This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Wrestling State Championships inside Portland's Memorial Coliseum. The state tournament is filled with peaks and valleys as young men, coaches, and families spend 2 days battling it out to see who is the best in the state. I had the pleasure of watching some young men I have know since they were in diapers compete, as well as a few of the guys I have been able to coach the last 3 years. It is hard to see young men lose after years of hard work and not accomplish their goals. I saw coaches with broken noses, cauliflower ears, and broad shoulders visibly moved when their athletes won, and shed tears with them as they lost. Wrestling is unlike any other sport, coaches and wrestlers bond in ways that are often hard to describe, shedding blood, sweat and tears for 4 years or more together.
As I watched this amazing event, I couldn’t help but think(with some great advice from my wife) of what God sees as all this goes on. I think God sees a field ripe for the harvest as we talked about in our news letter last June. I was able to talk with wrestlers and coaches alike about God’s love for them, about God’s plan for them, and about what God is doing through the sport of wrestling. One conversation was with a coach from Hillsboro high school who mentioned a former wrestler now competing at North Idaho(NIC) Junior College who was the first of his family to go to college and needed to leave town to get away from the area to break some friendships that were not having a positive effect on his life. I don’t think either the coach or the wrestler have a relationship with Christ, but I was able to offer 2 resources to him and his wrestler. One is a church in Coeur de Lane(where NIC is located) whose head pastor is a former All-American, and the other was Trevor Prangley a wrestler who is featured in our AIA DVD(and a past newsletter!) who lives and owns a gym there in town. Praying that this young man will take advantages of these opportunities and the Lord would be able to use them in his life.
There were so many, many more conversations from this weekend I would love to share. It offered me yet another glimpse of how God is using wrestling, and how we can be a small part of it. It is exciting that God loves us and reaches out to us in personal ways even through a sport such as wrestling! THANK YOU again for all your love, prayers, partnerships, and support in this journey. We are on the final 10% of support and are excited for what is ahead!
Monday, February 27, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Seasons of Waiting Feb 2012
In seasons of waiting, it is so easy to become discouraged, but there is great HOPE & encouragement when we take our eyes off our situation, look to God & invite His presence into our waiting. Just as when light begins to break through a dark storm a beautiful rainbow becomes visible. So it is also true with the storms of our lives, as the light of Christ shines in, we begin to see the beauty He has for us right in the middle of our circumstances. We are finding this to be true as we continue to live in a season of waiting. We have asked the Lord to shine into our circumstances & He has given us many opportunities right here in Salem to share His love & life with those around us.
One of these opportunities is volunteering at South Salem High School (SSHS) with their wrestling program, as time allows. As Rob’s role has moved from teacher & coach to missionary & coach, day to day life conversations have come up where he has been able to share stories from the Bible as well as stories from his life. Recently one of the wrestlers asked Rob how he prepared for matches. Rob was able to share with him that as a young wrestler he was very stressed, always worrying about winning & losing, and that after becoming a Christian his focus was on competing to honor God. In turning his life over to God he did not become a better wrestler automatically. It was a journey of casting his cares on the Lord & knowing that his self worth was not wrapped up in winning, rather in living his life for Christ & competing as a testimony to God’s love. As his faith grew so did his wrestling.
Recently Rob has been able to have these types of conversations with two particular athletes, Dan & Jorge. Both sophomores when Rob started coaching; now seniors.
We asked Dan to speak about how God is using wrestling in his life during one of our ministry presentations at church. Dan has grown up in a split family, where neither of his parents are very involved in his life. He invited Christ into his life his sophomore year through the ministry of Young Life. Dan talked about how he was skeptical of the new coaching staff his first year, they had an intensity & passion for wrestling that had not been present at SSHS in the past. Dan said as he grew in his faith & learned more about the coaches he was not surprised to learn that they all have a relationship with Jesus. “The coaches have passion to make us into the best wrestlers we can be but also a passion for us to be the best men we can be.” Dan also said he had never had a group of men build into him the way our coaching staff has.
Just before his first match almost 3 years ago the coaches were told that Jorge was academically ineligible, having passed just one class as a freshman. Rob & the other coaches sat down with him & set out a plan to get him caught up & on track. They wanted to let him know that being a good wrestler was important to them, but so was his life & graduating was key. This year Jorge has over a 3.0 grade point average and is 21-6 this season, 3 of his losses were to #1 ranked wrestlers in our division. Rob has been able to share with Jorge the AIA DVD “Unfading Glory” & have many conversations about his relationship with Christ.
We are continually reminded of how God is using wrestling & our lives to grow people in their relationship with him. To Him be all the Glory!
Please continue to pray that he would have more opportunities to share with Dan, Jorge and the other guys on the team.
Pray too that the Lord would continue to open our eyes to see what He has for us in Oregon while we continue to wait to report to our assignment in Ohio. We are praying for a moving date by March!
One of these opportunities is volunteering at South Salem High School (SSHS) with their wrestling program, as time allows. As Rob’s role has moved from teacher & coach to missionary & coach, day to day life conversations have come up where he has been able to share stories from the Bible as well as stories from his life. Recently one of the wrestlers asked Rob how he prepared for matches. Rob was able to share with him that as a young wrestler he was very stressed, always worrying about winning & losing, and that after becoming a Christian his focus was on competing to honor God. In turning his life over to God he did not become a better wrestler automatically. It was a journey of casting his cares on the Lord & knowing that his self worth was not wrapped up in winning, rather in living his life for Christ & competing as a testimony to God’s love. As his faith grew so did his wrestling.
Recently Rob has been able to have these types of conversations with two particular athletes, Dan & Jorge. Both sophomores when Rob started coaching; now seniors.
We asked Dan to speak about how God is using wrestling in his life during one of our ministry presentations at church. Dan has grown up in a split family, where neither of his parents are very involved in his life. He invited Christ into his life his sophomore year through the ministry of Young Life. Dan talked about how he was skeptical of the new coaching staff his first year, they had an intensity & passion for wrestling that had not been present at SSHS in the past. Dan said as he grew in his faith & learned more about the coaches he was not surprised to learn that they all have a relationship with Jesus. “The coaches have passion to make us into the best wrestlers we can be but also a passion for us to be the best men we can be.” Dan also said he had never had a group of men build into him the way our coaching staff has.
Just before his first match almost 3 years ago the coaches were told that Jorge was academically ineligible, having passed just one class as a freshman. Rob & the other coaches sat down with him & set out a plan to get him caught up & on track. They wanted to let him know that being a good wrestler was important to them, but so was his life & graduating was key. This year Jorge has over a 3.0 grade point average and is 21-6 this season, 3 of his losses were to #1 ranked wrestlers in our division. Rob has been able to share with Jorge the AIA DVD “Unfading Glory” & have many conversations about his relationship with Christ.
We are continually reminded of how God is using wrestling & our lives to grow people in their relationship with him. To Him be all the Glory!
Please continue to pray that he would have more opportunities to share with Dan, Jorge and the other guys on the team.
Pray too that the Lord would continue to open our eyes to see what He has for us in Oregon while we continue to wait to report to our assignment in Ohio. We are praying for a moving date by March!
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Russias republic of Dagestan and wrestling
Great video talking about how ingrained wrestling is in the culture of Russia's heavily Muslim republic of Dagestan. 3 million people and over 30,000 wrestlers in elementary school!
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