The day began at 2:30am with a young man whose mother had driven him up from Louisville, KY and dropped him off before turning right around and headed back so as not to be late for work this morning. I love the behind the scenes stories. Next the alarm went off at 5:45am and the coaches were on there way to the field with Don and I shortly behind.
The morning practice is called the “county fair” and it is nothing like the title makes it sound. The only similarity is that the student athletes go to a variety of stations but instead of ice cream and funnel cakes it is torture and more torture on a wide variety of levels.
Next we ate breakfast and the guys are too tired to move and a beautiful setup as Don Callan spoke immediately following. If you have never heard his testimony and how he went off to college, it is worth the price of admission – believe me. The guys were riveted and soaked in every spoken word and understood they had much in common with Don. The gospel was wonderfully woven in his story and then he landed just on scripture and it was time well spent.
We broke the guys up into smaller groups and took them to what is called ‘low ropes courses’ for team building exercises and I had the privalege of leading a group of linemen down a steep valley and up the other side of the rugged terrain. We made it to a wobbly platform that everyone has to climb on at the same time without any of the edges touching the ground. It is a challenging obsticle but one that shows many things about leadership, serving and following. It was a great time and one that showed that the most talkative person is not necessarily the most qualified to lead…
Anyway, off to supper and then our evening chapel up to a large building named the A.R.C. (Activity and Recreation Center). It was our intention to meet in a beautiful setting they have created in this building for our chapel time, but since the theme for the week seemed to be hot, hot, and hotter we just could not stay inside that metal building as we were simply dripping with sweat so the decision was made to move outside where it was just as hot and we dripped with just as much sweat but the water in the air made it seem like something we should be paying good money for – a suana.
Then came time for questions and answers. For this chapel I did something a little different than I typically do and that is I allowed them to ask any question they wanted. So we went from “What is the sin that keeps a person from heaven” to “What is the difference between being baptized in the Holy Ghost and being baptized in Jesus name” to several different things. At the end of our time two young men came up to me with some continuing questions and we got deep very quickly into their lives as they felt the need to share issues in their lives that they have been dealing with. To make a long story short, they knew they were sinners and needed no convincing of that fact and they needed to get the weight of their sin off the shoulders. Yes my friends – they gave their lives to Christ. To God be the glory!
GateKeepers Ministries 