Back at Home Part One
As I sit here at my desk in my office I find myself overwhelmed with emotions.  I am incredibly happy to be back at home, where I don’t feel like a bother in someone else’s house, where I know that everyone I speak to will know English (or Spanish at least), and it has been nice to see friends and family that I have missed these last three weeks.  But honestly I miss Germany already.  I miss my new friends and family over there, I miss the simplicity of life, I miss being in the basketball gym with kids all day, I miss the refreshing times of worship every morning, I miss the morning devotionals with the entire staff at each of the camps, I miss spending my entire day with my wife close by…I could go on.  Now that I have had some time to digest what just happened in my life I realized just how blessed we were.  We certainly worked hard over there.  There were LONG hot days in the gym, unfamiliar living spaces, and lots of time spent pouring out our hearts to the youth.  But God was so present with us that I felt as though I could continue all day doing his work.  And one of the best benefits of our trip is that I know remember that this is a feeling that I can always have with me.  Real Love, Real Joy, Real Peace, they all come from having Real Faith in Jesus Christ.  And with that we can do anything, deal with anything, and just simply live an abundant life in Christ.  So with all that said, I will do my best to update you on my last week in Germany.  Because there is so much info I’ll break it down into three categories for three different days: Basketball Games, Camps, and Host Family.
 
Basketball Games
During our last game in Lorrach we played against the home team and came out victorious.  After a bit of a shaky beginning we ended up winning the game by about 20 points.  We wanted to leave the campers in Lorrach with a good impression of us as basketball players and I believe that we accomplished that goal.  I played fairly well in that game and I felt myself getting into better and better basketball shape.
 
After we moved on to Lauf we were warned that our games would be more difficult.  In fact our contact in Lauf basically said that our first game on Sunday night would be the most difficult game of that week (and subsequently the entire tour).  He was absolutely correct.  Breitengussbach was a great team that had a lot of their regular players.  This was the first team that we faced the entire tour that was actually a polished team.  They had all been playing with each other for quite some time and they actually ran plays.  The other teams that we played against were a combination of other teams and were often missing players who were away on holiday.  Call it “train lag” from traveling all day the day before, nerves from playing our first game in a new city, or whatever but we came out flat.  Very flat.  And the other team took advantage of this fact and jumped out to a big lead.  We were down by as any as 16 points in the first half.  As a coach, I was never really concerned about the game because I knew that we were beating ourselves.  Once we actually started playing, we were fine.  We got the lead down to 11 by halftime and it was close throughout the entire second half.  We eventually formed a very small cushion of five points and won the game by that margin.  I had the honor of being the player that gave his testimony at halftime.  After a couple of worship songs, I spoke about how God turned my life around and how I could not find real love anywhere except in him.  I thought that that presentation went over very well and the campers in the audience payed close attention.
 
Our last two games in Lauf were both highly contested.  The second game was against another good team and it was close until the end.  Matt Althoff, a News Release player who has stayed in the Lauf the last four years playing on the team and working as a youth pastor joined us for this game and was a welcome addition to the team.  This team also featured the first dominant big man that we had played against.  All of the big men on the other teams were more perimeter oriented but this team had a big bruiser who knew how to throw his weight around.  This was actually the first game where I felt a played a large impact in whether or not we won the game.  Our starting center got into foul trouble early and I played the fairly decent defense against their best player.  Kevin Hopkins, our starting 6’10’’ center, gave his testimony at halftime of this game.  It has an amazing story.  When he was born, doctors found a large whole in his heart and thought that they would have to perform a very dangerous surgery.  His mother took him to a healing service before going to surgery where he dad made a “deal” with God.  He told God that if He healed his son he would dedicate his life to him.  When they took Kevin back to the hospital the doctor was astounded and could only find “the smallest pinhole.”  Kevin’s father then became an Episcopal priest and was faithfully dedicated to the Lord until he passed away.  I know that the kids listened to Kevin if for no other reason that he was SO TALL!  (Sidenote Kevin just got a contract with a team to stay over and play in Germany, praise God!).
 
