Source: United Bible Societies, December 19, 2017<\/p>\n
History was made last month when Pakistan\u2019s first national Christian basketball team\u2014Koinonia Love Pakistan\u2014toured Malaysia. According to the Pakistan Bible Society, which was instrumental in the team\u2019s formation last year, it was the first time that Pakistan\u2019s Christian community has officially represented their country in a sporting event abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel honored that our Christian boys represented Pakistan,\u201d said Bible Society General Secretary Anthony Lamuel. \u201cWe thank God that through sport we have been able to promote the disciplined use of the Word of God as a strength in the growth of our Christian faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team was formed by the Pakistan Bible Society, the Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBF) and the Peace Ambassadors Society (a Christian sports organization) after last year\u2019s Christian sports festival. This annual event, organized by the Bible Society, has become the country\u2019s largest Christian sports festival, attracting around 1,000 people who compete in a variety of sports, including cricket, football, athletics, and basketball.<\/p>\n
The festival\u2019s guest of honor, PBF Vice President Colonel Naseem Butt, was so impressed by the standard of the basketball being played that he suggested forming a Christian team to play on a national level. The young team, who are mostly aged between 15 and 25, went on to play in several national basketball matches, all of which they won.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur emphasis is to help young people to use their sporting talent and time to glorify God and share his love, peace and Good News,\u201d explains team manager Irfan Francis, who works for the Pakistan Bible Society. \u201cThrough this work we provide spiritual, educational, physical and professional training to young Christian sportsmen, and help them to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ through sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
Please pray for the Pakistan Bible Society\u2019s work to use sport to share the Bible and promote peace.<\/p>\n
\u00bb Read full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u00bb See also a story from Uganda, National Rugby Team Sings Christian Hymn before Every Game<\/a> (God Reports).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: United Bible Societies, December 19, 2017 History was made last month when Pakistan\u2019s first national Christian basketball team\u2014Koinonia Love Pakistan\u2014toured Malaysia. According to the Pakistan Bible Society, which was instrumental in the team\u2019s formation last year, it was the first time that Pakistan\u2019s Christian community has officially represented their country in a sporting event … Continue reading PAKISTAN: First National Christian Basketball Team<\/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-6897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6897","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=6897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6898,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6897\/revisions\/6898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}