World Record
On January 14th & 15th, of 2005, some of my family and I attempted to set a Guinness World Record for spinning one basketball for the longest time. When we went into this, we did not realize the exposure this would get. That was not our motivation. Our motivation was to Honor the Lord.
How did the record come about?
In November of 2004, some of the family was looking through the Guinness book one day, and they saw the record for spinning one basketball for the longest time. It was 3 hours and 59 minutes, by a man in China. My kids said, "Dad, you could beat that record!" So we talked about it and I prayed about doing it, and the Lord opened an opportunity to set the record in January of 2005. We decided that we wanted to do the record for the right reasons, & as a ministry it is our goal to"Forever Uplift the Name of Jesus Christ, the Champion of our Faith"! So God gave us the idea to have some banners made up by Insty Prints of Brookings, SD, that displayed "Spin 4 Him". The "Him" being the Lord. We thank this printing company for their support.
We had three goals:
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To honor God the Father for His matchless gift of His Son Jesus Christ, Who died in our place. If Jesus died for us, then we want to live for Him!
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To bring people to the knowledge of the love of God through His Son Jesus Christ.
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Like any challenge our third goal was to break the record. One of the Bible verses that I remember when I am against something that I know that I can't do on my own strength is Phil. 4:13, "I can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives me strength." I knew that with the strength of the Lord, anything is possible, and He would see me through!
What are the rules for the record?
The rules for the record say that you have to keep the ball spinning on one of your fingers. You can switch fingers and hands, as long as the ball keeps spinning. If the ball falls off, you are done. Also, to do the record, it is best to do it in a public place. So I contacted Scheels Sporting Goods Store in Sioux Falls, SD (the largest sporting goods store in the state) and told them about the idea and the managers were excited to help me out. They agreed that if I went longer than the store hours, that they would keep a couple of people including a manager there as a witness for the record.
So we, (my sons, Jacob, Caleb, Isaiah & I ) started out on Jan. 14th at 12:00 noon. This is an individual record, so each of us started out with a basketball. I knew that this was going to be labor intensive, for spinning a basketball for any length of time, you have to be alert --- and because of friction, it is constantly slowing down, so you have to keep hitting the ball on the side to keep it going. We had use of an official time clock (like the ones they use in the Olympics) donated by Daktronics of Brookings, SD. We also had two video cameras recording the progress, with use of video equipment donated by Media Productions of Sioux Falls,SD.
What were the results of your attempt?
My son Isaiah, (14) went for 1 hour and 8 minutes. Caleb (15) went for 1 hour and 16 minutes. Jacob, (17), broke the record with me, & went for 8 hours and 46 minutes. And by the Grace of God, who we honor with this "Spin 4 Him" (after my hands and fingers, arms and shoulders were completely sore) I was able to go for 22 hours and 12 minutes. Some local TV stations did a story on this, and they apparently sent it in over the news wire, and from there, it went to the National News.
Did you take any breaks during the attempt?
Most people ask, "Did you take any breaks, like to eat or go to the bathroom?" The answer is "no we did not". We did eat and drink when we needed to and I also had to use the restroom on three occasions, but the basketball did not stop spinning!! I won't go into anymore detail than that other than to say it was a challenge! :-)
Where do we go from here?
This is the 5th time God has allowed me to attempt to break a Guinness World Record for Basketball Spinning. (Four Records for spinning the most basketballs, and one for spinning one basketball the longest time). We would like to honor and give all the credit to Jesus our Savior, the Holy Spirit our comforter, and our Heavenly Father.
