When members of the basketball trick group How Ridiculous broke the Guinness World Record for the highest basketball shot this past September, they did it wearing T-shirts supporting Compassion International, a Christian child advocacy ministry working with children in extreme poverty.
Brett Stanford, Derek Herron, Scott Gaunson and Kyle Nebel, the four members of How Ridiculous, became Internet celebrities a few years ago when they began making trick-shot videos together and uploading them to YouTube.
“It started with no intention—just a couple of guys having fun,” says Stanford, who attends church with his other teammates in Perth, Australia.
But as their videos garnered millions of YouTube views, Stanford says they realized they could use what they do to raise awareness about children dying in poverty.
“There are people all over the world doing all sorts of things to entertain people. We didn’t just want to do that,” he says.
While the four friends can’t help but entertain when they’re making trick shots involving everything from jet skis to cars to boomerangs—or when breaking a Guinness World Record by making a basketball shot from 219 feet atop the Euromast observation tower in Rotterdam, Netherlands—they’re also raising money and getting people to sponsor children through Compassion.
When it’s all said and done, Stanford says what matters is seeing lives transformed in Jesus’ name.
“I’ve always thought whenever we’re looking after the least of people, we’re doing it for Jesus,” he says.
“We’re doing it for His glory. It’s important to us because it’s important to Him.” —Sarah Breed
