What is a Basketball Missionary?

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This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Missions Monday today. So what's your basketball mission? I don't know if you ever thought about that.

Maybe you've got one. We would love to hear from you today. We always would. This is a live show, and your calls make it. 866-348-7884, 866-348-7884, and so fun. We have Crossfires Ministries here with us today. Jamie Johnson, fresh from the Philippines, where you guys have had a chance to do your evangelical ministry, right? Through sports? That's right, buddy.

Randy Shepherd's on the line with me. We just got back from being in the Philippines about the 20th time we've been there, and six basketball games, many schools, churches, and over 6,500 professions of faith. It was an amazing trip. Did you say 6,500? That's right, 6,500. Randy gets out there and spins the ball, and we both take turns sharing the gospel, and they're very open, you know, to Christ. And basketball, they love basketball there more than we do in the United States.

They're crazy about basketball. And so what would you say is the average age of these 6,500 folks that came to Christ? Probably high school age and adults. We were able to preach the gospel in the public schools in the Philippines, where you couldn't think about doing that in America. We have about 1,500 students sitting before us.

We use the basketball to get their attention in a stage-like setting, very attentive audience. And then we present testimonies. We give the gospel. They're about 95% Catholic in the Philippines, so when you talk about grace and the true gospel of the Word of God, they really respond. And we're very conservative with our numbers. These are folks that raised their hand or stood to their feet that were making a public profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you know, brother, we often, as evangelists, you get accused of numbers, but we try to make sure that we're very conservative. There are pastors there that come up behind us and talk to them about how to grow where the local churches are. And so it— Are you still there? Well, and since they're on the same line, that's a bit of a challenge, so we are going to try to get Randy and Jamie back. They are with Crossfire Ministries, and again, they have an amazing sports ministry that shares a gospel, you know, through the ministries include church preaching, international trips, summer basketball camps, Crossfire, ACC All-Star Classic exhibition games, student rallies, school assemblies, college university games, inner city outreach, Upward Banquet Summer Olympics outreach, golf tournaments, NCAA Final Four outreach, Holy Lands outreach, and let's see, exhibition games, prison outreach, softball games.

I mean, they do it all. So Jamie, are you guys back with us? Yes, sir.

I'm here at Randy's with us as well. Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you both now.

I don't know what happened, but sometimes that happens. We were talking about, in the Philippines, they had 6,500, like, youth and I guess a little bit older than that that were professions of faith, but also, as you were talking about, the pastors come out alongside the people, have raised their hand or stood up and begin to connect them to the local body of Christ, and so you guys have been doing that. Did you say you've been going to the Philippines for 20 years?

Yes, sir. And so you've had a chance now, I imagine, to see a lot of those folks that you probably were part of how they were led to the Lord back 20 years ago, and the fruit of that is kind of where they're opening the doors for you now? Yes, we had one at Maspate, it's an island, that three churches were started several years ago from the halftime and from the conversion, so there's a group of pastors there that have an association across the Philippines that one of them here is about crossfire coming to their house, and they request to the leader, Pastor Adore, can you bring them to our area? So we'll go into an area, we'll speak in two schools a day, we'll play a game at night, and everything is evangelistic.

We spoke 19 times. Jamie and I pretty much do the speaking, one of us will share a testimony, one of us will give the gospel, because the time is very precise, and we want to be very precise and make the gospel very clear to them. So between the two of us, we spoke 19 times, we had six games at night, and three churches, in about a nine-day span, so it was an evangelistic outreach, and we just thank the Lord for those that pray and give, so Crossfire can go and share the gospel through the silly game of basketball. Right, well that's silly, but for some people, right, it's become their idol and all these interesting things, and so how do you deal with that in a young person that you know, you can see is clearly basketball, is there everything?

