Five years ago a small team of Athletes in Action basketball players arrived in a remote area of the Caucasus mountains of Russia, hoping to reach out to the community through sports, and open up spiritual conversations about Christianity and faith. They encountered many obstacles including lack of equipment and that the sport of basketball is relatively unknown in this area.
“Many people told us that there’s no basketball in this republic and maybe other kind of sports would be more acceptable,” says Rashid*, one of the AIA team members. “But when you know your calling, you have to follow and to trust God despite the difficulties around, because God teaches you to trust Him in very tough conditions.”
Upon arrival the AIA team began by renting a gym and inviting people to play basketball with the intentions of developing relationships.
Only six men, the majority being boxers, wrestlers or bicyclists, attended their first open gym, and the team had only one basketball for the first year. But, if the team member with the ball was late, the dedicated group would wait as long as 40 minutes for his arrival.
With time, the team was invited to various gyms where basketball was played on many different levels. Eventually a city basketball league was formed and last year the AIA team organized an official basketball federation.
The ministry has come a long way from their humble beginnings five years ago as the city league has now been running for three years and there are ten teams located in the republic. The men wear legitimate uniforms, have plenty of basketballs, use official 
referees and are currently playing in the best gym of the city.
As the AIA team continued to hold open gyms and generate interest in basketball, they naturally found opportunities to talk about their faith with the team members despite the fact that there is very little knowledge or expressed interest in Christianity in the area.
“Taking into consideration the cultural and religious background of [the city], we tried to find acceptable methods of messaging the Good News,” Rashid says. “We used all possible means to tell our friends about Jesus that would not offend their feelings.”
Today, the ministry has come so far that Rashid and the other AIA members are able to speak directly to the men about Jesus, and have started a Bible study for those who are interested.
“Those who didn’t want to listen and who denied the existence of Holy Scripture now listen to the words of the Bible with respect,” Rashid says. “We are sure that Jesus made it possible and we are thankful to God,” Rashid says.
*Athletes in Action’s policy is to use only first names of AIA staff members in online stories.
By Elaine Piniat, AIA summer intern in the communications department.
Elaine.piniat@athletesinaction.org