1MISSION Project About to Launch

Our IMPACT students are partnering with 1MISSION to raise money to build a home for a family in Mexico. I had a phone conversation yesterday with a representative from 1MISSION and our campaign will launch in the near future.

We had the opportunity to kick off our fundraising last Saturday at a karate tournament hosted at our church. In just one day, we were able to raise $500. This weekend we start offering concessions for our Upward basketball games.  While I don’t envision we will raise all that we need through our concessions, it should give us a great boost toward our goal.

We are looking to get the word out to our friends and church family and invite a lot of people to play a small part in reaching our goal.  1MISSION encourages students to give up birthdays, to run a race or create a project to help raise funds for family in needs.

We have a new link to our campaign page – IMPACT 1MISSION Campaign page.

The link may not be live right now, but I will keep everyone updated when our campaign launches.  Hope you will be involved!

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?