has adopted the middle name of St. Leo. He has spoken about praying the nights before his meetings. In interviews, he speaks openly about his faith in God. The Vatican even invited Bolt to speak at the Via della Conciliazione TEDx conference on religious freedom in 2013."

In the Olympic track and field competitions, Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah caused the first sensation when she won the women's 100-meter sprint on Saturday (July 31, 2021). She won gold medals for Jamaica in the 100m, 200m, and the 4x100m relay. She is also the first woman to win consecutive gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters at the Summer Games. [3]

Among those who supported Thompson-Herah in her home country was her Adventist grandmother, Hycenth "Gloria" Thompson, who has raised her granddaughter since she was seven months old. She was sure that her granddaughter would win with God's help and also cheered her on loudly.

Beatie Deutsch is an Orthodox Jewish marathon runner from Israel who also qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. She wears a headscarf, long-sleeved T-shirt, long pants, and knee-length skirt, even when she runs in the greatest heat. At 31, the mother of 5 is the Israeli champion. She also wanted to run in Japan - but not on Shabbat. So Deutsch applied to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Athletics Federation to move the women's marathon up a day to Friday, August 6. Their request was rejected for the reason: "Unfortunately, we are not in a position to adapt the schedule to the special situation of each individual athlete."  Deutsch makes a point of not just fighting for herself and her cause. Rather, she wants to set an example for religious athletes around the world. "I think sometimes religious teenagers feel like, 'I can't go to sports.'" That faith is not an obstacle, however, is her message. "I just want to give hope and inspiration to people like that."[4]   As she runs, she listens to sections of the Torah; before each workout, she says the morning blessing. Six days a week, she gets up at five in the morning and runs. Until eight-thirty, she's on the streets and paths of Har Nof in Jerusalem. "Where some see an Orthodox runner, I see my faith driving me," she says in her sponsor's advertisement.

Does faith keep us from realizing our dreams and achieving excellence? Is Beatie Deutsch right when she says that many religious young people have been taught that sports and faith are incompatible? It is interesting, isn't it, that the Adventist media always pick it up when a man like Usain Bolt or a woman like Elaine Thompson-Herah make headlines. Their Adventist connections are proudly highlighted. But have we considered that we would not have enabled them to live and excel within our belief system as Adventists?

 

 

 

Foto Lokmat Indiatimes

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[1] https://www.indiatimes.com/trending/human-interest/farmers-daughter-becomes-indias-youngest-commercial-pilot-549331.html

[2] https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2017/07/27/usain-bolt-greatest-catholic-athlete-world

[3] https://tokio.sportschau.de/tokio2020/nachrichten/Thompson-Herah-sprintet-ueber-100-Meter-zu-Olympia-Gold,olympia9082.html

[4] https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/israel/ich-bin-eben-ein-bisschen-extrem/