(By Sam Finley)  
     God has blessed me more than anyone I have ever met! Since 1986, my first trip, hundreds of people have received Jesus!  Sports Reach is a wonderful vehicle to travel in! In one country alone, 254 souls have been added to His kingdom!    In August 2001, our basketball team was in a very remote village. There was a barber/beauty shop in our hotel and we were offered free shampoos and haircuts. All the people there want to practice using their English language skills.
    I was offered a shampoo, then was told I could use a haircut. The owner said her husband would cut my hair. Afterwards, she  said I could use another shampoo to get all the loose hair. She then said he did a poor job cutting my hair, but she could fix it! This took more than three hours! All the time we talked, suddenly she said “You know God!” We had not said anything about God! I told her yes I did — she asked how I knew! Is God amazing? I explained to her Jesus and after many questions, she said she wanted to know Him! She asked for a English name. That’s how I have a sister named Samantha, who writes to her brother Sam and tells him she prays for him every day.
     During all this time as I sat in the shop with four other ball players, a little girl walked back and forth behind us. I could see her in the big mirror. Finally, I got up and this girl said, “I’ve been waiting to talk to you.” She had waited more than three hours! She said she had to leave in 15 minutes. Her uncle was in charge of security at the hotel and he told her if she talked with the Americans to talk to me. She said she was going to the university in Beijing, that she had just graduated from high school. I was so impressed, I asked to stay in touch with her. I told her we came to Beijing every year, but we might not come to her village again. I gave her a Bible and we exchanged addresses.
      After many letters, then emails, then phone calls, we became best of friends. We studied The Book hours at a time. We agreed she would email me 10 questions each week and I would answer them. She was like a sponge! I eventually enlisted my Sunday School class to answer her questions. Each Sunday they would give me answers and I would email to her.
      In four years, I visited her country 12 times. She was brilliant, but very hard-headed. I enlisted my class to make a video — each one speaking to her. After over four years of praying for her and more than a 100 hours of studying The Book with her, it was beginning to affect my health. I could not understand. Hours and hours of tears and prayers. I was told over and over, “Sam, you have done what you were supposed to do.” But that didn’t help or give me peace. This wonderful creation of God was lost!
     Finally in the summer of 2005, she yielded to the Holy Spirit! Thank God, we have a new family member (Luke 10:20)! She came here and lived in our house for a year. We read The Book every day. All the stubbornness was gone, an incredibly beautiful soul trying every day to know more about Jesus. She was the best student I had ever seen! The Bible says we sometimes entertain Angels unaware. I was fully aware that an angel was in my presence.  Thanks be to God.
     Thanks be to Sports Reach, that vehicle that took me to her village. She is back there now, telling her mother and father the old, old story. She is also telling all her roommates from college. They say “Scarlett will you please stop talking!” She says, “Sam, I try very hard  to stop, but my muscles in my jaws won’t  stop!”To God be the Glory!