Submitted by Maurice
I stink at basketball. I started learning how to play during senior year when our peers would go to the RSF gym on Saturday mornings when no one else was there. Thanks to that, as well as one of my leaders who taught me how to shoot (thanks Kevan!) I am now able to at least not single-handedly make my team lose. Imagine my dismay when I discovered that at UT Austin, basketball is one of the main things the students do. So I went and played, putting on a thick face and apologizing when I bonked shots. However, I never would have imagined God using basketball outreach to bring one of His lost sheep to Himself, and blessing me as well in the process. I met a senior, asked if I could play on his team, and when we lost and had some down time to talk, the subject of why I came out to Texas came up. He showed immediate interest when I said I was helping start a church, and he said he’d come check our service out. He even asked me for my phone number, rather than the other way around!
He ended up coming regularly to Gracepoint Austin’s Sunday services, his spiritual hunger growing though he had never been to church before, and we even did Course 101 together. There was also a devastating family loss that occurred soon after we met, but the amazing thing was God’s timeliness in how He had been stirring this brother’s heart and calling him since even before he met us, giving him strength to get through this difficult time. He shared that he felt personally ministered to by so many verses he read; here is one he shared, 2 Corinthians 4:17 – ‘For our light and momentary troubles are producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.’
At the Easter service, he made a public declaration to give his life to Christ, and we all praised God for His faithfulness. His hunger to know God’s Word, desire to align his life with Christ’s, has been such a source of encouragement. Though he expresses thanks to our group for coming out to Austin, I cannot help but feel that God has placed him in our lives to encourage and bless us as much as vice versa. This is just one of many stories of God drawing people to Himself through our church in Austin, and I am just amazed and grateful at the fact that God has invited us to engage in this eternal-stakes work of ‘reaching out.’
Keep on playing Mo! Miss your magic shows over here, but hopefully as you improve more students will want to play with y’all=)
I wish I could whip up some of that “magic” on the court (maybe a la “Magic Johnson”?) but it’s easier to make a card appear in someone’s pocket than hit those layups, sometimes. Well, talent is supposedly overrated so this summer I’m going to try to do some “deliberate practice”! =) maybe you can visit and show me some of your killer moves, Mr. Fu!
This is a great story Mo! It reminds me of the story of the 5 loaves and 2 fish, and what God can do with our meager, yet willing efforts. Those Saturday morning peer basketball games proved useful!