 As scripture tells us, many times God moves in unique and unexpected ways. After participating in and assisting in leading Shoreline Sports for virtually her entire life, Breanna Herd and her husband Steven will be moving to Iowa in July. She is taking on a full-time position as a counselor at a high school there. We are confident that Breanna and Steven have been following God’s will in this and we have been praying for God’s plan in the sports ministry as we try to replace Breanna.
Well, God has moved in a way for this summer that I did not expect. More than 50 young people have applied to work this summer in our summer sports programs. What a blessing! We look forward to a very full summer of discipling the workers and evangelizing the more than 500 children who will participate. During our just-completed Early Winter basketball season, we re-instituted our end-of-season celebration. This sports outreach connected with the almost 600 players and their parents as Tanya used her basketball skills to share the gospel. We were blessed to see dozens of church members contribute to this event. We will wrap up the Late Winter season on April 20 with a pancake breakfast and series of egg hunts. Last year, this event brought in more than 500 people. We shared with them what God is doing here at Shoreline. This event is coordinated by the children’s ministry and John Mercer, our Sports Outreach director. John has done a great job in his first year in this role. He has energetically reached out to the sports families and shared the love of Christ. We want to send a special thank you to Breanna and Steven for their many years of service in the sports ministry and here at the church. We are excited to see how God works in their future. Sincerely, Dan Willard Associate Pastor of Life Groups & Recreation
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We are very excited in the sports ministry to be gearing up for a return visit from one of the most entertaining, inspiring sports presenters we have ever seen. On February 7 and 8, Tanya Crevier returns to perform her basketball magic and share her testimony. We are blessed to have her return after many years.
For these two “Nights of Inspiration”, we have invited the 600 players, their parents and relatives from our nearly-concluded Early Winter basketball season. All season, the coaches have been sharing the gospel weekly with the players, but this is our big chance to share also with the parents and relatives. Each of the nights will be preceded by an open playground with bounce houses, a full snack bar and lots of fellowship. We would love to have church members help in any area from 4 to 6:30 p.m. on the playground or snack bar, or 6:30 to 8:30 with the presentation or child care. We are blessed that God has allowed us to develop a very large sports ministry, and we are excited to see how God works in our sports and church community on these very special nights. We are following all this up with a Connection Lunch following church on February 10. We are praying that lots of sports families join us for church and lunch. Please pray for loads of energy and touched hearts. If you want to help, please reach out to John Mercer, our Sports Outreach Director, or Kandyce Register, our Children’s Ministry Director.  Every year for the past 20 plus years, the months of October and part of November have been consumed with planning for our upcoming Early Winter basketball season at Shoreline. We are blessed to continue to pull in more than 500 players each year.
As I write this, we have almost 400 players, and I begin to create teams tomorrow (October 22). That process takes about 60 hours as it involves more than 600 requests from parents. It is truly a blessing to plan this coming season as I am reasonably certain that at least 200 of the incoming players are new to the program and at least half of the players do not know Christ as their personal savior. This is an amazing outreach challenge for the sports ministry. More than 60 teams will stop once every week from November 26th through February 9 to learn about Christ. I am honored to prepare the devotions for these teams, and I am excited to report that the players love to learn about Jesus and many of them turn their lives over to Him each season. As a part of this outreach, we will repeat our Division Parent program from last year. We are very grateful to the more than 50 church members who got involved last year, and I encourage you to come out December 1 on Opening Day to welcome parents and players to Shoreline. We call you “Sports Connection Parents!” Below is an explanation of how you can help. Please let me know if you have questions. What is the Division Parent’s Program?: During our Early Winter basketball season, Division Parents from the church have volunteered to connect with the teams and coaches in their divisions. The sports connection parents show up on some game days to help the Division Parents by waving at halftime and talking to teams and parents after the game. Why: The program is designed to better connect parents who bring their children into our sports program with our church and its members. Who: A sports connection parent does not need any expertise (or interest) in sports; they need to have a desire to build relationships with parents who need Christ.  As summer turns to Autumn, as the leaves start to fall, as the weather turns a bit cooler, our thoughts naturally turn to… more basketball!
In September, we will launch our fall basketball program for approximately 200 children in ages K through high school; we will also lead a Fall volleyball clinic for more than 60 children. During both programs, we will share the gospel at every practice. All through the fall, we will be preparing for our second year of involving Shoreline church members as Division parents to help connect our sports ministry parents and players to our church. Our summer season involved many weeks of camps and programs that shared the gospel every day. During the course of the summer, we will have shared the gospel thousands of times to hundreds of campers. What a tremendous blessing and responsibility. We were also blessed to travel to San Diego for a twelfth time to run sports camps for churches there. Each day, our sports camp workers led devotions that explained the gospel message to children from those communities. Eighteen of our strongest coaches worked this week and led the devotions. We also spent many hours in devotions with the workers, and we always see significant decisions made coming out of those intense sessions. Thank you, as always, for your prayers.  We are very excited to enter into another summer of Shoreline Sports. For more than 20 years, we have been blessed to share the love of Jesus Christ with the community through our sports camps and unique programs. Here are the three goals for Summer 2018:
First, we want to chart the character development of our workers. God has blessed us with more than 35 workers again this summer. These young people typically grow up in our program and return to lead the next generation of campers. During the last two weeks, these young workers have experienced more than 7 hours of Bible Study with us and started down the path of becoming the godly leaders that our program needs. We have another 4 hours of training in sports and scripture, so we appreciate your support and prayers. Second, we want to share the gospel with our campers and help disciple both the campers who know Christ and our workers. Every camp day, we spend at least fifteen minutes in devotions. This summer, we are sharing the stories of the entire Bible in 6 weeks. The focus is on who God is through the Bible and who He is for the young people receiving the instruction. Finally, we focus on evangelism every day in the summer. The devotions all share the gospel each week and educate the campers on the love of Christ and His desire to have a relationship with them. Our workers' training thoroughly investigates the Great Commission and walks each worker through role playing in sharing the Great News of scripture. We thank you for your prayers, especially July 10 through 13 when we travel to San Diego to lead sports camps for other churches. Blessings, Dan Willard Associate Pastor |