Our last game was against the Lauf team that we had been working with all week.  Matt was their star player and some of their other players were volunteering at camp all week.  We were supposed to beat the team by a lot because we were much more talented.  But we ran into two problems.  One, this was the last game of tour and we had been working camps and playing ball for three consecutive weeks and two, Lauf was really fired up for this game.  It was Matt’s last game as a professional player and they would have loved nothing more than to beat the American News Release team.  In an attempt to reward a couple of guys for their hard work during tour, we even changed our normal starting line up.  All of these factors combined for a very poor beginning.  We didn’t have much chemistry and definitely had no energy on the court.  Guys were frustrated and made mistakes that they would NEVER make otherwise.  The Lauf team was able to gain so much confidence that one of their players even stated “They’re not that good!” as a way to pump up their team.  As a player this comment greatly upset me and I attempted to use it as a rallying cry to get our guys to play a little harder.  It worked for just a little while but our fatigue was tough to overcome.  After making a little run at the end of the half, we went into our last halftime presentation with some good energy.  Our last presenter was Mike Rose, the FUNNIEST GUY ON TOUR and because it was the last campers came up to join us for our songs.  It was a great halftime and Mike really impressed with his story about God being his shield through every situation.  After halftime we fought back and eventually we won the game after some gutsy plays from our starters.
 
The games were an incredible experience and it was good to know that if I worked hard enough I still have a little something left in the tank.  God moved through the halftime presentations as well as through the games and I believe that his named was glorified through it all.  Tomorrow I’ll update you on how the actual camp went in Lauf (preview, IT WAS INCREDIBLE).

 

Almost Home
So let me first apologize for not updating the Blog this week.  Our accommodation's in Lauf were very nice, and we stayed with another incredible Christian family but access to the internet was very difficult (its Saturday Morning and this is the first time I've been at a computer all week).  I promise that when I get to the office on Monday I will write an extensive and detailed summary of this last week.  But for now suffice it to say that God has been SO INCREDIBLE here in Lauf.  We have new friends, lots of new stories, and we won all of our basketball games.  Nelly and I each had the opportunity to preach this week and the kids were really receptive to what God had to say through us.  Please pray for our safe return because we will be in the air all day Sunday.  Also, the airline that we're flying on, Lufthansa, has been on strike on and off since we've been over here, please pray that they don't cancel our flight.  We can't wait to see everyone and share more about our experience and hear about what God has been doing at home.  Be Blessed Fam and we'll see you soon!
 
Tim and Nelly

News Release Blog July 31, 2008  
We got pics!

This is just one of the beautiful views from our hosts house.

You have not because you ask not right?  Well our host had a USB card reader the whole time that we've been here and we did not even think to ask her for it.  Ridiculous!  Let me update you right quick before the pics.  The show match in downtown Lorrach went very well last night.  We set up a basketball hoop literally in the middle of their town square, added a microphone and started to witness to the goodness of Jesus.  One of our German leaders got everyone's attention and then we just threw down some dunks to get a couple of oohs and aahs.  Call it the Holy Ghost, adrenaline, or whatever but I even got up and threw down one!  God really is good.  Anyway, like I said yesterday we shared some testimonies and sang a couple of songs along with our basketball demonstrations. The women's News Release Team is in Lorrach with us this week and they joined us in the exhibition. Both their player and our player shared testimonies about how God has kept them after they both experienced the death of a parent at a young age.  This was not planned, by us at least.  God the leaders of the women's tour to put up that specific young lady and God placed it on my heart and the heart of our my co leader to put up that specific guy. All I could do was sit back and praise God.  They both did an excellent job and it led to some conversations with people afterwards.

