One-hundred-and-eighty!

If you’ve never watched darts, let me tell you that you're really missing something. Pretty much a bunch of guys in bowling shirts and beer bellies throwing little sharp things at a round board while a man in a tuxedo stands by and loudly announces their running score. (If you have ever heard the announcer scream “Goooooooaaaaaaaallllllll” during a Spanish-speaking soccer match, imagine the same announcer pronouncing the title of this article.)

But some of the best darts players in the world are Dutch. Barney (no not the big, purple dinosaur – am I glad I escaped him over here!) WAS the world champion four years in a row. This was to be the record-breaking year. But he was beat but a young whipper-snapper. Jelle is also a Dutchman. So darts have become, for the moment, even bigger than usual in the Netherlands (where Dutchmen come from). Stephan and Sean were already interested, since they got to throw sharp things at the wall (granted, there was a board on the wall). But this made it all the better. I even went out and bought a set of darts.

And I found out that this sport is good for all sorts of things. In Great Britain, where they hold the world championship, they used it to encourage young people to learn their ‘maths’ (that’s mathematics for the Americans). You have to be able to count down from 501 using the amount of the spots you hit on the board. And you have to go out on a double. Quick, how do you throw out when you have 51 left? (try 11 and double 20, or 15 and double 18 or any other combination).

For me it has just been another fun frustration. We try to go from 20 down to the bullseye, in order. It has certainly shown me the true meaning of ‘missing the mark’. As good as Jelle and Barney are, they still mess up all the time. Makes you appreciate grace all the more. Jesus Christ is the one who makes it possible. One-hundred-and-eighty!