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!

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!

South Salem Coaching Staff

When someone takes their first head coaching position, the hardest thing can be building a coaching staff they can trust. When Stryder Davis took on the task of turning the South Salem High School wrestling team into a winner, he didn't look far for coaches.
The coaching staff he assembled is made up of Stryder's North Idaho College roommate and long-time friend, Jesse Davis (no relation), Stryder's brother, Keegan, brother-in-law and Montana State-Northern teammate Dale Seley, Stryder's father, Dan, and Rob Bronson, who coached Stryder and Keegan at Sprague.

They're all former college wrestlers who were successful on the mat.
"We're all either brothers or best friends or family," says Stryder, who wrestled at Sprague and formerly was an assistant at Oregon State and Sprague. "It makes your job fun. I do trust every single one of them with everything."
In Stryder's third year as head coach, the Saxons are making progress toward being competitive against the Central Valley Conference's top teams.
Teams such as Sprague and McNary place in the top 10 at the state tournament on a yearly basis.
Much of the challenge at South Salem is that other sports such as football, basketball and soccer are more closely identified with the school.
"It's not known (as) a wrestling school like McNary or like Sprague or even like McKay, that tradition they have," said Jesse Davis, who formerly spent five years on the staff at McNary.
To better develop the wrestlers before they get to high school, Stryder started Capitol Crew Wrestling, a club for children in eighth grade and under, last year.
The club already has grown to where some practices have 30 kids, and the club is what Seley and Dan Davis focus on.
"(Stryder and I) both have sons that are in the Capitol Crew wrestling program," said Seley, whose wife, Amber, is the twin of Stryder's wife, Kimmy.
"They're my nephew and his nephew. It's fun to watch them grow and learn what Stryder and I learned through this sport."
The hope is that by the time the kids reach high school they will be prepared to be successful.
"It's hard to make a state champion out of a kid who started when he was a junior," said Dan Davis, who wrestled at Boise State.
The tight-knit staff members have similar philosophies about what it takes to be a successful wrestler.
They preach that pushing the pace of the match is key and that each wrestler needs to believe he can win no matter the odds.
And if a South Salem wrestler wants to know what it takes to be a champion, he doesn't have to look far to see the faces of champions at multiple levels on their coaching staff.
"Sometimes I think I already know every single move out there, but sometimes they surprise me," says senior Jon Pena, who is ranked No. 8 in the state at 106. "They always bring new moves in. I don't think there's anything they don't know."
What many of the wrestlers speculate about is who among the coaching staff would win on the mat.
Dan Davis is the popular pick among the staff members.
"I would say in a wrestle- off against any other coaching staff we would crush," Stryder says.

A glimpse of an AIA Wrestling Summer Tour

2 min clip on a University of Minnesota wrestlers experience on an AIA summer tour to Moldova and Russia!

4 new video shorts from Beyond the Ultimate

Beyond the Ultimate has a new series of videos featuring a number of wrestlers

 Tom Brands

   

 

 http://vimeo.com/31560387

Brent Metcalf










http://vimeo.com/31559968


Jayson Ness

http://vimeo.com/31560270



J. Robinson

 http://vimeo.com/31560137

Living their faith at every moment

An opening prayer at a fund raiser in Columbus, Ohio for the Ohio Regional Training Center(RTC). Recently 2 of our 7 world team members are training at the Ohio RTC, as well as Olympic Champion Henry Cejudo, national team members Logan Stieber, JD Bergman, and Shawn Bunch. We are excited to be moving to Ohio soon and the opportunity to form relationships with some of these guys. Great to see wrestlers living out their faith in every part of life.


http://www.flowrestling.org/coverage/240301-Ohio-RTC-GOhioCasts/video/508981-Quick-Prayer

AIA featured in College Sports TV

Clip from College Sports TV on the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Minnesota had won 2 out of the last 3 NCAA tournaments when this documentary aired. This clip features Olympic Champion John Peterson and his discipleship of wrestlers at the university. Just another example how God is using the sport of wrestling to draw people into a relationship with Him!