Title: The Muslim Fad
After facing some aggression from Thessalonica, Paul and Silas moved on
to Berea to preach the Gospel of Christ; this is what was said of the
people of Berea: "These were more fair-minded than those in
Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and
searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
Therefore, many of them believed..."--Acts 17:11-12a
I am basing tonight's pre-game devotion on that passage. Since my
return, I have learned (and observed) that being a Muslim is a "fad" on
the rise. I say fad, because many of the young men here do not seem to
adhere to the Muslim principles, and for some it seems more of a fashion
statement (many of them wear white caps with a white blouse-like shirt;
sometimes even white pants). It just seems to be "the thing to do,"
which obviously saddens me. We do have some Muslims who play in the
league, and though almost all participate in the prayer and devotion,
there are one or two who refuse. In my quiet time, I read this passage
and I thought "how true for the guys here (and not only here, but
everywhere)." After our All-Star events (which was awesome as always),
we passed out church fliers and bibles; one of them refused, saying "I
don't believe in your Bible or your God." At least this guy had an
opinion; many don't seem to have one at all. I hope to stress that they
must discover truth for themselves. Just as the people did in Berea
(searched the Scriptures to see if these things were true). It's a
shame that we are having to fight a trend to win souls to Christ (and
maybe even a bigger shame when being Christian is the "trend" as opposed
to a true conversion to follow hard after Jesus). Nonetheless, I do have
one exciting story to share:
You may remember a blog last year when I explained how a player from the
league left Open Gym (we will call him P) and returned with a suicidal
girl (who is still doing fine; Mary talked to her on the phone this
week). This girl had driven 45 minutes to the K&A area to pay someone
$3,000 to take somewhere to be killed. P was the first person she
asked. Instead of taking the money, )P brought her to me, and she was
lead to Christ. Earlier this week, P shows up at the Salvation Army,
banging on the door looking for me. He had been crying and kept saying
"I need to talk to you in private, it's urgent, it's urgent; pray for
me, etc."--this kept going on till I could calm him. We found a room and
started talking. He tells me that ever since that night he brought
Katie to me, he had been having suicidal thoughts himself. This had
been going on for a year and he said it came to the point where he could
no longer control it and was losing sleep. Wow... Satan tried to kill
Katie that night, and when P took that away, Satan came after him. We
talked about spiritual warfare and we talked about how it was clear that
God has destined him for greatness (if Katie had met anyone else, they
probably would have taken the money). We talked about the daily
struggles that he will continue to face as he seeks out God. At the end
of our meeting I asked him if he could pray and he said he only knew how
to pray in Spanish! I don't know what he said, but it was emotional...
there is much I could say about our meeting, but what I wanted to get at
was how hungry he was to know God. He was adament about coming to
church... and not only did he come to church yesterday, he brought
family--his wife, daughter, cousin, brother and his brother's
girlfriend. Next week, he is bringing his mom! He got some Spanish
bibles and he's reading the book of John... praise God!
Other than that, the only thing I want to hit on is that next summer I
am going to go "back to my roots." I will put Open Gym on hold, and go
back out to parks with Gatorade--I think God gave me that message this
past week.
Pray for me to have strength this week... all summer we have been having
3 games on Mondays and 3 on Tuesdays. This week we finish the season
with 4 on Monday and Tuesday, then we begin Tournament with 4 games on
Wednesday and Thursday! I'll be exhausted! Here are the teams:
East Division: Diamond St, Wild Cards, North Philly's Finest, Bomb
Squad, Re-Born, Mascher Park, 4th Street, Dynasty
West Division: Da Hogies, Legends, The Future, Battle Ground, The
Savers, Street Sweepers, Next Level, Underdogs
Tonight and tomorrow's games will be intense because only top 6 teams
from each division get into the playoffs, and 4-5 teams in each division
are in the bubble!
Results of All-Star
3-Point: Danny from Dynasty beat Oscar from Re-born in 3 extra rounds
All-Star game: West 110 East 87 (MVP went to Rese from Savers)
Dunk Contest: Black (for 3rd year in a row) from Da Hogies
All this stuff was recorded on film and we plan to put that in our DVD!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Return to Ministry -July 2010
"Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.'"--Acts 15:36
This being my 3rd summer here, it's interesting how my ministry differs from past trips. My ministry has gone from personal evangelism/witnessing to following up. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of going to Huntington, WV with First Baptist Church of Bowling Green, KY. In the past, their youth group had gone to a summer camp known as CenterFuge and M-Fuge. During this camp, they would go on certain service projects but this time around they wanted to do their own and ended up in WV. A close friend of mine from the church (who used to take me fishing during my years in college) brought me along to do what I did in Philly--play ball, pass out gatorade, and share the gospel. While there he told me he would love to go to the same place every year. We talked about how many church groups go somewhere different each year, as if the mission trip is more for themselves than for the community they witness in. I personally see this a lot--we go in, develop relationships and get things going, leave after one week, then that's it. But as seen in Acts, and in many encounters with Christ, there is follow-up involved.
