Basketball Awards and Eternal Rewards

Since my husband and I are both under average in height, we have short offspring.  So, for the past two years when I have registered our daughter for Upward basketball, I have asked myself, "Why am I signing her up for basketball when she is built more like a gymnast than a basketball player?"  As a parent with a fixed number of hours in each day, I know it is important to choose our kids' extracurricular activities wisely, according to their unique gifts and talents.

This year, our son turned five just in time to meet the minimum age requirement, so we signed him up for basketball, too.   If the schedule remained the same as last year, then our kids would be playing games at the same time on opposite sides of the gymnasium.  Since my husband already has special one-on-one time with our daughter through Y-Princesses, he signed up to help coach our son's team so they could have something special to do together.

When the season schedule was finally released, we discovered that the kids' practices and games would be at different times on different days.  So again I asked myself, "Why did we just commit to an extracurricular activity that consumes up to four nights a week when we our family schedule is already way over-booked?"  The sense of panic I felt at that moment was similar to other moments of dread I have experienced right before God was about to do something really big!  So we pressed on, confident that God was all over this Upward program, and we wanted to be in the middle of God's amazing work.

Our daughter could not have asked for better coaches or a more nurturing team.  She progressed tremendously in her basketball skills, learned more about teamwork, gained confidence, and made some new friends.

She refused to let her height disadvantage hold her back!

She also learned to line dance.

Our son's team finished the season with only one win out of eight games.  It was really hard for the coaches to watch these young boys and girls struggle so much.  Yet, they were the youngest team, and at that age, learning to pay attention, walk, and dribble without falling is about the most a coach can reasonably hope for the team to achieve.  Our son is not competitive like his sister, well except when he is competing against his sister, and did not seem to mind losing those games as long as there were yummy treats after the game.  He repeatedly said, "It's not about whether you win or lose, but it's all about learning about Jesus and having some fun."

Lil Flash

I'm still in awe at the way God has grown this Upward program.  The program is hosted by a small country church with very large vision.  A few years ago, the church built a massive, fully equipped recreational facility that dwarfs the original church building with the goal of reaching the community. Up to 90% of the participants in this program were not members of the host church.

Between 600-700 people attended the closing awards ceremony.  The church fed them all dinner with homemade desserts!  After each participant and coach received their awards and nice insulated lunch bags, an evangelical speaker/comedian/illusionist presented a very entertaining show.  He also included some powerful visuals to help explain spiritual truths such as when he used contortion techniques to wrestle out of a straight jacket, illustrating the bondage of sin.

The presenter delivered an "altar call" at the end and swarms of kids ran forward.  The church has the names of at least 85 participants who prayed to receive Christ for the first time.  Five of those kids were on our son's team that my husband helped coach.  He has been asked to serve as head coach next year.  How could he say no?

Thank you, merciful Lord, for showing how great You are to these precious young people.  Thank you for using the sold-out believers at this humble church to start this Upward program and for using basketball as your instrument to reach the lost. Please equip and guide those who will be providing follow-up, and please send wise, spiritual leaders to disciple these new believers.  May they grow in wisdom and faith, remaining faithful and steadfast, and serve as powerful witnesses to the lost members of their families and communities.

Colossians 1
⁹For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. ¹⁰And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.