Go ahead, Jamie. Well, I mean, you know, it could be any sport, it could be music, it could be a child, a grandchild to a parent or grandparent, you can put something ahead of God, so we try to incorporate our stories, our testimonies of what we've experienced from middle school to high school to college, and with our players, you know, we've got guys that'll play collegiate, so we try to incorporate our stories, our guys that'll play collegiate, some pro in Europe, you know, you're going to have guys that are seven feet tall, six foot eight, six foot six, six foot four, whatever, and they're sharing their story at a school or halftime in a game, and you're out there dunking and shooting threes, and then you share how at one point for one player, basketball became his guide when he was in high school, the next guy, maybe it wasn't his guide, but it might have been too important, and so we try to help them understand from a biblical perspective how you can play that sport, basketball, football, soccer, whatever, and use your talent for Jesus Christ, just like Tim Tebow did when he, you know, got his following at Florida Gators and won the national championship and all that, we explain to them if you're going to play for the Lord, that's what matters, and everything you do, do it for him. Yeah, that's absolutely beautiful, and so turning your face now to the United States, right, you're back, and you guys are probably getting ready for the big summer. Yes sir, we have our 34th annual Crossfire basketball camps coming up, we have started out as just a dream 34 years ago just to play. I hate to jump in there, but apparently we've got to go to a break, so we're going to be right back, and we would, by the way, love your calls if you're listening today, we would love to hear from you, 866-348-7884, you got a question for Crossfire or a comment, we'd love to hear from you, we'll be right back. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live, today was a missions Monday day, and we get a chance to talk about what's your basketball mission, and we're here with the folks from Crossfire, both Randy and Jamie, but we also have Buskman on the line right now, and Buskin, you got a comment or a question for us, our guest today? I do, I think this is an awesome ministry, my son was highly influenced by the Upwork program, the Christian basketball Upwork program for little kids, and I just want to say that's really cool, and the question is, Robbie, I'm just wondering if the guys know how many of their people that come through Crossfire ended up in ministry, I would love to know that, ended up in either youth ministry or a pastor, are they doing church work anywhere, and I would love to know that, that'd be really cool. Thank you, Buskman. Hey guys.

That's a great question, appreciate the question, we're very familiar with Upward, Kaz McCaslin was a friend of ours, he started Upward within the Southern Baptist churches about the same time we started Crossfire, we're obviously independent ministries, they bring us in to speak at a lot of their banquets at the end of their season, where they share the gospel with the parents and the kids, they do devotionals along the way, and some churches present the gospel along the way, but they have a banquet at the end of the year, and we've been invited to come in, we're on the speaker's list for their banquet at the end of the year, but coming through, I guess, coming through our camps, we've seen a lot of, we've had 26,000 young people come through our summer camp program here in Western North Carolina, glory to God, we've seen a lot that have gone on to be in youth ministry, we've had pastors, we've had one player that came through that went on to play in the NBA, so our goal is to teach them how they can use basketball, you know, that they have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than making it to the NBA, that's statistics of players, seven percent of players will even get a college scholarship, so the majority won't, so we encourage them to use their walk with Jesus in their business and in the different avenues that they will go into, so there have been a good number that have gone into ministry, I don't have a definite figure for you, but we direct them all toward ministry, because wherever you're a plumber, you're an electrician, you're a farmer, you're a basketball player, you're a coach, that's your ministry that God wants you to use to reach the people around you. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Amen to that, wow, that's awesome. Thank you, Bussman, I appreciate it, you keep up the good work up there, all right? Will do, always good to talk to you, Robbie.