After our show match we got ice cream, or eis as they call it over here.  The place we went to was an italian ice cream spot and the local folk said it was the best in town...I DEFINITELY CAN NOT DISAGREE!  Nelly and I both had Spaghetti Ice, which is just one of many ingenious concept ice cream sundaes you can get.  They take vanilla ice cream (or chocolate chip if you ask like I did) and make it into strings so that it looks like noodles.  Then they put some strawberry sauce on top of it that looks like tomato sauce and finally 'meatballs' that are made of chocolate.  SO GOOD!  It would be cute even if it was just ok ice cream and it looked as cool as it did, but this ice cream was amazing.  I'd bring some home, but I don't think it would make it through the flight (ha ha).  After that life changing experience, we got a chance to tour downtown Lorrach.  While not a big downtown it did have a lot of nice stores.  These European folk dress very well and their clothes are as expensive as advertised.  We saw a couple of sale signs and got excited.  Their were some shoes that Nelly liked that were 40% off.  We thought they were a good deal until we realized that the price we saw had already been reduced by 40%.  Nice, but WAY out of our price range.

I'm about to leave for our last game in about an hour and tomorrow is the last day of camp.  After camp tomorrow we have a special evening ceremony where the different small groups do a couple of performances and we all get to say goodbye.  I'll say it now, Im going to cry, I definitely am, I'm trying to prepare for it now.  Our group is going to do a skit that models the parable of the Good Samaritan and you know we had to include some dancing.  We will be remixing the soldier boy dance with our own words to either a Kirk Franklin or Tye Tribett song.  I mean I had to dance a little bit right?  So without further adieu, some pics.

PICTURES!!!

This first picture is of me and Nelly at the Colorado Rockies game in Denver.  That was my first Major League baseball experience and a very fun one!

This is a picture of the team right after a meal while still in Colorado. What a crazy bunch we ar

Me and my little friend Jacob, the boy from the house we are staying in.

This is me beside  one of the little German cars that they have over here.

 

This is the Camelion, the cafe that is owned by the YMCA or CVJM in German, that we have been working with.

This is the team at halftime of the game. The brother in the middle is about to give his testimony.

 

This is my little friend Dina, the girl at the house where we are staying.

 

Morning Praise and Worship!!!

 

 

News Release Blog July 30, 2008  

Halfway Home

Today is both a happy and sad day.  If you include the time that we spent in training camp, today marks the halfway point of our trip.  In a little less than 2 weeks, Nelly and I will be returning to good ol Springfield, MA.  Of course we miss all of our friends and family, but it is going to be very difficult to tear ourselves away from all of our new brothers and sisters that we have here in Lorrach (and the ones that we will make in Lauf next week).  But before I get all sentimental, let me update you on what has been happening the last couple of days.
 
I'll start with the basketball games.  We are now 2 - 0.  Our first game was Sunday night against the team from Lorrach.  It took us a little while to find our groove, and we were actually losing about 2 minutes into the second quarter.  At halftime we had our first guy share his story with the crowd.  It is really an interesting shift in emotions and spirit to go from playing and sweating and running up and down a basketball court to singing some songs of praise and worship and then have a guy share a testimony.  Since it was our first game, we asked on of the guys that had been on tour before, Aaron, to share with the crowd.  He was a little nervous but he did an excellent job.  We were able to use the energy from our halftime time of sharing to propel us into the second half.  After being up only by 12 in the first half, we quickly jumped up to a 25 point lead and cruised the rest of the way.  I knew that it was going to be a good half when the first play was an alley oop to Aaron, it was a thing of beauty.  I played fairly well our first game though I was sore and still a bit jet lagged like everyone else.  But I contributed and played my role well.  God has blessed us with a group of guys that dont mind sacrificing for the team.  We could probably all score more but we realize that playing together will allow us to blow people out and that way everyone gets to play, even old guys like me!
 
Our second game was last night and again we won by about 25 or so.  However this game was close until the fourth quarter.  It was exciting to watch because the other team had some good players but our 'Christlikeness' was definitely tested.  So the other team had this guy that has been playing for Switzerland for a little while (he was there when I came in 2004).  He is about 6'7'', bald headed and fairly large (about my build).  He began talking trash even before the game began.  And I don't mean friendly, we want to beat the Americans and smile kinda trash, I mean foul mouthed, mean spirited sort of trash talk.  In the game he would constantly throw elbows at me and kept saying one foul phrase to me OVER and OVER and OVER (lets just say that the phrase involves one very harsh four letter word and a three letter word).  He was trying to get us to respond, get a technical, or really show that we were like every other team.  Well Christ got teh victory because we won, everyone kept their cool (including myself praise the Lord) and I was able to give him some nice physical play right back to him.  Playing for Christ does not mean playing weak and we didnt back down from competition, we simply avoided going outside of the rules and doing things with a mean spirit.  He actually plays for the team that we play tomorrow and Im expecting some more of his antics, but we'll be nice and prayed up and ready for whatever.
 
