{"id":14579,"date":"2026-04-01T20:22:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=14579"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:35:12","slug":"the-last-supper-first-hymn-and-surprising-origins-of-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=14579","title":{"rendered":"The Last Supper, First Hymn, and Surprising Origins of Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Greetings!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every time I sleuth for news, I learn something that has escaped me all these decades. This time, it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/4-things-to-know-about-the-christian-origins-of-basketball.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the origins of basketball<\/a>\u2014invented for a mission purpose (Christian Post). Missionaries later carried their love of basketball, along with the gospel, to the nations. Did you know? Believers are still using basketball to build relational bridges today, as we reported some years ago in a story about <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=6897\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the first national Christian basketball team of Pakistan<\/a> (United Bible Societies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also never knew why we call this day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dictionary.com\/articles\/what-does-maundy-thursday-mean#:~:text=On%20its%20own%2C%20the%20word,disciples'%20feet%20on%20Maundy%20Thursday.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Maundy Thursday<\/a>. Here\u2019s a hint: I just might wash my husband\u2019s feet today. This special day reminds us of the Last Supper. By the way, the 2025 movie of that name, produced by Chris Tomlin, is now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/video\/detail\/B0D84QHHJC\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">available to rent on Amazon Prime<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Tomlin has been busy. You might also be interested in a documentary he was part of.&nbsp; I missed last week\u2019s premiere of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefirsthymnmovie.com\/trailer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The First Hymn<\/a> but pre-ordered the DVD due out in May. I love hymn stories, and this one is powerful. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefirsthymnmovie.com\/trailer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Watch the movie trailer<\/a> and see the video below for a performance of the hymn\u2014a perfect song for this Holy Week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>He is risen indeed!<br>Pat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The First Hymn Lyrics\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FNW3_GGDo2Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings! Every time I sleuth for news, I learn something that has escaped me all these decades. This time, it was the origins of basketball\u2014invented for a mission purpose (Christian Post). Missionaries later carried their love of basketball, along with the gospel, to the nations. Did you know? Believers are still using basketball to build &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/?p=14579\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Last Supper, First Hymn, and Surprising Origins of Basketball<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14584,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14579\/revisions\/14584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}