Same here, God bless. So, you know, it's really, when I, right before we went to the break, you guys were talking about getting warmed up for your summer season, which is more than amazing, and so I hated to cut you off right then, but go ahead, Randy, and go back to that. I'm gonna give an assist to Jamie, since I just gave that answer. Go ahead, Jamie, and update him on the camps, buddy. Yeah, sure, sure, you know, everyone can go to our website, first of all, at crossfireministry.com, and you can come back to that, Robbie, but you know, we have camps every summer, and we have kids ages from 6 to 18, half day, full day, overnight, and we have a variety of skill set, Robbie. We've got kids who've never played basketball, they learn fundamentals, we have boys and girls who are playing on travel at Uteens, we have players, boys and girls, that'll play college that are top level, so our camps will take those boys and girls, teenagers, high school, college-bound athletes, where they are, and move them forward on their skill set, so if a parent's listening right now, a grandparent, what you need to understand is that the camps are geared towards taking them and moving them forward, from dribbling, ball handling skills, shooting, defense, team play, from a Christian perspective, where Christ is honored, you know, the camps are really a benefit. When I grew up, Robbie, and Randy can see his story, I didn't go to a basketball camp, not that my parents wouldn't have sent me, but I didn't go, and I was cut from the ball team my freshman year in high school, and then the coach who cut me began to work with me. That's the camp concept. When we have these boys and girls come to camp, that's the half day, the full day, or overnight, we're going to work with them in a group setting, a group environment, very safe, Christ-centered, and they're going to learn a lot about basketball, and Randy and I hear this all the time, coaches will say at every level, high school in particular and in college, we don't have these athletes come in here with the fundamentals that they used to have on how they can dribble, pass, and see the floor and shoot properly, so you can play all the 505 you want to, we're not against that, we'll have some of that at the overnight camp and the full day camp, but our goal is to give them more confidence on the court. When I got cut, I didn't have confidence, but the more I got the training, the more confidence that I gained in playing the game of basketball. Yeah, that's it, I can remember all too well, you know, I was, believe it or not, I grew to six foot five from five foot seven in one year, and so I was like a walking bean pole, and I made the seventh grade basketball team in spite of the fact that I could not dribble, shoot, or do anything, but what they did was the coach just, he took me because I was, you know, so much taller than everybody else in the world, and he would just keep throwing the ball up against the backboard, Robbie get the rebound, Robbie get the rebound, send it to the outlet, send it to the outlet, put the rebound back in the back, that's all day long, I would guess for, you know, the month before our first game, that's all I remember doing is standing there and throwing the ball to an outlet or either putting it back in the basketball, never took one shot or anything, never dribbled, Robbie don't try to dribble, you just do this, and they're fond memories because, you know, it's really like you guys talk about, it's grace, is somebody really showing you favor, and when you get that from somebody that you respect, you know, they're really in a position to influence you on your faith. Exactly, and, you know, Jamie played at Gardner-Webb University, I played at UNC Asheville, and one of the reasons I got to play Division I basketball because I did take those fundamentals like you're talking about as an eight, nine, ten-year-old boy, and I worked on them every night in the driveway, in the kitchen floor, a lot of the pistol Pete Maravich drills, and which Stephen Curry's doing those drills now, and, you know, you go to the parks, a lot of AAU ball is geared toward running gun, which is fine, but as you said, we've had Division I coaches tell us and high school coaches tell us, I've got to reprogram these kids with the fundamentals after a summer of AAU ball, unless they have a really good coach that's incorporating the AAU, then they're just getting a lot of five-on-five, run and gun, and not getting the basics of the game. Yeah, I think that's, again, it's an opportunity. I know that I was certainly shaped by coaches, and I know you guys do, and I was really wondering, you know, you guys have been doing this a long time, and so I know that prayer plays a significantly huge part of what you do, and so I'm wondering if God ever has you change up, like in this season, he wants you to do something a little different through prayer. He lets you know this is a new direction I want you to go. Are you getting that? Well, we definitely pray, but every year kids are coming along that need the fundamentals.

Now, we may change the day certain speakers speak, but the gospel is the gospel, and the fundamentals are the fundamentals, and we will change a few things, but the old saying goes, brother, if the will's not broken, don't fix it, and we've been blessed to see fruit from the ministry, and we're open to the Lord changing us if there's a change, but fundamentals have been the same since the peach basket was incorporated, and so we stick to what the Lord's leading us to do, and yes, we're open for change if God wants to bring that. Yeah, okay. Well, when we come back, remember, it's crossfireministry.com. That's where you can sign up for their camps, see all about them, crossfireministry.com.

We've got a whole lot more coming up. We need your call, 866-348-7884. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live, and it's Mission Monday, and so as we've been talking with Jamie and Randy with the Crossfire Ministries, maybe it brings up a basketball memory for you, something a coach did that had to do with your faith. We would love to hear your story, your comment, or maybe your question. 866-348-7884 is the number to call in and share. 866-348-7884, again, Crossfire Ministries, fresh off the Philippines, but Jamie, you guys preach in churches all over the place, which is a neat part of what you guys do, right?

