National Hoops News

Greeley winners and highlights

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:37:14 -0700

Greeley, CO Highlights

August Newsletter

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:06:32 -0700

Dear Family and Friends, Scripture says, “Take no thought for the morrow” and “Give us this day, our Daily bread”. The children of Israel were instructed that the manna from heaven would only need to be collected for the day as a new fresh supply would be available on the next day. God has kept bringing us back to this truth over and over this semester. God will give us exactly what we need at the time that we need it and it is not necessary for HIM to provide ahead of schedule because there is fresh “manna” every day! We have seen God do some amazing things in providing fuel money right before we leave for a trip. He has used His servants to meet specific needs such as new tires or batteries. The needs have been met right on time and have been just enough for the need of the hour. We have seen in real life that His promises are “new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.”   St Louis, MO---After 2 blown tires within an hour apart on 2 different trailers, we arrived for our first tournament of the semester. It was a hot outside tournament but with every minute as we saw 8 teams come and 22 people trust Christ! It was a blessing to hear of the 3 moms that responded to get saved. We wondered what to do about the problem of having too many referees at the tournament, but God gave wisdom as Pastor Spilger was led to let them all stay. We laughed later because one of the referees was gloriously saved! It was a blessing to hear of the counselor’s report about how evident it was that God was working in this man. I am glad he did not go home!     St Louis, MO (week 2)—We had an empty slot in our schedule so we were asked to stay on and minister to a large number of people living in an apartment complex that the church had been working in for a few years. Grace Baptist has been praying about starting a church there someday so this was an important time. This is a very rough area but God had clearly opened the door. Our plan was to conduct a free basketball clinic in one of the parking lots for all ages on Thursday and Friday evenings. All of this was new, so we went depending on the name of Christ. The week before that here been a child killed there and a shooting. On Thursday, we set up or goals and waited for the people to arrive. God gave us over 100 people! We split up into 3 groups for the preaching times and saw 10 people trust Christ. On the next night we had around 100 again and saw another 10 people saved. Maybe the most amazing thing we saw was how God defeated the Evil One and kept the kids under control. After Thursday night of somewhat Satanic chaos among the people, we all went to intense prayer and Friday was like night and day. God defeated the author of confusion.    Greeley, CO---This was our first time in Greeley and we were so blessed by the kindness of the church people toward our team and family. It seemed like everything was breaking as we pulled into the parking lot, but there was a servant to match up to everything that needed attention! God opened so many doors in the city and we were allowed access to almost every school in Greeley! God brought out 12 teams on Saturday and we praise the Lord for the 26 that indicated that they trusted Christ!
   Please pray for the tournaments coming up in Salt Lake City, UT, Ferron, UT, San Leandro, CA and Las Vegas, NV.
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.  Thanks so much for your faithfulness to God and for your impact on eternity.
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.Mike Washer

Philippines Update

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:30:12 -0700

The following is a summary of the full e-mail update. To receive the complete update monthly, sign up on the left.

Big News from the Philippines—For 2 years we waited for God to provide an evangelist for National Hoops Philippines. I had learned to delight in the process of God’s timely provision. His hand was evident as we waited. He provided huge opportunities and prizes for the teams. He provided much of the needed equipment. He allowed us to meet special friends and be able to conduct tournaments in several different locations on several different islands. He saved many. Then he opened HIS hand, and delivered His choice for a full time evangelist. Through a variety of providential leading, God led us to ask Amos Antonio to fill this role. Amos is a pastor’s son and is from Manila area. He is just finishing Bible college and had sensed early in his life the call of God to be an evangelist. He has had a burden to be involved in sports evangelism. When I asked Amos to pray about the full time position, he was overwhelmed at the grace of God and replied that he felt like Moses---unable to speak, and wondering if God had the right guy…He is a humble servant and God has already used him in a great way. We look forward to having Amos train with us in the USA starting in July for one year and then conducting tournaments week after week all over the Philippines! Robbie Asuncion will continue to serve as the full time director for NH Philippines. We appreciate his spirit of excellence and God-given leadership ability. He will play a vital role in mentoring Amos. We are excited! God’s way is best, as always and I rejoice both in the product and the PROCESS of this answered prayer.

Cagayan De Oro, Mindanao—We had a great week for our first tournament in Mindanao. Our team worked throughout the week to get the word out in the public schools in the area. God opened many doors. In one school, we were told that there were 11,000 students! All 7 of the team members split up and went classroom to classroom, talking about the details of the tournament and the big prize of the PBA. God moved in a special way at the JV tournament on Thursday night and the Varsity tournament on Friday night. Each night, we saw 16 teams participate with around 80 salvation decisions Thursday night and over 76 the next night. It was wonderful to see the Bible college students from Lapasan Baptist Church use their zeal for souls to win many spectators to Christ as well as the basketball players.