I have been so blessed to be able to come back every summer and follow up. It's been amazing to see the growth from several people. There are guys in the league that have been around since day one who used to be hot heads... not anymore. They kept their attitude under control and were very respectful and took a lot of pride in the league. Many are stepping up to help set up on game nights, help score keep, etc. (which is great since it has been so hard finding volunteers). Joey even said to me, "It's amazing to see how these guys have progressed." And there has been so much joy seeing these guys again, especially when they show excitement to see me again (many do not know when exactly I'm coming back, so it's a surprise for them once I'm there). One of the guys I've gotten to catch up with is Tony Spain who used to run in the streets and became a Christian through open gym/league. He told me a little more about him coming to Christ--he remembered the first time he saw me at the park and thought "who is this white guy?" And he admitted he stayed away--then some of his friends prompted him to come to open gym...since then he has given his life to Christ, performs Christian rap, and is now involved in Joey's church (Bridge of Hope, our partners) and is married with a wife 8 months pregnant! It has been a blessing to see how he has journeyed with Christ since my last visit, and recently his brother accepted Christ. I must also share about Sergio, who God, in his infinite wisdom, arranged "a reunion" so I could follow up with him. Last year I met twins--Sergio and Jose who came to many open gyms and joined the league, and were the most fun guys I had been around. They were a huge blessing to me and came to several bible studies. They were not walking with Christ, but were certainly interested and always asked that I pray for them to "quit smoking weed." Well during the year, we kept in touch, but then they got a new phone # (which I deleted before saving!) and I never heard from them again. Well... I went out to dinner with Danny and his girlfriend (Danny is the one who came to KY to visit) and I asked him about the twins. He told me he hadn't really talked to them in a long time. I was really upset because I was really missing them and just had to get in touch! We left dinner that night and stopped to
get gas; after filling up, we are waiting to pull into the street and suddenly Mary yells, "Jeff! That's Jose! That's Jose! Jose!!" Now... we know about 20 Jose up here, so I'm screaming "which one? Which one?" But I finally spotted who she was talking about--one of the twins (it was actually Sergio--on the back of their arms, Jose tattooed a "J" and Sergio tattooed an "S"). Of the 5.149 million people in the Urban area of Philadelphia, Sergio, who just 30 minutes before I was talking to Danny about wishing I could see him again, was sitting in his car right in front of us. I popped my head out our door, "Jose!" (didn't know it was Sergio yet)... he look at me like "what the heck do you want?" I shouted "You remember me?"... "JEFF! What up man?" (he actually used a different word than "man"--starts with an "n") He pulled into the gas station and we got to catch up. He is about to get married and he informed me that has become heavily involved in church. He attends a church every Friday and Saturday (even bypassed my open gym on Friday to go to church!). It was so blessed to hear how he was doing. However, his twin, Jose, is not in church, so please pray for him. I'll be getting together with him throughout the summer.
I mentioned earlier how my ministry is somewhat different now. While it will still be important for personal witnessing (as there are still plenty of new faces), there has been more focus on investment. From all the "incarnational ministry" I have become so infused into the community and culture here that I am being invited to baby showers, birthday parties, dinners, etc... I am one of them! I've had the joy of seeing Danny finally get a job (he had been asking me to pray for awhile) and he has decided to go back and get his GED, and he has made me a part of that journey. This year I am really focusing on investing and getting them plugged into a church... Other than that, the league is going well. We have 16 teams this year (up from 12 last year)--in my next post I will give more specifics about the actual league, I think this is enough for now.... before I go--special thanks to my new church in Shelbyville, KY (Christ Community Church). They raised the money we needed for two mega fans to put in our gym. When it reaches 102 degrees outside, and there's no AC in the gym and windows are drilled shut, having fans is a big deal. We mounted them yesterday and it was a big help!