Yes, sir, Robbie. We both are blessed as ordained ministers. When we first started Crossfire, we had some local pastors that asked us some questions, made sure we were where we needed to be theologically, and as a non-denominational ministry, we've been able to see God open doors in churches. A lot of times when they see us on a ball court, they may think that all we do is basketball, but we love to go to churches, Robbie, and challenge from God's Word. A lot of times, both of us enjoy encouraging the congregations across non-denominational lines about how to share your faith and the things that maybe they deal with when they leave church, having confidence, not knowing what to say, what to expect, so we will preach messages as God puts them on our heart, but we love to challenge them from God's Word. What does it look like to share your faith?

You don't have to spin a ball like Randy or double ball or get a home run, all the baseball diamond. You can use your skill set as a lawyer, as an electrician, as a college coach, as a radio personality like you to share your faith, so those churches, when they have us come in, we love the opportunity to challenge not just the youth, maybe, but even the whole congregation. Oh, it's really fun. In fact, I spoke at a men's group last night in Lexington, North Carolina, and it's exactly what I was doing. It's explaining how easy it is to share, and how we're a witness in whatever capacity we are. Like you said, if you're a farmer or a mechanic, you're out there trysting wrenches, all those areas, you have an opportunity every day to meet people, influence them, be a witness for the Lord. And so for you, Jamie, has there been a memorable church experience that you might want to share with our listeners? Well, as far as memorable personally, you know, I grew up, Robbie, in the church. My father was a minister, a pastor, and so I had many times where God, you know, used something in my life in a church setting, whether it's my dad being the pastor preaching or not, but maybe my favorite one is outside of the church wall, because in church I always heard the gospel. You know, my dad preached the Word of God, rained the same thing, he heard the gospel preached in his church, but my favorite is how God used my Father, again going back to sharing the gospel, outside a church setting to reach me for Christ. I heard the gospel all the time, devotions with the family that dad would leave, but I got in trouble for breaking a window by accident, trying to hit a bird, hit my neighbor's car. He came down the driveway, I was afraid, didn't tell the trees, I lied, telling them that when he said, who threw the rock, I'll leave it on my friend Mike, and here I am a nine-year-old telling a lie.

He says, look, Jamie, go home, call today. And so he called my father, let him know I broke the window, and you handled a lie, we could fix the window later. So I get home, and the church setting again set the foundation of Bible stories, scripture memory, understanding God's grace, but Father, God above, praise the Lord, used my dad to use an example to get my attention that I would come to Christ on that day at age nine, because when I went to the bedroom to grab a belt, and he asked me to wait on him to come up shortly, I'm thinking, why not tell the truth?

And Robbie, I'm sitting there thinking, I deserve the weapon on the backside, I should have been honest. Dad comes in, shuts the door, gives me the gospel one more time. All the verses, Romans 3 23 for all of sin, and John 3 16 for God's soul of the world, and John 14 6, and he said he was the way to choose in life, and the Romans 10 9, and I'm sitting down this this whole gospel presentation, and next thing I know, he takes off his shirt, bends over the bed, it's just something because I love you, I'm gonna take your weapon today.

I want you to take that belt, and I want you to whip me on the back of the line and say stop. So you know, when you think about church experiences, thank God for them, but I'm going back to what Ring and I get to do, Robbie, and you with Radio, most people are not going to come to church on Sunday. They're doing everything but that, and if I were lost, I wouldn't go to church. So my dad, even though Christian environment took an opportunity to share the gospel with me in that bedroom, and no, I didn't whip him. I hit my knees, cried, and said, Dad, I finally understand what Christ did, and I put my faith in Christ that day. That is really powerful.

It really, really is, and it's fascinating. I had a very similar situation with my own dad. He, apparently, we must be of a similar generation, but again, I, you know, I would urge anyone out there that, you know, you, these are really accessible guys at Crossfire Ministries.com. You're looking for somebody to come in for your men's group. You're kind of looking for somebody to come in and preach. You know, again, CrossfireMinistry.com. It's a real opportunity, and of course, you know, the summer camps and all those things, and you guys speak at all sorts of events, and then you've even got ways for, I suppose, that, you know, more advanced basketball players that may want to do overseas missions, that kind of stuff. You got that going on, too, right?

