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The Niagara River Lions have won the CEBL Championship and for two players, it was sweeter than other victories as the Lufile brothers won together.
Meshack and Elijah Lufile and the rest of the River Lions defeated the Calgary Surge at Winnipeg's Canada Life Centre on Sunday night and are giving all glory to God.
Growing up as pastors' kids, they say that helped their faith grow from a young age. "If you know anything about pastor's kids, they usually grow up really rebellious. But they always come back to the fold. The Bible says to train up your child in the way they should go, that when he's old, he will not depart from it. So that foundation that our parents gave us, with Jesus as their foundation, it kept us rooted no matter how far we strayed off," Meshack said.
While both brothers grew up playing basketball, their journeys to the CEBL have looked different. "I'm the youngest of five and all of my brothers play basketball," Elijah said. "I came out of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, OK and I got an offer to play for the Scarborough Shooting Stars while I was in school."
Elijah would turn down the offer to continue playing at school. "When I became a pro, I played in the NBAG league, then overseas. Then I had an opportunity to play first for Scarborough, then Calgary, and then I finally got to Niagara."
When he thinks back to stepping into the locker room the first time, it's full of positive memories. "It was like a second home, a second family. They embraced me. I was familiar with some of the guys already. So it didn't take long for the chemistry to build off that."
Now, having his older brother on the team has made it even better, but Meshack had a longer road to Niagara. "Two years ago, Coach Raso hit me up while I was in Romania. I had my best season ever statistically wise and he wanted me to come over and play."
While Meshack was in talks to step in during training camp, the team ultimately went in a different direction. Despite that, he has always thought well of the organization. "At the time, they didn't know if they were gonna have Eddie Ekiyor or not, and he wanted me to come in as insurance to training camp. Things ended up working out with Eddie, so they ended up going in that direction. So then I've always been quite fond of the River Lions organization, just in terms of how they do things, how they run their programs."
Meshack can see how evident the family atmosphere of the River Lions organization is. "Victor's obviously a great coach. It's a family atmosphere there. Even with them in training camp, you can just tell, the energy was high, they loved each other."
Family support off the court
At the start of the year, Meshack found himself in Ottawa, before a major injury and being released. "I ended up tearing my wrist, my TFC and spraining my ankle and just going through a whole bunch of emotions. A lot of people don't even realize this, but when I got released from Ottawa, I was actually in Saint Catharines and Thorold for a month and a half, living with Elijah."
When Meshack looks back at living with Elijah, he believes it was God's plan. "We didn't want to throw our entire life in his space. It's him and his wife's first year of marriage, but. But you know, we did it obviously and it was, I'm sure it wasn't easy for them. But it's something that I highly respect about them because not a lot of people would have done that. I believe it was the plan of God. We know the Bible says all things work together for the good of those love Him and I call Him according to His purposes."
While the brothers and their families were living together, they were able to rely on each other for encouragement. "We're super grateful to Elijah for accommodating us. And lo and behold, Eddie ended up getting a gig overseas to go to France. Really happy for him. And there was the possibility of joining the River Lions," Meshack said.
Now playing together as brothers is what Elijah calls 'surreal.' "It was pretty surreal because not everybody can say that they won with a family member, let alone their brother."
Keeping faith through the mental battle
The River Lions had lost five games in a row going into the semi-finals, which was a mentally tough battle for Elijah. "That happened right after we had lost our starting big. So when I stepped up into that role of playing a lot more minutes and having a little bit of pressure to have an impact in the game, mentally my brother helped me, to get over that hump and continue fighting and a lot of prayers, a lot of reminders of what the Word of God was telling me."
During the heightened pressure and ups and downs, the brothers were able to speak truth into each other's lives. "That everything was going to be okay regardless of the outcome. God was going to be in the midst of it. Seeing him on the bench and cheering me on while I was in the court if I made a big play, it was like everybody was blurred out and I could see him encouraging me and just to keep going, reminding me about certain things that I needed to do on the floor."
Despite the demanding schedule, both Meshack and Elijah know that their relationship with God needs to be a priority.
"It's the first commandment in the Bible. Love your God with all your heart and all your mind. That commandment describes my whole life right now because I don't leave my house without praying and talking to God and reading His Word and trying to hear from Him," Elijah said.
"I may be in a situation during that day where I know I have to use the wisdom of God. That prayer I prayed might have been for a specific something that I'm dealing with a week after or a month after. It's just how God operates. And when you read the Word of God, you start to understand how God really operates."
Importance of discipline
Elijah says he became much more disciplined in his faith after a scrimmage. "We scrimmaged with Team Canada and I was telling one of the guys that I wasn't as disciplined as I thought I was. I didn't take care of my body like I thought I did. Something had to change. I can't keep blaming other people.
"In my spiritual life, there were times when I didn't feel connected with God and felt mentally messed up. And I could change the narrative by praying more and fasting more, seeking God more and actually trusting Him. By me trusting Him more and not worrying about the outside noise is what really made things clear, made my path easier."
For Meshack, he said, without God, he wouldn't have anything. "Without my faith, without God, I wouldn't have anything. God brought me a beautiful woman, my wife, who fears God. If people really knew what I've endured the last three years, the amount of hits I've had to my career, and she stood solid."
His wife's faith has continued to grow his own. "She was the first person that I met, other than my family, where I saw her faith that was even stronger than mine. My faith in Christ was always there. But seeing my wife, and how encouraged she was, even in moments where it seemed impossible, and when I was supposed to be the one to be doing that, encouraged me."
Through the ups and downs Meshack has walked through, he is reminded by the truth from the Bible. "With God, all things are possible. And I've seen every single time I've doubted God, every single time I've been like, 'oh, Lord, how am I going to get out of this mess, this situation?' He opens the door. And I'm at the point now where, like, it doesn't matter what's going to happen now. I know that God's going to make a way."
Spending time reading the Bible and praying has been vital for Meshack. "You might go to a place where you don't have any Christian teammates, the Bible says for us not to be of the world, that doesn't necessarily mean removing ourselves; it does in certain situations. But when we are in those spaces, others understand what we stand on. They understand our principles and how serious we take our relationship with God."
Meshack hopes that he and Elijah will be able to continue to use their platforms to share about Jesus, no matter what. "The good news of Jesus Christ is not supposed to be something that's going to be hidden and kept to ourselves. We should want to spread that news and the Gospel. The Bible says to spread it to the four corners of the earth and all the nations. So that's something we try to do. And it doesn't necessarily mean we have to be street preachers. We can live by faith, practice our faith and preaching through our sport, and people can see Christ through us."