Two More Ways to Support Spring Break House Build Trip

We are about halfway into our Upward Basketball season where we have been offering concessions to raise money for our Spring Break House Build Trip. Our church family has been very generous in providing items that we use for our concessions. We have donations of Gatorade, cans of soda, chips, candy bars, monetary donations and even pizza that we sold by the slice. It has been a great start to our fundraising efforts.

While we have five more Saturdays of Upward to go, there are two other ways that people can support our Mexico Team.

For those in the Wilmington area: Sunday, March 6th will be Green Bucket Sunday.

We have used the green buckets in the past and we will use them the first Sunday in March. The green buckets will be located at the doors exiting our Ministry Center and any money that is placed in the buckets will go toward the Mexico trip.  This is a simple way to allow people to give toward the trip in a way that goes above what they give to the church.

Last year we used the green buckets to help reach our goal of $4,000 to send to 1MISSION to build a home for a family in Mexico. It allowed our who church family to participate, no matter the size of the gift.

For those in or out of the Wilmington area:  Give Online.

A number of months ago our church family was given the opportunity to give online.  So many of the things we do now, including paying bills, is done online.  You can now give to the overall work of WCC or specifically to the Mexico trip through our Online Giving Page.  If you want to give specifically toward the House Build Trip, you can select that in the drop down menu.

There are so many great mission organizations and projects being done throughout the world. We are excited about our partnership with 1MISSION and appreciate all the support from our church family and friends. Thanks to all those who are giving toward the trip and praying for our team.

See You At The Pole 15 #syatp

This week was See You At The Pole. It is a nationwide prayer event that we encourage our students to be a part of each year. Due to the timing of some of our schools’ events, I was able to be at a portion of two different schools gatherings. Each year when you walk on to the campus, you can sense both the excitement and nervousness as students gather. While we don’t have official number of participants from each year, this year seemed to have a higher number of students present than in years past.

I’m grateful for the students who make it a point to participate in the event and make it a proority to get to school early to pray. I’m thankful for the adults (parents, teachers, church leaders) who encourage the students by their presence at the event. While SYATP started with high school students, it has trickled down to the elementary school level.

There have been many pictures shared on Facebook of the various events. Here’s a brief video of pictures from our local schools.

Why I Like Upward

The last six years I have had the opportunity to coach in our Upward Basketball Program.  It has been great to see the league grow over 3 times its original number since we started it.

There are a lot of positives about the program.  There is a rotation schedule that takes the pressure off the coach to make sure everyone gets equal playing time – which is a key component of the Upward league.  Everyone plays an equal amount of time and the emphasis is on improving your basketball skills rather than just winning the game.

Upward has a spiritual component, which really is the foundation of the whole deal.  Each practice, we take a break at the midway point and have a devotion time based on that week’s memory verse.  It allows us to teach student about basketball and also about the God who made them and loves them.

This year I am coaching 1 & 2 grade girls and they are so much fun.  They waver back and forth between really paying attention in practice and in the game to appearing to have no clue they are on basketball court.

Our last practice was this week and we always end our devotion time in prayer.  The coolest thing happened – one of the girls asked if she could pray, which prompted another girl to ask if she could pray.  So I let them both pray instead of me.  That is the first time I’ve had a player do that and I hope it is an indication that they are getting more than just basketball knowledge out of what we are doing each week.

For those who have been involved in a league, why do you like Upward?