This being my 3rd summer here, it's interesting how my ministry differs from past trips. My ministry has gone from personal evangelism/witnessing to following up. A few weeks ago I had the privilege of going to Huntington, WV with First Baptist Church of Bowling Green, KY. In the past, their youth group had gone to a summer camp known as CenterFuge and M-Fuge. During this camp, they would go on certain service projects but this time around they wanted to do their own and ended up in WV. A close friend of mine from the church (who used to take me fishing during my years in college) brought me along to do what I did in Philly--play ball, pass out gatorade, and share the gospel. While there he told me he would love to go to the same place every year. We talked about how many church groups go somewhere different each year, as if the mission trip is more for themselves than for the community they witness in. I personally see this a lot--we go in, develop relationships and get things going, leave after one week, then that's it. But as seen in Acts, and in many encounters with Christ, there is follow-up involved.
I have been so blessed to be able to come back every summer and follow up. It's been amazing to see the growth from several people. There are guys in the league that have been around since day one who used to be hot heads... not anymore. They kept their attitude under control and were very respectful and took a lot of pride in the league. Many are stepping up to help set up on game nights, help score keep, etc. (which is great since it has been so hard finding volunteers). Joey even said to me, "It's amazing to see how these guys have progressed." And there has been so much joy seeing these guys again, especially when they show excitement to see me again (many do not know when exactly I'm coming back, so it's a surprise for them once I'm there). One of the guys I've gotten to catch up with is Tony Spain who used to run in the streets and became a Christian through open gym/league. He told me a little more about him coming to Christ--he remembered the first time he saw me at the park and thought "who is this white guy?" And he admitted he stayed away--then some of his friends prompted him to come to open gym...since then he has given his life to Christ, performs Christian rap, and is now involved in Joey's church (Bridge of Hope, our partners) and is married with a wife 8 months pregnant! It has been a blessing to see how he has journeyed with Christ since my last visit, and recently his brother accepted Christ. I must also share about Sergio, who God, in his infinite wisdom, arranged "a reunion" so I could follow up with him. Last year I met twins--Sergio and Jose who came to many open gyms and joined the league, and were the most fun guys I had been around. They were a huge blessing to me and came to several bible studies. They were not walking with Christ, but were certainly interested and always asked that I pray for them to "quit smoking weed." Well during the year, we kept in touch, but then they got a new phone # (which I deleted before saving!) and I never heard from them again. Well... I went out to dinner with Danny and his girlfriend (Danny is the one who came to KY to visit) and I asked him about the twins. He told me he hadn't really talked to them in a long time. I was really upset because I was really missing them and just had to get in touch! We left dinner that night and stopped to
get gas; after filling up, we are waiting to pull into the street and suddenly Mary yells, "Jeff! That's Jose! That's Jose! Jose!!" Now... we know about 20 Jose up here, so I'm screaming "which one? Which one?" But I finally spotted who she was talking about--one of the twins (it was actually Sergio--on the back of their arms, Jose tattooed a "J" and Sergio tattooed an "S"). Of the 5.149 million people in the Urban area of Philadelphia, Sergio, who just 30 minutes before I was talking to Danny about wishing I could see him again, was sitting in his car right in front of us. I popped my head out our door, "Jose!" (didn't know it was Sergio yet)... he look at me like "what the heck do you want?" I shouted "You remember me?"... "JEFF! What up man?" (he actually used a different word than "man"--starts with an "n") He pulled into the gas station and we got to catch up. He is about to get married and he informed me that has become heavily involved in church. He attends a church every Friday and Saturday (even bypassed my open gym on Friday to go to church!). It was so blessed to hear how he was doing. However, his twin, Jose, is not in church, so please pray for him. I'll be getting together with him throughout the summer.
I mentioned earlier how my ministry is somewhat different now. While it will still be important for personal witnessing (as there are still plenty of new faces), there has been more focus on investment. From all the "incarnational ministry" I have become so infused into the community and culture here that I am being invited to baby showers, birthday parties, dinners, etc... I am one of them! I've had the joy of seeing Danny finally get a job (he had been asking me to pray for awhile) and he has decided to go back and get his GED, and he has made me a part of that journey. This year I am really focusing on investing and getting them plugged into a church... Other than that, the league is going well. We have 16 teams this year (up from 12 last year)--in my next post I will give more specifics about the actual league, I think this is enough for now.... before I go--special thanks to my new church in Shelbyville, KY (Christ Community Church). They raised the money we needed for two mega fans to put in our gym. When it reaches 102 degrees outside, and there's no AC in the gym and windows are drilled shut, having fans is a big deal. We mounted them yesterday and it was a big help!
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