Pastor Sinks Half-Court Shot, Raffles Prize for Charity
A California pastor nailed a 47-foot jump shot at a recent Sacramento Kings basketball game and is now raffling his prize to help raise money for local outreach programs.
Pastor Joseph Sissac won a 2016 Ford Focus after hitting the half-court jumper, the only shot that landed in the net since the start of this season's contest.
"I was overjoyed," Sissac told CBN News. "Once the ball left my hands it felt good, it looked good. And literally all that went through my head was 'don't fall short, don't be an airball.'"
The Chicago-native grew up playing basketball, but he says that God put the ball through the hoop.
"I don't believe that this was my skills that made this happen," he told The Sacramento Bee. "I think God had his hand on it."
The Center For Praise senior pastor and his wife were told to go to a local dealership to pick up their prize but they had second thoughts once they arrived.
"Honestly we didn't have peace as we looked at everything," Sissac explained. He says they told the dealership "we want to go home and pray about this."
By the next morning, he and his wife had peace about what God told them to do.
"God said it was a seed and to raffle the car off so we could raise funds for these programs".
They will divide the money raised between two programs — "Hoops to Hope" and the Center of Praise math camps.
Hoops to Hope focuses on education, homelessness, and human trafficking. The Center For Praise is a math tutoring program started by Sissac's own congregation.
"This is really an opportunity to be a blessing to others and I believe others are seeing that," said Sissac.
Sissac says following God's lead to raffle off the car has allowed him to be blessed and has also inspired others in the community to be a blessing to others.
"I've had several people tell me I'm buying my ticket and if I win I want to raffle it off too," shared Sissac. "People are saying 'hey I've got some opportunities that I could be a blessing as well."
Lovingly dubbed "The Half Court Pastor" by his congregation, Sissac says this isn't a moment for him to have the spotlight, but rather an opportunity for others, especially the church to pay it forward.
"This is a city on the hill moment. We are shining together as a church and our community can see it," said Sissac. "Let's make sure they are seeing the character of Christ and the light and love of God in us so that they will be drawn to Christ as well".
