The latest adventure of Pastor Tom Randall with the Lord sent me to the beautiful country of the Bahamas!
The NBA Big 3 finals were being held at the large and impressive Atlantis Resort in Nassau and Tom was doing the chapel services before the semi-final games. He was extremely pleased when basketball legend, Julius Winfield Erving (a.k.a. Dr. J) strolled in with a group of players he was coaching.
Tom Randall was tickled further when Julius approached him and said, “Hong Kong. 1983. How have you been, Tom?” It warms the heart to be remembered 37 years after some games and dinner in Kowloon. At the time, Julius released a picture of himself high above the rim dunking the basketball for Tom to use for my ministry purposes.
For 20 years we distributed 1.2 million brochures in multiple languages with Julius on the front dunking with the Gospel message and invitation to join a Bible study on the inside. Thanks, Dr. J!!
“Strong faith glorifies God because it treats Him as God.” Charles Spurgeon
Pastor Tom Randall : “Lisa Leslie has a strong faith that glorifies God”
Lisa joyfully entered the chapel time with a warm smile, sat comfortably in the front row, and opened her Bible with anticipation. Also basketball royalty, the
four time Olympic gold medalist is amember of both the WNBA and theNaismith Hall of Fame but she has thehumility of a Sunday school teacher.
She was coaching the defending Big3 champions and is the Coach of the Year. Lisa Leslie is also a fashion model, author, successful actress, and respected analyst and commentator for TNT and ESPN. Even with her incredible resume and accomplishments the ambitious wife and mother of two says, “What my heart treasures most is knowing and serving my precious Savior Jesus.”
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.” Matt. 6:19-21.
Travel to the Bahamas, because of the contagious Delta variant, requires an expensive negative covid test, a Bahama Health Certificate, a mask, and passport. The quiet streets and boarded up shops, curfews, and lack of tourists reflects the fear and loneliness affecting these people caught in the vice grip of lost hope.
It matters little what I think about the virus, but it matters forever what God thinks of us. God is sovereign over any virus or illness. Tom believes that the same sovereignty that could stop the
virus but doesn’t, is the same sovereignty that sustains our soul in it.
Whether in Hong Kong, the Philippines, the Bahamas, or other countries Tom has traveled to during the best and worst circumstances, God’s promises bring unshakeable peace and joy.
“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and
spend a year there and trade and make a profit” … yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” James 4: 13-15
Blessings from your basketball loving missionary,
Tom and Karen Randall
