Prayer Warriors Needed....

Speaking at Briarwood Presbyterian Church on Nov. 23rd 6pm for the Coaches Sports Ministry Banquet. Invite from former Eagle Ryan Leib. Always want to have opportunities like this surrounded and bathed in prayer. Would you consider praying for me? If yes, here are some specific prayer requests with regards to this engagement:

1. Monday and Tuesday I will have blocks of time set aside for praying and preparing for this speaking time. My prayer is that I will listen to the Spirit's leading for what I should speak about, have the courage to stay the course (not speak abt what I want to talk about) and the focus to prepare well. *must resist the temptation to speak to please people rather than communicate the words/message God gives me to say to challenge their hearts and service to the King of Kings.
2. Next weekend - Pray for those coming to hear the message that God would prepare their hearts and minds for what is shared. Pray that they would not be prevented from coming because of busyness and the enemies distractions.
3. Tuesday the 23rd of Nov. -am final review of message 6pm ish is the delivery of the words.
4. Pray that the message would be powerful towards impacting the coaches heart, mind and perspective for utilizing their coaching position for being spiritual life influencers! I want to be an ADVOCATE for helping imperfect Christians (athletes, coaches and parents) to "live out" the righteousness of God in the environment of competitive sports. The message I think I'm going to give is entitled "Sports Does Not Develop Character but the Holy Spirit Can!" Text is 2 Peter 1:3-9 It's part of a series of messages I'm developing for various audiences which is called "the Righteousness Challenge"
5. pray for one special coffee mtg. with a long lost friend.

Sports Friends Gatherings - To Ethiopia and Beyond!

TWO GREAT CHANCES TO CONNECT WITH SPORTS FRIENDS in the COMING DAYS:

1. Thursday, November 18th 7pm at SIM USA for those of you who have been to Ethiopia before on a Sports Friends trip. It's a time to thank you, provide an update on new God stories from Ethiopia and to give you an idea of what else is developing in the ministries of SF in West Africa & Asia. A special guest will be on hand from a closed country that we are serving in East Asia. Just RSVP by Tuesday evening please! Thx.

2. Monday, November 22nd 7pm at Maggiano's for those who want to know more about Sports Friends and might be interested in participating on Vision trip to Asia or Africa, a Father Son camping adventure to Africa, or in sending your teen age daughter on a fantastic missions trip. Perhaps just you and your wife want to go on a 10 day missions experience. All of these trip possibilities will be available in 2011. Maybe you just want to learn how to pray more specifically for our ministry or would consider an end of the year gift to SF (not a fund raising evening per se but we always accept gifts for the ministry), either way PLEASE be our guest's on this evening. This will be a short and "sweet" evening. Dessert served at 7pm, short presentations start at 7:30 and end around 8:15. ***By the way, if you have been to Ethiopia before but know of 1, 2 or more people that haven't and might be interested (or in going to Nigeria or Asia), no problem, PLEASE BRING THEM THIS NIGHT -You can attend both events if you like .....JUST RSVP!

My new Sports HERO.....

Josiah is no doubt one of my new sports hero's. I think you will love and be inspired by this video. Thanks Kyle for sharing this story with me. http://search.espn.go.com/josiah/

Butler Visit

Great trip to Indy this past week. Opportunity to share personal spiritual journey with Butler Coaches at their 10am Bible Study. Was an advocate for "the righteousness challenge," imperfect Christians committed to live out the righteousness of God in the environment of competitive sports. Shared my personal journey in this area as an athlete, coach, parent and sports minister. Lots of challenges faced, lessons learned, and character revealed. Learning to ABIDE IN HIM daily is how athletes can genuinely glorify God, grow in the sanctification process and give of themselves totally to the cause of Christ with their God given gifts. Coaches will only become maximum life influencers and parents will only develop a kingdom perspective in sports, thus becoming faithful to training up their kids in the way to go rather than living vicariously through their sports involvement, when they commit to ABIDING in HIM daily. Heart and Mind must be focused on what matters most to God when one enters the environment of competitive sports.

Thursday night a good group of students gathered and I was able to share the difference between being highly successful in life from the world's viewpoint and significant in the sight of God from an eternal perspective. Shared the story of Andrea Buehital and her family who were pioneers in opening up the Camp Langano mission station. Andrea lost her life at a young age for the cause of Christ in that region. The blood of her flesh has become the seed for 5 churches being planted in the region along with hundreds of people's lives being transformed forever in the name of Jesus. A wasted life? I think not! Many americans search for success while all Christians should seek to be obedient and faithful to the call of God, using one's God given gifts for what matters most to God, wherever, despite the cost, locally and to the ends of the earth, for this is a significant life well lived.

In between these times I spent time with Kelly Findley, a former Charlotte Eagle player, and his family. Kelly now coaches the Butler bulldogs soccer team and is currently 15-0-1. More importantly, Kelly loves the Lord and seeks to make a name for God through his coaching efforts rather than himself. Pray for him towards this end along with finding the right balance between family, fellowship/ministry, coaching a D1 program, and life in general.

Next speaking engagement is Briarwood Church in Alabama Nov. 23rd.

Eli is in the house.....

We loved having Eli visit us this weekend. I think Nell and John were hear too!

Asia and New Staff

In southeast Asia, Sports Friends is exploring a partnership with Compassion International where SF would

train Compassion’s youth workers in sports ministry. This will add to the toolbox of those already

respected in communities all over the country, and because Compassion already has an extensive network

in place, it will be a way to rapidly reach thousands of young people.

Three new people are in the process of joining our SF team in the U.S. Jason and Heather hope to write

curriculum that SF can use around the world for training. Erin plans to use her skills in photojournalism

to capture stories about what God is doing in the lives of young people through SF. We’re excited to

welcome all 3 to our team, and praying for God to raise up others who can serve with us worldwide.

Our New Sports Friends Ethiopia Vehicle

What do you think? Nice, huh? Please keep these two fantastic leaders in your prayers, who have served Sports Friends faithfully for 8 years. Berhanu, our national director, has just been named Ethiopian Football Federation VP. It's a volunteer position, so he will continue to serve our ministry faithfully as he attempts to lead the EFF forward. He will have a tremendous opportunity to significantly impact many people in high positions (in the federation, gov't, and in business) in the name of Jesus who currently make football their religion (FIFA SOCCER 11: "We Are 11" Series, Episode 5 - "D10S") Check out this sad sad example of what it means for some people to make football their religion and their hero their god...sad!). Who knows how he could be used mightily by God in this position for the Kingdom. He will be attacked as well so PLEASE pray for him -wisdom/patience/against those who will want to undermine him and more. This summer our Ethiopian camps will double in number. Pray for Ephraim who is an OUTSTANDING camp leader....Specifically pray that he can see the camp grow in number and continue to make deep spiritual impact in the lives of each youth participant. Also, pray for those who were deeply impacted in the name of Jesus at the camp in 2010. Thx everyone for praying for these two FANTASTIC SFE leaders. ps the car was at Disney when they visited Florida last year.