Ringgold resident Ron Bishop, 67, said he never gets “weary in the work.”

Bishop is the founder and chairman of the board for SCORE International, a Christian sports ministry that he said has a daily goal of “winning the lost to Jesus Christ.”

“I think SCORE has given me a lot of fulfillment after I finished my college coaching career,” Bishop said. “I was only 39 when I retired from coaching at Temple. A lot of people wondered why I did it. SCORE gave me a vehicle to impact so many more lives and make a greater impact on a larger number of oung people.”

In 1985, Bishop resigned from Tennessee Temple College to start a ministry that God had given him the vision.

SCORE International was born in December of 1984. For many years while serving as President, Bishop and his wife, Pat, ran the ministry by themselves.

However, over the years, God blessed the ministry of SCORE with more and more missionaries and representatives starting to come on board.

Under Bishop’s leadership, SCORE International built a base in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.

In the Dominican Republic, SCORE has a Missions Training Center, a baseball complex, a camp, a dental/medical clinic, a home for boys, a daycare center, a number of church plants, apartments for missionaries, an orphanage and safe house for women coming out of prostitution.

In Costa Rica, SCORE has a camp, Missions Training Center, church plant and apartments.

SCORE has more than $3 million in assets with no debt.

SCORE takes approximately 6,000 young athletes over seas annually.

Many of those are athletes come from the Chattanooga area.

“I never envisioned it would be so big or touch the lives of people other than high school or college athletes,” Bishop said. “We’re actually involved in doing professional coaches, athletes, business. professional and church people.

“Bishop said he has a staff of 200 people now that are in some way are employees.

One of those is his son-in-law Tim Swaney, who went on a trip to the Dominican last week with his daughter Chloe.

Bishop said he’s happy to say with God’s love and blessings SCORE has been able to take more than 100,000 people over seas without any serious problems.

Bishop said safety is always a concern.

“You’re working with so many people,” he said. “It’s a lot of pressure sometimes. You get a lot of calls from moms and grandmothers about their kids...but we always get letters from them. That’s the reward.”

SCORE has had many high school, college and future professional athletes be a part of their all-star teams who have spread the word of Jesus Christ through the sports ministry.

For more information on SCORE and how that you may be a part of one the SCORE all-star teams in baseball, basketball or softball log on to scoreinternational.org.