Yes, sir. We just took five former college players with us. One was from Slippery Rock, one was from Western Carolina University, another from Western Carolina, and two other university players, and they went to the Philippines with us. Jackie and I call them our young guns. We still play some as our body lets us, but we've got young guns in that compete like we did when we were in our 20s and in early 30s, and so, yes, there's a prerequisite, obviously, Robbie, is that they know Christ as the Lord and Savior, and they're walking with the Lord. Otherwise, like some ministries, they'll take a player along that may not know the Lord, but we believe that makes the house divided, and we want players that know the Lord and love the Lord. They don't have to be spiritual giants.

They'll be willing to grow in their faith with the Lord, but they do have a relationship with the Lord, and we're on the same page. We're trying to use that basketball in the school, in the university, in the game, in the restaurant, in the gas station, in the hotel to share faith, and, you know, Jamie and I are bold with the gospel. God has called us as evangelists. You got preachers.

You got teachers. You got evangelists, but we try to train these young men. In fact, we just had a player that was with us on this trip, Doug Elks from Raleigh, North Carolina, 25-year-old, great, good player at Western Carolina. He's got a couple businesses going now, but he was wanting to learn how to incorporate the gospel in his businesses, and he told us both after this trip that he had been encouraged and learned so much, so glory to God. We're just trying to live the word out like you are, Robbie, and hopefully some will catch it and follow in. You more has caught and taught, so that's what we're trying to do with these overseas trips, evangelism and discipling younger players.

I did think of a church situation, though. You mentioned that Jamie won and that awesome story about his dad, but we recently got to do a student rally at Blue Ridge Community College in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and we were asked to give a gospel presentation at the end after a young lady who was 21 years old that unfortunately attempted suicide when she was 18. She was unsuccessful, thank God, but now she's in a wheelchair.

She travels the country, and she had done mostly secular programs. She's been on lots of secular programs that people would watch on TV, but they limit her on what she can share, but she's wanting to come out from that and begin to share her faith more, so she shared, and then we were asked to give the gospel at the end, and we saw over 100 students come forward and meet with counselors just six weeks ago in Hendersonville, North Carolina, that made life-changing decisions to the Lord, and those are 14, 15, and 16 year olds that hopefully will go on to grow in their walk of the Lord, and only heaven knows where they'll end up in their careers sharing the gospel. Oh, how amazing is that?

Absolutely wonderful, isn't it? That God opens up doors, and it's so obvious sometimes when you stand back and you watch a group of people come forward like that that, you know, somehow or another God just moved in that moment, and it's something to see, and of course I imagine those young guys that went with you, their lives will never be the same. It's like, man, I want more fruit like this, and trying to figure out how, you know, to incorporate more of that kind of thing in their everyday life, and so as those guys come back, where do they go from there? I mean, I'm curious if you got some type of program to bring them into the summer camps, or how do you continue to incorporate them in your ministry?

Exactly. Some of them are already coaching. Some of them have their own businesses like Douglas.

Some of them, we got one that's working at a drug alcohol rehab up in Kentucky, so most of them are plugged in already. It's just a shot in the arm for them, a mission trip. I encourage anyone that's listening here, if you've never been on a mission trip, really pray about it. People say, well, Randy, why do you have to go overseas to go on a mission trip?

You don't, but the Word of God says go into all the world, and it may be your Jerusalem may be Winston-Salem, your Judea may be Raleigh, your Samaria may be Asheville, your uttermost parts of the earth may be the Philippines. You know where God leads you, but hopefully they'll continue, as we know they will, and the ministries and the coaching positions they're already in. Yeah, and we'll be right back with a whole lot more on Crossfire and you.

So, welcome back to Truth Talk Live! Today, how fun on Missions Monday, we're talking about what's your basketball mission? We would love to hear, maybe you have a similar story along these lines, we'd love to hear yours, we'd love to hear your comments or your questions.

866-348-7884 is the number to call in and share, 866-348-7884. I'd love to hear from you guys. And again, today we have on Crossfire Ministries with Randy Shepherd and Jamie Johnson. They've been doing this for a long time, spinning basketballs and teaching young people the gospel through the game that they have loved and enjoyed, and God's called them to this very interesting ministry and wonderful ministry. You can hear that over 6500 professions of faith in the Philippines recently, and then obviously, you know, the discipleship that comes up behind that is so critical. But another thing that you guys do, and again, we want to mention that for the summer camps and all that kind of stuff, if you want to get them into your church, you want to go to crossfireministry.com. That's crossfireministry.com. But another cool thing you guys do, and I know there got to be stories with this, you do prison outreach?

