Spring '09 Newsletter

Hello Sports Fans

We are ready to embark again on a great time of year. No, I am not speaking of March Madness in college basketball (although that ranks way up there on my list!) I am referring to the fact that with spring time comes an increase in our ministry activity.

As I am writing this I am prepping for a quick trip to St Louis for a Blacktop Bible Club, with a quick stop in Indiana for some meetings. Following that trip we are gearing up for our Spring Break ’09 ROCK’em Road Trip.

This trip will originate in North Carolina and take players to the Sunshine State (at least we hope it is sunny while there.) While in Florida we will conduct 2 Blacktop Bible Clubs, do a service project (painting a widow’s house), run a church youth group, have a lot of basketball and life discipleship classes, and throw in a bit of fun! Our theme for this trip is “No Benchwarmers!”

I will follow this trip up a few weeks later with a jaunt down to the Dominican Republic for a few days to help with medical clinics, do sports outreach, etc. And this is all sprinkled with speaking engagements in between.

On top of this the summer is filling up with opportunities here in NC and for Matt in the Midwest. Please pray for our outreach as we are committed to all of this being platforms most importantly for the sharing of the Gospel!

19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
(2 Corinthians 5)

With all of that said I need to shift gears a bit here. As great of a calling as this is - the gas stations, restaurants, campgrounds, insurance companies, tire shops, etc. do not give us those things for free. (In fact I will spend over $600 tomorrow morning for new commercial grade tires needed for our 12-passenger van.) Nor does the mortgage company, utilities company, etc. give me a break on our bills.

I serve as a full-time missionary to direct InBounds Ministries. (And the Lord has blessed me with a couple of volunteer coaches and wives that are willing to give hours.) One of the hardest aspects to this is having to make pleas for support to the ministry. Yet every so often the bank account calls for these pleas.

As stated this is our busy time approaching. Would you consider helping stimulate our ministry? (I am pretty sure we are not getting any of the billions that the gov’t is giving out.) And the fact is that I am not asking for billions, or millions, or even thousands of dollars from anyone.

When my teams get behind in games I remind the players that we can only come back one bucket at a time. Certain players on our team are capable of that being a 3-point bucket. Others are better off sticking to the 2-point attempts. Some are great if they can get to the line for a 1-point free-throw. And yet some simply are not “scorers” but asked to assist the scorers. As a coach I hope for consistency more than the “big play.”

The same is true as we look at ministry support. Some times people hear these pleas, look at the big need, and don’t realize that need is met one shot at a time. The best scenario is a missionary finding consistent teammates. Between our newsletter and our Facebook group we have hundreds of teammates. If we averaged $10 (1-pointer), $20 (2-pointer), or $30 (3-pointer) per “player” per month we could cover our basic budgetary needs. (Please understand I realize that not everyone can be a “scorer” and truly value the “assists” of prayer, spreading the word, etc.)

Yet for most of us I am talking about a dollar or less per day in order to help insure the Gospel is going forth through this ministry.

Would you please pray about how you can help the “team” and then act upon those prayers?

there is a "support" page on the InBounds Ministries website for those that need information