Thanks to a generous donation from Steve Best and a donor who wishes to remain anonymous;
we have started building 4 basketball courts and 2 soccer fields for our two partner schools in Zambia! 🙌
We are so excited about creating these spaces for our two partner schools where they can share the love of Jesus with the kids in their communities in fun and new ways! And it will give us places to run Youth Camps and other News Release projects in the future.
God is so good, allowing us to be salt and light to these communities!
This donation will also allow us to buy 70 new desks and some other much needed school supplies for the Good Samaritan School in Lusaka.
We are also planning a trip to Zambia, Kenya, and Ghana in January or February with Sherwood Baptist.
Sherwood Baptist Church and Christian School has taken an interest in coming alongside Good Samaritan School to help develop this project further. This will be a “Vision Casting” trip for them to figure out how they can do that best.
The trip to Kenya and Ghana will be to strengthen the relationships we have there, and begin the planning process for next summer. This includes a new relationship with DayStar University in Nairobi, and a brand new camp next summer in Ghana!
We have also found a Christian Prep school in Iowa for Victor, one of the campers who came to our camp in Lusaka last summer. Lord willing, he will be in the USA by Christmas – getting an education, being discipled, and chasing his dreams of playing college basketball (maybe more).
When News Release started this new ministry to Africa over 4 years ago, we could never have imagined how God was going to grow and bless it.
The project became known as ‘Project Complete Africa’.
The project became known as ‘Project Complete Africa’.The vision – share Christ through sports and education to all of Africa, and developing complete followers of Jesus, not just better athletes. The way we were going to accomplish this was:
- Youth Camps and Development
- Coaches Training
- Overall Program Development
- Educational Investment – by supporting partner schools in Africa and International Student Placement.
4 years later, News Release is running 5 camps in 5 cities in 2 countries. We are planning to run 2 new camps in Zambia and Kenya next summer – including our first ever soccer camp, and expanding to Ghana with a new camp.
This will give us strategic impact in three countries in all three corners of Africa – Project Complete Africa!
We ran 4 Coaching Clinics last summer, and are planning on 2 more Coaching Clinics next summer.
We have been able to bring basketballs, speed ladders, cones, Coaching Boards, uniforms, and more to help develop programs in Africa. And thanks to Clackamas Bible Church, last summer we gave away over 250 pairs of shoes, accomplishing the goal of “A Shoe for Every Camper” in our two biggest camps.
Educationally, we are building facilities in two partner schools, and have placed 8 high school and college players in schools in the US.
It has been such a blessing to be a part of this ministry, and we are so excited about the future!
But we need help!
In order to run 8 camps in 3 countries, we will need more teams. We are also looking for bigger organizations or shoe companies to donate even more shoes next summer.
And we are trying to raise a $6,000 scholarship for Cornelius (one of the players we placed in a Christian University last year).
We could place 2 more players in the same university this year, but would need to raise a similar scholarship for them. If you or anyone you know would be excited about helping in any of those ways, please reach out!
God is doing amazing things, and these are just a couple ways you can be a part of the blessing!”
In Christ, Through Hoops, To the World!
