“Lord, you put it in my heart to bring this basketball with me. I don’t know what your plans are and you know how much I love this game. I pray that in each country that You take us to, I be able to play and use it as a platform to share Your word and be a reflection of You. Whether that means playing with the pros or playing with children, I will use it for You. It’s my game, but for Your glory.”
I remember praying that prayer while we were walking on the Camino. I definitely prayed it with an expecting heart, but I was not prepared for the way he responded. He has provided an opportunity to play in each country we’ve been through, so far. But what He provided in Morocco was unexpected.
After college I was given the chance to play professional basketball overseas. Playing pro has always been a dream of mine and I remember when I was about 8 or 9 years old I promised my dad that I would make it. I promised that I would make something out of myself through this game because he didn’t. When the Lord told me I was going on the World Race, I didn’t want to put my dream on hold. I wrestled and fought with Him about delaying my dream and risking the chance to play. There is a very high chance that I lose my opportunity to play pro after the World Race. After a lot of prayer and going back and forth with Him, he gave me this sense of peace. I finally heard Him say “just trust me” and that was it. I chose to stay true to my commitment and follow Him around the world.
Fast forward a couple months and now we’re in Morocco. I didn’t have much opportunity to play. There weren’t any open courts to go play on and soccer is the sport that everyone plays. One day, I went to this “sports club” down the street from where we were staying and asked how much it would cost to play and when they were going to be open because they hadn’t been open our entire time of being there. Somehow, due to language barriers, I ended up talking to a guy who knew the coach of the national team. I walked out of there with a note telling me to return on Sunday at 4pm for practice.
I was pumped and couldn’t believe I was about to practice with the national team. They hadn’t even seen me play but, I’ll take it! Sunday finally hits and I headed to practice with my world race team (they were excited as well and wanted to support me). We showed up a few minutes early and no one was there. We waited for about 30 more minutes and still, no one showed up. I was devastated. I, honestly, wanted to cry. I was so excited to finally live out my dream and to be so close and not accomplish that, hurt so bad. I remember standing there with my head down asking God, “what’s going on?” and he responded quickly with “don’t miss it” and right as I picked my head up, this car drove by and the man driving, speaking perfect English, yelled “YO! Where you playing ball at?”. He pulled over and I went to talk to him and he said he was on his way home but, for some reason, felt the need to drive by the sports club to see if it was open. He said he had been looking into it for a while and started to give up on it, but wanted to check one more time.
He then invited me and another teammate to play basketball at a school with him. When we showed up, I was excited but not in the way I wanted to be. The guy I met forewarned me about the competition level not being very good so I somewhat lost interest in playing. As we started playing, though, more and more people were showing up and then, the unexpected happened.
Some players from the national team showed up to play.
I got to play against some of the professional players in Morocco! We actually beat them once and then they beat my team. I was able to exchange some contact info with them and I went home with the biggest smile.
But, the story didn’t stop there. God wasn’t finished.
A couple of weeks later, we met up with the guy I met and we traveled to another city to hang out for the day and, of course, play some ball. We actually brought a guy with us that played on the second division professional team in Morocco. So we’re playing and had been at this place for about 4-5 hours and we were all worn out. As we prepared to head home, we noticed a big pickup game going on. I was then informed that these guys were the real deal and some played on Morocco’s championship team and some were current players on the team. The coach was even there watching.
I HAD to get into that game somehow, and I DID.
During the game, the guy I was guarding asked where I was from and here’s how the conversation went..
Him: Where are you from?
Me: You speak good English, I’m from the states.
Him: Well yeah but what state?
Me: Oh, I’m from Indiana
Him: What part?
Me: A small town you’ve probably never heard of. Connersville??
Him: Oh cool I know Connersville!
Me: WHAT? Where are you from?
Him: I’m from here but I lived in Warsaw for a long time!
Warsaw is around 3 hours from my hometown and come to find out, this guy was the starting point guard for the championship Morocco National basketball team. The best team in Morocco basketball history. After we finished playing, He introduced me to the coach and the coach gave me his number and told me to contact him about workouts and we would go from there. I was unable to contact him, though, because he didn’t have WhatsApp. So, again, I thought “Man, I was so close. “
A couple more weeks go by and I randomly run into one of the pro guys on the street. I shared the experience of meeting the coach with him and he allowed me to contact the coach off his phone. When he answered, I reminded him of who I was and he said:
“I have been waiting for you to contact me! I am going to meet with an agent right now and we will get you signed and ready for the season. I will give him your number and he will call you.”
WHAT!?
I, obviously, did not sign to join the team. But I was as close as you can get to becoming a professional basketball player. I do, however, have the opportunity to return to Morocco after the World Race to join the team. It’s so crazy to me how I prayed that prayer at the beginning of our time hiking the Camino, in Spain, and He is answering it in ways that I wasn’t expecting. I said “playing with pros” when I prayed it, but I didn’t think it would actually happen. And to go along with all of this, a relationship and bond was formed with a guy that I will never forget and will hopefully be able to see sometime in the states!
I wanted to share this story with you all to tell you not to limit God. I want to tell you that when you pray, pray expecting that He will provide. Pray for crazy things. Don’t hold back in the things you pray for because you never know what He is going to do. Of course, use discernment and know that this doesn’t mean that He is going to give you every single thing you ask for. But know, that He hears you and will provide according to His will.
The journey doesn’t stop here. He’s still providing ways for me to play and to share while doing so. Therefore, until I can’t anymore, it’s in Jesus name I play.
