Crossover’s Summer Tour!
It’s summer, so that means the staff here at Oxi Fresh have to say farewell to our good friends at Crossover International – a Christian basketball ministry – as they go abroad for their summer tour. Every year they travel Europe with their team to run basketball youth camps and play exhibition games against professional clubs. At the end of July, they’ll have two tours visiting Romania, the Czech Republic, Germany, and France.
At these free camps, the Crossover Team will serve about two hundred and fifty youth – from six to eighteen years old – teaching them about both basketball and the Gospel. The tour’s schedule keeps the players busy and always on the move, but grateful churches and families open their doors for the players and coaches.
Crossover has been conducting these tours since 2003, though the ministry was actually started in 2001 by (at the time) college students Nonzo Azubuike and Jonathan Barnett. These two friends both loved basketball and God, and wanted to serve God and keep playing basketball past college. They found inspiration in John 5:24, a verse that speaks of “crossing over” from death to eternal life. From that seed, their hard work, and God’s blessing came an international basketball ministry that has served hundreds of youth.
Now, in 2011, Crossover is working to create the Crossover Basketball Academy – a program that works with at-risk youth to offer mentoring, life coaching, basketball training, academic tutoring, SAT/ACT preparation, and character/spiritual development. The mentors and youth in the program will build relationships year-round in weekly sessions, helping them grow into responsible young adults. The first academy is being established in Denver, but plans are in the works to expand it throughout the nation.
For more information about Crossover International, visit Crossover.org!
