Hope Rising Sports Ministry

Welcome to Hope Rising Sports Ministry. I would like to take a moment to talk about the opportunities God has given us to reach children in our community with the gospel through sports. Hope Rising has two sports seasons throughout the year: soccer from February to October, and newly added basketball from November to January. Children in our area desperately need a place to play and our sports ministry gives them that opportunity. Not only does that give kids something to do, it also employs people from our community. Last year we had around 140 kids coming three days a week to participate in soccer with 5 coaches. We were able to feed the teams occasionally and we were able to play several games last year. When we had games it was a community event. People from all over would come out to watch the kids play. We had many people who supported us. Thank you to everyone who generously donated balls, equipment, and uniforms for our teams. We recently completed our basketball season with a final playoff game and the boys were excited to use the uniforms donated by Rebecca Peterson. We even had enough uniforms to let our visitors use them as well, which was very exciting to all involved. I was extremely happy we won the first and only game we played. The boys showed great resilience and determination to fight back from a huge deficit to win. I was very proud of them.

We are excited about our upcoming soccer season. We currently have 125 children and youth signed up to participate, and we anticipate that number to increase. We have several pray requests we would like to make. First, pray for our coachers and other staff members. We have three goals for our sports ministry: creating a safe environment, meeting physical needs, and meeting spiritual needs. We feed the kids every opportunity we have, and we begin or end each practice with a devotion. Also please pray for our upcoming basketball camp in March, our own version of March Madness. Lake Pointe church is busy preparing to teach the fundamentals of basketball while they share the love of Jesus with our kids.

Finally please pray for people who would be willing to donate financially to help support our ministry. We never want to turn kids away who want to participate. If you are interested in donating finances or equipment please contact me.