Celebrating 39 Years of Ministry With
stories of impact
As we close out 2024, we’re excited to share some of the impactful stories from over the years with you.
Leading up to Christmas, we will highlight different people’s stories and testimonies from different areas of our ministry: Prison Ministry, Sports Mission Trips, Basketball Teams, and more. These stories showcase the lives touched, the hearts changed, and the communities transformed through your support and God’s power.
Your prayers and generosity have helped this life-changing work continue. Let’s end this year by celebrating God’s goodness together. Thank you for being a vital part of Sports Reach.
Read the stories below!
Join our email list at the bottom of this page or follow us on facebook to be notified when a new story is shared.
stories of impact
“Sports Reach is a phenomenal outreach program that travels everywhere to try to bring people to Christ. I was in prison, had I not been I probably wouldn’t have found the Lord. My life was headed to destruction. These guys give up their life on the outside to come in and try to reach people with lost souls. For years I ran and ran and ran, but October 16, 2009 I gave my life to Christ. I’m so grateful to that, that I can say I’m standing here a free man because of Sports Reach.”
– Jimmy Powell
My name is DeWayne Gibson, I am the senior pastor at Parkway Baptist Church in Hodgenville and a special education teacher in the LaRue County School District in central Kentucky. I have been truly blessed to be a part of Sports Reach for the past 25 years.
In 1999, Robby Speer asked me if I would be interested in going on a softball mission trip to China with him. At this point, I had surrendered my life to Christian ministry for nearly 15 years and yet had never been on a mission trip quite like this. Using a sport to share Jesus—count me in!
From that moment until now and until the day Jesus calls me home, I believe in and will be involved in this ministry. I have seen Jesus use these sports and other games that we are passionate about to share the Gospel. I have seen the effectiveness of this ministry from foreign countries to some of our most hardened prisons across the United States. I have been so blessed to see God open doors to Sports Reach to come in that were otherwise closed to anyone else. And I truly believe the heart of Jesus lives in Robby Speer as he continues to grow this ministry and reach the lost for Jesus.
I have been SO blessed to be a part of this ministry and now that I am retiring from public education, I look forward to a lot more involvement.
Over the years, I have learned so much from Robby and the Sports Reach ministry, but mostly, I have learned that to reach people, you have to love them right where they are. I am so thankful for Sports Reach, and I look forward to how the Lord will use this ministry as the years go by. God’s Glory!