The experience at camp has also been blessed by God's presence.  Everyday we arrive at the gym at about 8:45 to set up for worship.  At 9 we begin to have a time of prayer and worship for the team and the workers at the camp.  The kids are supposed to come at 9:30 but inevitably some end up coming earlier.  It is amazing to watch the kids inch up and join us in worship.  At 9:30 camp begins and we have some worship time for the kids followed by a speaker.  The Youth Pastor that I heard preach this past Sunday and this other young lady have been preaching every other day.  The messages all have a sports theme and they are very good at using different props and things to illustrate their points.  For example on the first day the youth pastor had 15 jerseys in his bag that the kids would be familiar with.  He talked about what the symbols on each jersey meant and then ended up asked what the symbol on our News Release jersey meant (its a cross).  This led him into talking about what kind of symbol do we want other people to see when they see us, and what team we want people to know that we are on, etc, etc.  Everyday the messages have been amazing, even though I get them second hand through an interpreter.  But even though I get in translated, most of the time, I can actually tell the translator what I think is being said and just about everytime she just nods her head nad says yes.  Don't ever doubt the Holy Spirits ability to unify God's people.  After the speaker we break into small groups and I get a chance to really spend some time with some of the kids.
 
I'll talk more about my small group later but suffice it to say I have a very interesting mix of kids, four of which are actually the children of missionaries, already on fire for the Lord and fluent in English.  Amazing.  After small groups we do some basketball training and around 1 we go to lunch.  I have absolutely zero complaints about the food, Zer Gutt (very good in German).  After lunch we break the kids up into teams and play games for the rest of the afternoon.  My team, the Cleveland Cavaliars, actually play a lot like the real Cavaliars.  WE have a really good player that must do most of the work, and if he is on we win, if he is off we lose.  But the whole time the kids are having fun and I'm screaming my butt off at the officials, in jest of course.
 
I have to go now because we have a 'showmatch' in downtown Lorrach in about half an hour.  We we hold a little dunk contest, a 2Ball contest, a little three on three, and then sing some songs and share a couple of our stories (what we might call testimonies).  But before I go I have to update you on Nelly's time at camp.  She is actually working with the younger kids in a modified version of our camp.  They are with us in the morning for praise and worship and then they go to their own gym to sing some more songs and play more kid friendly games.  They do basketball training but of a much, MUCH less intense variety.  The best part of their camp is that they get to go on field trips.  They went to the pool yesterday and tomorrow they get to play a very fun game of hide and seek in the town.  Nelly will be dressed up as a mother with and the kids will have to search the downtown to find her.  They are even letting Nelly carry around a real live baby.  This game ties into the series of skits that they have been watching all week about a detective searching for God's team.  Very cute and effective for the Lord.
 
I'll do my best to update again tomorrow instead of waiting a couple of days and as far as pics go, umm, still working on it, love ya and miss you!
Tim and Nelly

 

News Release Blog July 27, 2008

We have been surrounded by incredible people since our arrival.  Nelly was mentioning that EVERYONE we've met has been nice and I can't disagree with her.  The Christians here are amazing.  Clearly they are doing everything in their power to be hospitable to us, and we are doing our best job to out serve them!  The Holy Spirit is so present in everything that we do here.  This has to be what life is supposed to be like.  When you are in a community of folk that really, REALLY, love the Lord and want to put him first, we can truly live that abundant life.  I don't want you to think that we are around perfect people, because we definitely aren't, but we are all trying to hard to be like Jesus that life is enjoyable.  Im tired, but tired because Ive been spending time with my little friend Jacob and playing CHESS and playing WII and praying with folk and reading the Bible and playing basketball to the glory of the Lord and eating good German food and walking everywhere I go... This is a good kind of tired, when you can look at your day and say that it was for the Glory of God, and that the difficulties were for a purpose, instead of stress with no advance... I could go on, but let me update you on what we've been doing...
 
