RJ Parks

RJ Parks

By RJ Parks, Operations Director at First Family Church

Throughout the summer months, you’ll often find the gym at First Family Church occupied by young athletes from the community participating in our FLASH basketball camps. We recently concluded another successful summer with 5 basketball camps. Over 100 kids from our community in grades 1st through 7th had the opportunity to grow both in basketball and in character.
FLASH is an acronym for Future Leaders Always Serving Him. As a ministry of FFC, we focus on growing our future leaders through the game of basketball. This year, the kids learned Philippians 1:27. Specifically, the beginning of the verse: “whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” We taught the boys to control their emotions whether you win or lose, and that all of our actions need to be focused on glorifying God and not ourselves.
The theme for camps this year was sportsmanship, and how to be a great teammate. We gave out numerous awards for competition events like free throw shooting and 3-on-3 games. However, we really tried to award the kids that showed the best character, so each day, we had a “win the day” award. This award went to the kid that showed the best sportsmanship and was a great teammate. We had such a great group of kids in each camp that it was very hard to narrow it down to one kid each day. Overall, the kids learned valuable lessons in how to conduct themselves, win or lose.
FLASH Basketball
FLASH started as a basketball ministry focused on reaching our community. The program started with a single team that played a handful of games. We have since grown to have 6 teams that play all over central Iowa. We have recently added a volleyball program that fields 4_6 teams each year that play in tournaments throughout the state.
Only 5 years into the ministry, and First Family has been given the opportunity to impact hundreds of kids within our community through the FLASH program.
To learn more about the program, please check us out at www.ankenyflash.com.