Yes, sir. We've been in many prisons and across the land, and I used to go in with Chuck Colson in Prison Fellowship, but Colson is with the Lord now, and so we go more on individual basis. Back, you know, in the day, you could take a team in their basketball team and play against their basketball team, but times have kind of changed in the prison life, and so there's not a lot of teams going in now to play. They bring speakers in to speak, so we get to fall into that category, and recently we had an outreach up in Burnsville Spruce Pine area, and because of the silly game of basketball, if you will, and by the way, Dr. Naismith invented basketball, if you want to research it.

I know you probably have, Robbie, with those that are listening. He invented it as a tool for evangelism. He probably never dreamed that guys would be making multi-million dollar contracts now, but he had the old peach basket, but because of the silly basketball there at Burnsville Spruce Pine, there's about 500 inmates there. About 200 of them came to the gym, two different groups of 100, and there were about 40 inmates that publicly stood and indicated that they were putting their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and like you mentioned earlier, Robbie, we pray before we go. God has called Jamie and I as evangelists, but prayer is a key that's going to quieten their heart, and you know, we go in as speakers and we say, hey, would you please not talk? There's nothing special about us, but God is special, and we demand their respect from the beginning, and students and prisoners like that.

I think people are looking for parameters. We don't beat them over the head with the Bible, but we gain the respect, and then we share with them, and then the Holy Spirit takes over through the Word of God, but that was a recent prison situation that we had that the Lord really blessed. Oh, that's amazing, exciting stuff. I absolutely love it. Well, we got Mike is on the line with us. Mike's in Ohio, and so Mike, you got a comment for us.

Yeah, I got a comment for you. You know, I love what these guys are doing. My dad used to do it when he was a Sunday school teacher. He used to play basketball in the backyard and get all the neighborhood kids together and play basketball, and he would teach them the fundamentals and stuff like that, and this was back 50 years ago, and real quick story. He taught David and Goliath, and he was in the backyard, and he was slinging the sling in the backyard trying to hit, throw a rock at a pole, and he practiced over and over again, and when I was as a kid, I always make fun of him, and I said, Dad, you're never going to hit that thing with a pole, and then one day he's telling the story of David and Goliath, and where he goes out and says, Hey, kids, get some round stones and some round, you know, and then all the kids in the Sunday school class, they get the round stones. My dad grabs the first one, and he slings it, and it's going 100 miles an hour. He lets go of it, and it hits the basketball pole, and all the kids go, Oh my gosh, look at that. And another kid says, I bet you can't do that again, and he slings it around and around and around and around.

He lets it go, and it hits the basketball pole, and he does it three times in a row, and then my dad tells the story about David and Goliath, and everybody in my neighborhood. They're 50 years old, and they're friends of mine, and they're Christians, and I'm on Facebook with them, and their family's saved, and things are happening, so you wouldn't believe the weakness and what goes on just by being a Sunday school teacher and the influence you have, and then just training basketball kids and this and that. That's beautiful, Mike. I'm so glad for these guys, and I hope maybe one day I can get involved, you know what I mean? Hey, Mike, just go to crossfireministry.com. Yes, sir.

How fun is that? I love your story, Mike. Thank you for calling in today. God bless you, buddy.

I love you, man. Thanks. Powerful story, Mike.

If you can ever use us up there in Ohio, buddy, let us know. Thanks for sharing, buddy. Yeah, thank you, sir. God bless. Keep up the good work. You too, Mike. Bye-bye. That's quite a story.

