GTS Update March 2010

GTS and Bobble Ball Partner on College Campuses

Below are some amazing testimonies of our new partnership with Bobble Ball for college campus ministry. Please go to www.sourcenterprises.net for more information on this exciting new ministry. Pray as we praise the Lord together!  

Dear Devra, I want to thank you for having Steve Lillis bring Bobble Ball to us here at the U of MN.  It was a huge success!  Not in the number of people that attended but rather in how it set up the building of relationships.  What a great and fun game!  We all really got into it and had so much fun laughing together.  In the past we had many students attend the trick shot show and even had pool tournaments, but this was very different. One of the students, that is pictured here is Rodney, from Honduras.  He came to church the following day and said that he wanted to start coming to church and to Bible studies.  He said that he saw such peace and joy in the Christians that he had met. ISF (International Student Friendship), is a ministry that seeks to befriend international students and share the gospel with them.  We want them to feel that they "belong", before they necessarily, "believe".  We seek to be family to them, as they are away from their families.  This game is great to get people involved and have them enjoy friendship through the camaraderie of bobble ball. Thanks Devra for everything. Jeff P.S. Check out our Website at http://umn.edu/~isf

Dear Mrs. Devra Robledo, This is Xihong from University of Minnesota, a friend of Steve Lillis.  As you may know, Steve comes to our university annually to give spectacular Gospel trick shot shows to both American and international students, as well as people from other walks of life.  People’s hearts have been deeply touched by God through his life stories and his fantastic shots.  This year he brought us something new and exciting, the amazing bobble ball game!  The game is competitive, fun and most importantly easy to learn.  Since so many people in the audience are laymen to pool, as they marveled to the great magical shots by Steve and others, they may felt a distance in between.  But this bobble game could get everyone who is interested involved, it is a great icebreaker game to build closer relationship with people for spreading the Good News.  With Steve’s help, we had a very successful 1^st ever Bobble Ball Tournament at our University of Minnesota.  I am one of the lucky people who got the first hand experience in this exciting game.  Later I heard from Steve that you are the founder of this great game. Therefore I am writing to express our sincere thanks to you, and hopefully through my letter and maybe some pictures that Steve may show you, a sense of the same excitement be conveyed to you.  May God’s richest blessings pouring to you and your family, as the Bobble ball game goes into all the campus for the sake of spreading God’s Love to people in need. Thank you and wishing you a very happy New Year! Xihong (Chinese New Year was celebrated on Sunday 2/14/10)

Dear Xihong, Thank you so much for your encouraging words regarding our Bobble Ball game.  My husband’s and my vision and prayer from the beginning was for the Lord to use this game for His glory and you are a witness to one of His FIRST answers to our prayers.  The story that crossed Steve’s and our paths is miraculous in and of itself, but to see how God is now providing a “social” environment for people to be more at ease to hear the gospel is an awesome answer to prayer and a demonstration of the faithfulness of our Lord.  Please let me know if there is anything further that I can do from the California end to assist in your ministry.  Sincerely, Devra Robledo

Wow!! Thank you Steve for allowing us to see God answering Fred’s and my three year long prayer for Bobble Ball to be used in the ministry. Three years ago I had no idea how God would answer this prayer, but His timing and ways are perfect. Our God is amazing. My eyes are still moist with tears and even my words are speechless. Thank you Steve! Devra

Salvation Bracelet Story—One of Steve’s favorite GTS shots is the Salvation Bracelet Shot which he performs and then hands out the bracelets. Thousands have been given out over the past few years and the ladies of Serving Hands at Hawthorne Gospel Church keep GTS well stocked! Well in Phoenix Steve trained an entire Bible study group how to share with the bracelet and then trained a Christian pool player to do the shot.    

International Update!

We recently received permission from African Inland Mission (AIM) to have a Thomas Aaron pool table placed in a shipping container out of Pearl River, NY bound for Mombasa, Kenya with final destination being Nairobi, Kenya. This pool table will be used by Steve and the GTS Team next summer to do a series of Gospel Trick Shot Shows in and around Nairobi as pool is one of the fastest growing sports among young people in that area. The picture to the right has a group of young people participating in a soccer camp run by sports pastor Kennedy Salano of Kenya who Steve met in Phoenix, AZ earlier this year at the Christian Sports and Recreation Ministry Summit. They will be working together next summer sharing Christ using billiards.

Go to www.cbn.com/700club and click on the "Media Center" tab on the left side of homepage. Then when the "Media Center" page opens type in the white textbox area "Steve Lillis". Then click on the "video" button and enjoy the broadcast.

Steve Lillis was featured in a news article written by the Billiard Congress of America in October 2006. Please go to the following link to read more about his life as a pool player, educator, and minister:
http://www.bca-pool.com/industry/membership/06updates/update_v3n19.shtml