January 2011
Dear Youth Pastors
A month ago, I was asked to develop a basketball league and to coach the province team here in Kampot. Currently we have enough people coming to practice to start three teams. We are having a small tournament on Feb. 18th to start the adult league. The average age of the player is 25. We will be having a four team league with our three Khmer teams and a team joining us from the Chinese workers in the area.
We are in the process of starting a basketball league here for youth ages 10-14 as well. The vision for the leagues will be similar to Upper Bound if you are familiar with that in the states. The one exception being that we will be keeping score and playing to win. We will be working in conjunction with our church here in Kampot, Hosanna Church Cambodia. At each practice, we will have a short devotional and one of the kids from Heritage House sharing their testimony. At the end of the season, we will hold a banquet for the players and their parents where Vutha, the Khmer pastor, will be sharing the gospel.
I am writing to ask for you help. The cost for each team will be about $250. This cost will cover buying a t-shirt jersey for the team, shoes for the team (most of the players show up bare footed or in flip flops), purchasing basketballs for the team to practice with, drinks for each practice, and the banquet at the end of the year. We will have seven teams needing sponsorship (3 adult teams and 4 youth teams). Would your youth group be willing to sponsor a team? We would put your logo on the jersey and each youth group could have a team. We would update our website for the league weekly with teams going head to head so that your group could keep up with the team that they sponsored. For instance, one week Nameless may be playing Frontline and your kids could pull for their team. More importantly, your youth group could be praying for the salvation of that team.
Those of you who know me well know that I hate asking for money. I do know that this is an open door in the city for us as a ministry and I am willing to ask for help on this. Something as innocent as me taking Sterling and Benjamin to play basketball a few times has turned into me meeting the Minister of Youth and Recreation and being asked to develop and coach the province team. I will be traveling with them a few times a year to various cities in tournaments and meeting other teams from around the country. So, as bad as I hate to ask for money, I know that we need help to see this develop. Pray about it and see what the Lord is saying to you.
I am sending this to the following Churches:
Hosanna Fellowship - Johnson City, TN
Heritage Fellowship - Jefferson City, TN
Harvest Church - Knoxville, TN
Trinity Chapel - Knoxville, TN
Church on the Hill - Fishersville, VA
Church of Life - Madisonville, TN
Faith Community Fellowship - Birmingham, AL
Corky Bowl Fantasy Football League - International
If your group wants to sponsor a team, please let me know immediately and we will hold a team for you. We would like to have the money by mid-Feb when we start the adult league. The youth league will start their games in March.
Thanks for praying about this!
Servant of a Passionate God
Lewis Burke
Rom 8:31