ok, I'll admit, no pictures yet.  Nelly left the cord at home, but don't worry, I'll get one of the other players to email me some pictures so I can put them up.  Saturday, our host family took us to a ropes course.  Basically there were a bunch of different ropes hanging from tree to tree up in the forest and we swung around, climbed around, and even ziplined down the ropes.  You can learn a lot about faith from a ropes course!  WE had to trust in our harnesses or we would have been paralyzed by fear.  Normally, I would have been scared to death of being so high in the air, (about 100 ft) with only some ropes holding me but my experience in the mountains of Colorado last year helped me get over my fear.  My experience of heights last year helped me deal with those heights this year.  Because I struggled to get to those mountain tops, I could handle these ropes no problem... let me stop because that is a sermon, God will allow us to go through things so that when we face similar situation in the future we are no longer afraid because we can rest in the fact that God was with us already! ok ok, back to the update...
 
On the way home from the ropes course we just picked some berries on the road and ate them.  I really enjoy country life, can you imagine walking down the street in Springfield and picking anything off a tree and eating it?  Definitely not!  After some time relaxing in the house we went back to the YMCA (CVJM) for a welcome BBQ with the people who will be working the camp with us.  We ate very well and enjoyed our time together.
 
My host family lives about 15 minutes from all of the places where we need to be so we walk everywhere.  I am going to be forced to get into shape.  But I must say that its easy to walk in such a beautiful place.  Lorrach is not a big city, just a small town with lots of nice people.  I get emotional, already, thinking about our host family and the sacrifice that it must be to host us.  The mom gave us her upstairs room to stay in, they are feeding us every day and they even took care of our tickets to the ropes course.  I know that its not easy for a single mom anywhere and we are so grateful.  I can also tell that she appreciates the time we spend with her but even more so her kids.  Jacob is my new little buddy and Ulrike (our host) has mentioned on multiple occasions how happy she is to have a man spending time with him.  I guess even in Germany, you need to see a man to be a man.
 
Today we went to church with our families and I must say that I was BLESSED by the experience.  We had translators so that we could understand what was going on and they did most of their worship songs in both German and English so that we could participate (although I think they do that most Sundays anyway).  The church we went to normally has two services but because everyone is on Holiday (what we would call vacation), they have switched to just one service.  One of the leaders of our camp is a Deacon at the Church and he called us up to the front of the church.  We answered a few questions and they prayed for us.  I was very moved by the experience, God's Spirit is alive all over the world.  We must expand our view of God and stop placing Him in our nice little American box.  But anyway, the sermon was excellent as well.  Their youth pastor spoke!  A coincidence, I think not.  He was dressed a little nicer than most of the people in the congregation (most people had on casual summer wear) but he gave a powerful and relevant sermon about choosing the Christ despite the pain that comes with it.  He pointed out that you could avoid some pain and sorrow by not coming to Christ, but that then you would have to deal with the pain of not having a relationship with Christ.  It was actually somewhat similar to my last sermon 'I didn't sign up for this.'  We will connect more over the course of the week and I'm praying that our youth ministries will be able to do something in the future.  After his sermon he lead the church in communion and again I was so blessed by the experience.  He gave a great example before communion about the bread and wine not being something that we take and throw away but that it be something we hold onto all week.  They passed the cup around and also passed the bread around so that everyone could break off pieces for themselves (for you germophobes out there don't worry, we passed the bread while holding it with cloth and they sanitized the side of the cup while it was being passed around).  Though I don't speak great German (just a few words really) I understood everything that was going on.  I'm here to testify that the gift of interpreting tongues is not just about understanding unknown languages but it also is about God allowing us to fellowship in his spirit despite language barriers.  I cant say enough about how much I am freshly experiencing God's Spirit.
 
