Basketball Maui

I know that a lot of people scoff at how often I go to Hawaii for Recruiting and ministry. I would too if I were them, but I have to say that God is truly using Crossover in Hawaii in ways that astound us!

Last year, we were invited to join Basketball Maui and NBC camps to run a 5 day camp on the island of Maui. (Basketball Maui is a non-profit basketball ministry of Hope Chapel, Kihei.) We decided that we would invite all of our alumni to join us and 14 of them came! We helped facilitate a 5 day camp for 270 kids in two different cities on Maui using 5 different gyms. It was an incredibly crazy week, but it was amazing to see the kids and community respond. Several NBA players came out for a "Night of Shooting Stars" charity exhibition game. Several of our alumni were allowed to play in the game as well. The week and the surrounding events provided dreams come true for many people. We were thrilled to be part of the ministry with Basketball Maui and Hope Chapel.

As a bonus, Hope Chapel provided with us with housing so that we could stay a few extra days following the camp to enjoy the Island. We used this time as an Alumni Retreat. We had a blast re-connecting with past tour participants, worshipping together, and seeing the sights on the Island.

Here are a few pictures from our adventures:

Leadership Boot Camp

Every year, we have a weekend before tour where we have all of our tour leaders come to Denver for a training weekend. We go over logistics, rosters and do a lot of bonding so that we are all on the same page when we get to training camp with the players.

This year, we had 6 leaders and coincidentally, we all live in Denver! We did a day camp at a local Juvenile Corrections facility to model what a day of camp overseas would look like. It was cool to hang out with the kids and get to know them a little bit. We have received letters from a couple of them, and hope to go back to do more camps in the near future.

All in all, it was a great weekend, and we are excited to see how God uses these leaders on the trips this summer!

L-R: Zo Azubuike, Heather Anthony, Troy Cohen, Kirby Beneventi, Me and Susan Beardslee.