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Note #7926 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Intentional walk
03380
September 9, 2003

Intentional walk

Injury prompts youngster to strike out in a new direction

By Jerry L. Van Marter

GENEVA - An injury that dashed his dream of playing major-league baseball may
have been the best thing that ever happened to Andrew Black.

A back injury in the spring of 2000 benched the promising student-athlete at
Presbyterian Church (USA)-related Eckerd College in Florida.

"But it opened up a whole new door that changed my life," the personable
23-year-old said during a break in the recent meeting of the central
committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

Black was one of 32 young Christians from around the world who served as WCC
stewards during the Aug. 26-Sept. 2 meeting here.

Sidelined by the injury, Black was available to be recruited by the Eckerd
chaplain, Mona Bagasao, for an Americorps program that employs athletes as
tutor/mentors for inner city kids.

Black said a U.S. government study had shown that athletes rank behind only
parents and teachers as role models for children. "Unfortunately, too many of
the models are negative," he said.

In a Sept. 2 interview, Black said the Americorps experience was an
eye-opener.

"Working with these kids, most of whom were minority students, enabled me to
witness the disparities in American society that are just plain wrong," he
said. "I decided to go into civil-rights law to help change the system that
is just so unfair to so many kids."

After putting in 900 hours in each of his two years in the program and
graduating with honors from Eckerd in 2002, Black was accepted into the
School of Law at the University of North Carolina.

Once again, however, things didn't go according to plan: Because of health
problems his mother was having, and his own spiritual struggle, Black decided
to take a year off after his first year of law school.

"It's always been a struggle, choosing between law school and divinity
school," he noted.

Bagasao, who knew Black was uncertain about what to do next, offered him a
job as her assistant at Eckerd. Black accepted, with the encouragement of his
father, a federal judge and active Presbyterian, after UNC granted him a
leave of absence.

"It was a big decision, but in the end it wasn't hard to make," Black said.

At Eckerd, he will take a leadership role in worship and service - preaching,
leading student mission trips and organizing community activities such as
AIDS-awareness week.

He also has agreed to work with other the North American WCC stewards to plan
and host an ecumenical gathering of young adults to address issues related to
economic globalization.

"This has been such an incredible experience," Black said of his two weeks in
the WCC stewards' program. "Learning from Christians from places like Ghana
and Pakistan has shown me how much Americans take for granted. I want to ...
help others find ways to be involved and engaged in these issues."

He said his time in Geneva also gave him "a renewed sense of hope," despite
his sense that "so many American youth are disillusioned and dropping out."

"But here I've met youth from elsewhere who genuinely care, will not be
deterred and are working hard to make their communities and the world better
and more just," he said.

He said he may well wind up in law school ... and then seminary.

"I'm looking at both," he said. "Law is ministry - it's about justice,
righteousness, integrity, and genuinely helping people." By blending the two
callings, he said, "I'll have the opportunity to change policy and impact
individuals - which is the best of all."

(Note: Web version of this story contains a picture. You may view the story
by visiting http://pcusa.org/pcnews/03380.htm)

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