Hi, my name is Dominique Green. “BYT Basketball Outreach” wasn't something that started overnight, nor was it something thought about overnight. My story, as well as BYT history, started back when I was a little girl between the ages of 3 and 5. During this time of my life, my parents were separated, and I stayed with my mom full-time and visited my dad occasionally. During this time, my mom would work two, sometimes three, jobs at a time to make ends meet for us. You can imagine, with that type of workload, how much I wanted my mom around more. Since my mom's workload was heavy, I would have to go to different households of close friends of hers. In these households, I had my moments of having fun, but I also dealt with a lot of bullying, witnessing adults argue with each other from the top of their lungs, and even seeing one of the adults get held against the wall with a knife to the neck and the guy looking down at me and fleeing. There was also a time during a day I was being babysat when I was in the bathroom with another girl who was older than me, and I remember having to do things with this female. This is where BYT all started. You may not see it now, but by the end you will see it. I remember as a kid growing up in confusion about my identity ever since then, and if I’m being honest, I forgot that this had happened to me at the time as a kid. I believe it honestly was God's protection because my little innocent mind wouldn’t be able to handle that at the time. Through the years of being confused about my identity, I've also dealt with father wombs, anxiety, fear, depression, rejection, suicidal thoughts, homosexuality, etc. Sports, especially basketball in particular. Basketball was my outlet so much to the point where I tied my identity to it. Imagine that, growing up and still confused about who you are, and yet you find yourself attaching yourself to more things that have nothing to do with who you really are but just something you love or are passionate about doing. I got to a point when I was off at college, and I was lying down in my dorm room, and the thoughts of “who am I outside of basketball?” “What else am I good at other than basketball?” and truthfully, I couldn’t answer that question, and that feeling of not knowing who I was really put me in deep sadness. Basketball was no longer that outlet for me, and I couldn’t lean on it as I used to, and I didn’t know it then, but that was God working on me. Before the basketball season could even start, I decided to come home after the fall semester because I knew there was more for me, but I didn’t know what that looked like or what steps to take. Once I came home from college about three months later I went to visit a close friend of mine and during my time up there I became more depressed, anxious, fearful and I just felt like I was digging myself deeper in misery becasue the partying wasnt for me, the drinking wasnt for me, the smoking wasnt for me, and I found myself wanting to be done and to be out of living in the same cycles. I wanted more, and I remember just wondering, is there a light in the world? I just felt as if all I saw was darkness and people who were running from something, so partying and other things were their way of coping, but I didn’t want that life, and I didn’t want to be consumed with that type of lifestyle around me either. Then, there came a night when I was pacing back and forth in a dark room because of how anxious and hopeless I felt and my mind was just racing and then for split second I thought about my great grandmother who was a woman of God that was and still is dear to my heart and right after the thoguht of her I heard the Lord say “kneel and pray” and it was gentle but it was loud enough to where I knew it was’t my own thought. Then I paused when I heard it and asked myself, “Did I hear what I just heard?” and then as I had that thought I heard again “Kneel and pray”, so I knelt and prayed and then the word “repent” came to me and at first I didn’t remember what that meant and then God gave me the rememberance of what it meant and then I repented to God of my sins against Him. Since then I’ve been walking with the Lord, and just like anything else, because of life on this earth there's a lot of ups and downs, but I wouldn’t have it any other way because I'd rather have Jesus and go through life than trying to do life without Him. After all, as we all know, life be lifing sometimes. Now some of you may be wondering how this all ties in together. There are kids and youth in this generation who have a very familiar background to mine, and some even went through worse experiences, and like me, we have kids who use sports as an outlet to get their mind off of their surroundings and possibly trauma that they went through or are still going through. God has given me the vision to start “BYT Basketball Outreach” to bring the gospel of Jesus to the youth and to give them a safe space to grow up, learn, get discipled, get loved on, and to experience transformation in their life that only comes from Jesus. Basketball will be used as a bridge to bring the youth to Jesus through basketball.