Thursday, March 26, 2009
PITTSBURG TRIBUNE-REVIEW
With "Sweet Georgia Brown" playing in the background, Seth Franco moves through the dining room of the Chick-fil-A at Miracle Mile in Monroeville, spinning a basketball on the children's fingertips.
Later, the former Harlem Globetrotter -- the team's first white player since 1942 -- encourages the children to pursue the gifts and dreams God has given them.
Franco, 30, of Monroeville, has spent most of the last four years conducting a traveling basketball ministry in schools, churches, juvenile detention centers and other venues that welcome him, like the Chick-fil-A.
His main message: "Great things happen to people who don't give up. Not perfect people, because nobody's perfect, but just people who don't give up."
The Long Island, N.Y., native knows about not giving up.
A hip injury during his junior year in college ended Franco's dream of playing in the NBA. After recovering from surgery, he played for the Court Jesters, a Richmond, Va., streetball team, and landed the starring role in a movie about basketball. But production was canceled two weeks before it was supposed to start shooting.
Auditioning for the movie, however, indirectly got him a recommendation to try out for the Globetrotters. He won a spot on the team and toured with the Globetrotters in the United States and Europe in 2003 and 2004 until he reaggravated his hip.
That's when he developed his youth ministries. Franco said he owes the stint on the Globetrotters and his ministry to the hand-eye exercises he did while recovering from his initial injury.
"One of the toughest times I ever went through turned out to be a real big blessing for me," he said. "I was wondering why God would let something like that happen. Why do I have all these basketball tricks but I have no career?"
Franco; his wife, Sarah; and his daughter, Jade, moved to Monroeville in August, and he became the youth pastor for Monroeville Assembly of God. But the invitations to perform his ministry kept pouring in, so he stepped down as pastor.
"The doors just continued to open for us to go different places," he said. "Just last month we decided to go back out on the road full-time doing youth evangelism."
He plans to keep Monroeville as his base of operations.
The Chick-fil-A may seem a strange place for his ministry, but Angela Leckwatch, the Monroeville restaurant's marketing director, said it holds two family nights a month and is always looking for community-based activities.
Julie Miller, 42, of Monroeville frequently brings her daughter Lucie, 4, to the family nights.
"We love this. Whenever they have one we come," she said.
Franco said his basketball tricks open a lot of doors, but even public schools -- notoriously touchy on the subject of religion -- don't object to his including God in the presentation.
"I share my personal beliefs, but I'll also share with the kids the reality that no matter how spiritual you get, doing the right thing is never easy," he said.
His main interest is encouraging kids to follow their dreams and develop their gifts because he believes God bestows them for a reason.
"It won't turn out the way you want it to, probably, but it's been given to you to get you moving in the right direction."