I love it. So, you know, I know you guys, we don't have a lot of time left. Jamie, was there something you wanted to get said today that we haven't talked about? Well, I want to say something about, you know, Randy, my teammate. We're a team, and sometimes, parents, you're listening and you have teams that are challenged, and Randy is a great communicator with teams about his story. We don't have time for that today, maybe another show, but so often teams, you know, Robbie, teams are looking for answers, and the sports platform is a great way to connect with them, but, you know, there's kids that sometimes struggle with their identity, and they're depressed, and they have suicidal thoughts, and, you know, I want you to know that our ministry is welcoming the opportunity if you're listening. If you have a teenager that's struggling, we want to help you with that. You know, we're not professional counselors, but we want to love on your boys and girls, your teenagers. We do that appropriately with those that are present, with parents present, but if you've got a kid out there, teenagers, searching for answers, Randy's got a powerful testimony here sometime. You know, we both have stories we share. We want to encourage this next generation to get grounded in Christ.

It's so important. That's absolutely. Yes, and we just encourage your mom and dad to take advantage of the camp situation. You know, you can come to beautiful western North Carolina, hang out in the mountains for a Sunday through a Thursday, drop your nine-year-old to 18-year-old boy or girl off with us. We have the camp at Morris Hill University, air-conditioned dorms, all-you-can-eat food. We have three gyms going. We'll have an elementary gym. We'll have a middle school gym. We'll have a high school gym.

We'll have girls with girls, and just a great—God has blessed us. We've got a great Christian staff of over 20 coaches, men and women, and we'd love to have you come look up the camp online. Our half-a-day camps will be harder for you to make because they're in the Asheville area, but the overnight camp is for a Sunday through a Thursday, and we end it with a parent program on Thursday. You'll hear the ad on the great Truth Network on the different outlets, the different cities that they're in, but go check it out. Spread the word for us, and you know, parents are looking for something Christ-centered wholesome that brings in basketball, and we feel like we'll give them the best of both worlds, and we're so thankful for Stu and Robbie and the guys at Truth and what you guys do, and it's a great partnership with Truth and Crossfire Ministries. Oh, absolutely, and one more time, we're going to tell you, crossfireministry.com.

If you go to crossfireministry.com, you're going to see all sorts of resources, information, but of course places to register and invite them to your church or whatever it is that you're—that you might be a group that's gathering. They would love to come and share what they do, so I know the question that's on all of the Truth Talk audience's mind is, have you ever got Stu to come out? Because we know Stu's a great basketball player. Have you ever got him to go overseas or anything?

We're definitely open for that. Stu works so hard on all these radio stations that we can't get a week off for him, but I played basketball with Stu on a number of times. He played at the Masters College.

John MacArthur out in California. Stu's a great player. I call him Jack Sigma. You old-timers will remember Jack Sigma shot the ball above his head, but Stu makes some unbelievable shots. I'm not just blowing wind for him, but he plays well, and then you got Baller Nation. We like to get down to Winston when I'm in that area and play pick-up ball with those guys, and we'd love to have Stu go on a trip with us. Robbie, if you can get him a week to 10 days off, we'll sign him up. He needs it.

I'm just going to tell you, in the season—I'm not saying that because I always love to have him around. I absolutely do, but he's had a real season since his father's passing, and I would love to see him take some time, and I know that he would have a blast because, you know, as much as Stu loves basketball, there's nothing he loves more than seeing people come to Christ, and to take part in something like that I know would be so good for his heart and, you know, just being part of the fruit of what you guys have been able to do over the years and the partnership that we've had, it means so much very much to us as, you know, the next generation coming up, and clearly I love the fact that you guys are raising up guys to do what you do, you know, for the next go-round because, you know, that's part of what we get to do in the body of Christ is kind of work ourselves out of a job, right? We appreciate Stu. He's welcome anytime if somebody's listening and wants to write a check for him to go with us, we're going back to the Philippines in September, and we'd love to have Stu. Oh, I know, me too, me too, and so as we wrap things up today, again, we want to mention one more time if you go to crossfireministry.com, crossfireministry.com, and there you can register again for those summer camps or, you know, find out about Randy or, you know, maybe you want to come speak at your church, whatever your situation is, crossfireministry.com, and again, we thank you so much for listening. Stu tells me he's going to be back tomorrow. He's got a great show lined up for me tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure I'm doing Friday, and he's got Wednesday, so we're going to hear a lot from you guys this week. We thank you so much for listening, and thank you, Randy, and certainly thank you. This is the Truth Network.