News

Eleven top Sports stars declare their Christian faith today with the launch of the Bible Society’s Sports DVD and ‘The Prize’ New Testament Bible at Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour.  Jason Stevens (former player with the Cronulla Sharks and now NRL Staffer) and Jason Smith (former captain of the Sydney Kings and now with the ‘South Dragons’) launched the new DVD and Bible.  Allison Shreeve, Deb Lovely and David Simmons were in attendance supporting the launch.  The breakfast and presentation was followed by an autograph and photo opportunity time on the South Steyne floating restaurant.    

All the sportsmen and women featured on the DVD talk of their Christianfaith and commitment.  “The DVD is more than just interviews,” said Bible Society NSW CEO, Daniel Willis. “We asked each athlete to talk about their training regime, how they cope with the pressure of their game of sport and how they stay motivated,” he said. “We filmed each athlete on location and travelled extensively around Australia to produce a world-class Christian Sports DVD,” Daniel said.    

As well as interviews and other material, the DVD contains footage of each athlete involved in their sport. Featured on the DVD are:    

Jason Smith – Former captain of Sydney Kings, now with South Dragons

Jason Stevens – Former Cronulla Sharks Rugby League play and now NRL staffer

Allison Shreeve – World Windsurfing champion and World speed record holder

Aaron Baddeley – Professional Golfer – currently in Top 20 world rankings

Brad Thorn – Rugby Union player with the Crusaders. Brad has represented Australia in Rugby League and New Zealand in Union

David Simmons – Cronulla Sharks Rugby League

Deb Lovely – Commonwealth Games Weight Lifting Gold medalist

Joey Peters – Matildas – Women’s football team

Mark Seaby – West Coast Eagles AFL

PJ Marsh – Brisbane Broncos Rugby League and 2008 origin representative

Andrew Swallow – North Melbourne AFL    

Jason Stevens was instrumental in encouraging the Bible Society to produce the DVD to go with ‘The Prize’ New Testament. “Jason suggested we do more than just interview Christian athletes,” said Producer/Director Martin Johnson. “He wanted to include additional segments on each athlete’s training and fitness regime and to also ask them how they dealt with the pressures of elite sport,” he said. “The DVD menus enable the viewer to just watch each athlete’s story, or by selecting another menu, watch them in training or as they talk about the pressures of the game,” Martin said. “It’s a great way of ‘adding value’ and in total there is over four hours of content,” he added.    

Each athlete’s testimony is also reproduced inside the New Testament with their Testimony Card available as a PDF on the DVD.  “We’re very excited about this new product,” said Daniel Willis. “With the Olympic Games coming up in August, we know this will be a great resource for Churches, Christians and those involved in all forms of sports ministry.”    For more information: www.biblesocietynsw.com.au/sportsdvd