I’ve got game

I’ve been a sportsman all my life. I still have the first ribbons I ever won, in grade one in 1936. Playing sports in a Mennonite family wasn’t an easy road. I had many hurdles to jump, even when not competing. Back then, most parents couldn’t really understand what sports was all about and what a terrific venue it was to build Christian character.

Jake Suderman playing hockey, circa 1938.

During the first five decades of my life, sports on Sunday wasn’t a problem because nobody played league games on that day. However, the last two-and-a-half decades haven’t been so simple. Not only did I play tournament tennis on Sunday, sometimes I had to play on Sunday morning. So the dichotomy started.

In the beginning, I was successful in postponing my matches to the afternoon. Then I started to play tournaments in different cities and didn’t have the same clout. So, I played on Sunday whenever I was scheduled. Tennis was the reason I was there.

As I became a better player and well-known across the West, I got involved in other aspects of running a tournament. What a privilege it was to be the emcee and not tell off-colour jokes. The lunches I had with other players gave me the opportunity to discuss fair play. I now play tennis on Sunday and don’t make a big deal out of it.

Does God give us all the gifts we have, or do some come from Satan?

I’m assuming that Cindy Klassen’s gift to skate is from the Lord. I’m good at sports. Give me the rules, and I’ll give you a good game. Just don’t ask me to sing!

My wife has always been a very good singer and won many awards in singing competitions as a teenager. Her dad would drive her 75 miles into Winnipeg for lessons, even in the winter when cars were unheated and windshields froze over, requiring perpetual scraping. What did people say? “What a gift from God and what dedication from her parents. A real gift to the church!”

Would people have said the same thing if my father spent hours driving me to Winnipeg so I could take a tennis lesson?

When I was 18, my church needed a youth leader. What gifts do you need to work with teenagers and young people in their 20s? The church didn’t ask my wife; they asked me. I had to do more than just sing with them, or they all would have left.

Since my retirement in 1989, tennis is my main mission field. How many retired people actually have unsaved friends they can be a witness to?

I believe all gifts come from God, even the gift of being good at sports. The body is made up of many parts, as are the gifts that God has given to witness to the world.

It all depends on how we use them and for what purpose.

Jake Suderman lives in Winnipeg and attends Portage Avenue Church. In 1996, he won the first Canadian senior games in tennis doubles.