Please continue to pray for us, camp starts tomorrow and we have our first game tonight.  Again we should be able to dominate but the referees here do not like Americans so we will not get any calls.  We are praying for our church family as well and we know that God has you in his hands just as he has us in his hands and as he has this whole world in His hands.  Stay tuned for more updates and hopefully some pictures (and even video if possible, I have a couple of great videos of Nelly swinging down a zipline).  Also we can answer your emails so dont hesitate ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).  Be Blessed Fam!
 
Strong in Him and the Power of His Might (Ephesians 6:10),
Tim and Nelly

 

News Release Travel Blog - July 26, 2008
 
I am writing from Germany!  But before I update you on what its like over here, I have to tell you how training camp finished up.
 
The team spent a lot of good time in prayer and sharing to finish up the camp.  The brothers (and the two ladies were able to get very close through the Lord.  We talked about everything and I was so amazed at the openness that everyone showed with each other.  We trained hard, played hard, studied hard and God gave the increase.
 
Thursday we spent the morning running around getting last minute things for a trip.  God blessed me with a free pair of contacts from the vision store.  Lord knows I didn't want to buy a whole box but the people were so nice that they gave me a free pair.  One thing thing that God has already showed me is that we must be thankful for all of the seemingly little things that we often take for granted.  Everyone picked up those last things and then we made our way to the airport for the LONG flight.
 
We are traveling with some guys that are a lot taller than me so I had to let them take all of the exit row seats on our plane so lets just say that I was a bit uncomfortable for all NINE HOURS OF THE FLIGHT.  In fact, I ended up putting towels in front on my knees to ease the pressure against the seat in front of me.  But I can't complain, God was very good to me on the flight.  It didn't feel like it was that long and the flight attendants took good care of us.  It seemed like every ten minutes they were bringing a snack, something to drink, dinner, or my favorite a hot towel.  They bring a hot towel to refresh yourself with.  That's one European custom we may have to bring back to the states.  I was able to finish an entire book, listen so good Gospel music and watch a movie while in flight.
 
After the nine hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany we took a short flight to Basel, Switzerland.  Lorrach, Germany, where we are staying for the first week, is right on the French, Switzerland, German border so its easier to fly to Basel, Switzerland and then drive to Lorrach (kinda like flying to Hartford and driving to Springfield instead of flying to Boston).  Our luggage made it safely across the ocean and we were warmly welcomed by our hosts.  It was good to see my friend Marian who was here when I came four years ago.  Now he has a cute little addition to his family a beautiful daughter named Adina.
 
They brought us from the airport to the YMCA (CVJM in German).  After relaxing for a bit we got a orientation for the camp to take place next week and then we went home with our host families.  I'm writing this blog from the house of Ulrike Rubner, a beautiful sister in the Lord.  We are staying with her and her two children Jacob (10) and Dina (13).  They have made us feel so at home in just a day.  The food is excellent and the pace of life so much slower than at home.  We just sit back, relax, and eat breakfast in her garden.  Ulrike is a single mom with a story very similar to a lot of mothers in America.  I am SO AMAZED at how we are one in Christ.  Ulrike speaks good English and her children are learning as well but the Spirit of God has made everything so comfortable.  I can't say enough how good God is!  We've already begun to minister to each other.  Also, to show you how God works, Ulrike's downstairs neighbor is from Portugal and speaks fluent Spanish, English, and German.  That made Nelly and I even MORE comfortable since we could converse in Spanish.  We were down in her garden last night speaking all three languages at the same time.  I can't help but think that this experience was something like Pentecost must have been like.  All kinds of different languages but everyone understanding because of the Spirit.  AGain, GOD IS SO GOOD!  And now after a GOOD NIGHT'S REST, we are going to explore the town of Lorrach a little bit.
 
We pray that all is going well back at home and we feel your prayers!  I'll do my best to update this frequently since we have access to Ulrike's computer at her home.  Feel free to email me with questions and I'll answer them in this blog.  Also I'll do my very best to include some pictures in my next update. 

