The concept of Pray Hard Paintball Ministry was originally envisioned by Scott Hicks in 2001 while Scott was in the Army stationed in Augusta, GA.
Scott and some of his fellow Christian soldiers were at church and were talking about going to play Paintball the next weekend. While talking about playing Paintball Scott commented that if they just had a Paintball field at the church a lot more soldiers would come. Everyone in the group laughed and then they got the big idea God was putting into place. The concept continued and plans were in the works trying to find land suitable for the playfied. Unfortunately 9/11/2001 the groups focus changed to their military duty and the plan was scrapped. In 2002 Scott was injured in training for deployment to Iraq and was medically discharged.
Scott was led to move to Grants Pass, OR and did so Nov. 2002. Recovering from his injuries Scott, His wife Kimberly, and son Sky started attending River Valley Community Church in spring 2003. Scott took his family to RVCC's Family Camp and found Paintball was one of the activities. The vision of Paintball and church being a cohesive unit was once again ignited in Scott's heart. Scott found out that many of the pastors and their family members at RVCC were Paintball players and soon realized that RVCC would likely give their blessing to a paintball ministry.
In march 2004 at RVCC Men's Retreat The Paintball Ministry was officially organized and announced to the congregation of men, and began with no budget, no equipment, and no field.
Since March 2004, what was once know as The Paintball Ministry, now know as Pray Hard Paintball Ministry, has become much more that its humble beginnings. God has truly blessed this ministry. Currently we have about 12 complete sets of gear, including markers, masks, hoppers, and tanks. We have 2 chronographs for safety checks, co2 and 3000psi fill stations, and a 4 acre private playing field.
Our future vision is to have enough equipment to host and equip 40 players for self contained large events. we would like to have a dedicated vehicle to house and transport all the equipments to reduce setup, breakdown, cleaning, and maintenance time. We are still looking for land use donation so we can build a bigger better permanent field hopefully 10+ acres. we would also like to be able to set up our future field to accommodate camping for retreat weekends, overnight play etc. We are also being lead to travel to major tournament events to provide Church services.
Paintball is not an inexpensive sport and there has been a lot of hard work put into getting where we are today. We would like to thank everyone that has supported this ministry and its vision.
If you believe in what we are trying to archive in ministry through Paintball and would like to help in any way please contact us and share what God has laid on your heart.