God Bless you family!
Tim and Nelly

 

News Release Basketball Travel Blog - July 22, 2008
Already, in just a couple of days of tour we have been challenged, inspired, frustrated, and ultimately comforted by the grace of God.  All of our players have arrived here in Berthoud, Colorado on Sunday afternoon and we have been trying to grow as a team ever since.     

God has already showed Himself very strong by making some amazing travel arrangements.  One of our players missed his flight but was able to use his ticket on one airline to pay for a ticket on another airline and ended up coming into the airport at the same time as everyone else.  This is just one of what I’m sure will be a bunch of mini-miracles throughout our tour.    

Sunday we spent a good deal of time just trying to get adjusted to our new location and introducing ourselves to one another.  It really would be impossible to form a cohesive unit of basketball players and evangelists in such a short time.  We only have a couple of days to get on the same page on the basketball court and in terms of doing ministry.  To add to this already difficult process, we have guys from all over the country, from different ethnic backgrounds, and at varying levels of spiritual maturity (kinda like the church huh?).  But Praise God that we are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, and that there is no Jew or Greek, no black or white, no male or female, no southerner or westerner, no mature or immature but that we are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26-28).    

Monday we had a chance to fellowship and learn from Steve Sorenson, the Executive Director of News Release Basketball.  Just being in his presence is inspiring.  He is absolutely in love with the Lord and feels that News Release is the ministry that God has called both him and his family to.  He gives everything for the Lord through News Release and hearing him speak about the program almost brought me to tears.  When you have a passion for Christ that strong its contagious to others around and even sometimes convicting to those that know they are not quite giving their all for the Lord.

I have to update you about how things are going on the court.  We have an amazing team, in fact, I feel kinda short on this team!  The guys are great players and we’re having good chemistry on the court.  And um, yea, I’m playing pretty good, but after two practices yesterday, I must admit, it’s kinda hard for me to walk this morning.  Please pray for my strength!

Nelly is working very hard leading worship and helping to disciple the team.  She has an awesome task in front of her; getting nine basketball players to be enthusiastic about worshiping God and to sound halfway decent while we do it. But she’s doing an excellent job of fellowshipping with the team and building relationships.  I firmly believe that as she and our other worship leader build relationships with the players, the easier it will be to get us to worship. By the way, it is HILARIOUS to see her walking next to Kevin Hopkins, one of our players that is 6’10’’.

God Bless you all and we’ll do our best to keep you updated. Thanks for your prayers and we miss you!
Tim and Nelly

CRUNCH TIME! - July 9, 2008   

This trip that has been in the works for months is coming closer and closer to actually happening. I can’t believe it.  It seems like only yesterday Nelly and I were praying about whether or not to accept the invitation to co-lead this tour and now we are less than two weeks away from being used to spread the word of God overseas.  News Release Basketball is an incredible organization that has been spreading sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Europe for over 30 years (www.nrbasketball.org).  Basketball is the hook but spreading the Gospel is the ultimate goal of the News Release program.  Preparations for tour have been hectic and as usual there are some road blocks in the way, but we have faith that God WILL WORK EVERYTHING OUT! 

For the past couple of months Tim and I (yes that’s not a typo, the other leader of the tour is named Tim as well) have been trying to form relationships with all of the members of our team through phone calls and emails.  Our team has been circulating email devotionals and dedicating ourselves to praying for one another and the tour itself.  Before we actually go overseas, we will meet in Denver, CO for a few days of “training camp.”  This will be an intense time of prayer, discipleship, and basketball preparation.  Our spiritual connectedness is extremely important as is our ability to spread the word of God, but we also have to work well together on the court.  Our time in Denver will hopefully allow us enough time to gel both on and off the court.

There are exciting times ahead as we take a giant leap of faith and step into a culture that we are not necessarily familiar with to give them the good news that we have.  Jesus asks us to go forth to all of the nations and make disciples (Matthew 28:19).  We ask that you begin to pray for us that we would be able to do just that as we head over to Lauf and Lorrach.  I’ll do my best to keep this updated as often as possible so you can share in our victories for the Lord and know how to pray for us. 

Be Blessed Saints!   PT