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If you meet Nichole Jones on the starting line she’ll probably smile at you, but then when the gun goes off, she’ll leave you in the dust. Don’t take it personally, though; she does that to everyone. “We call her the Smiling Assassin,” says Todd Harbour, Baylor’s head track/cross country coach. “She’ll smile at you and then just beat you bad.”
This 5’2”speedster is a quiet giant, both athletically and spiritually, who’d rather show you what she’s about than tell you.
It was as good as done the moment the Lions signed free agent quarterbacks Jon Kitna and Josh McCown. The path back to Christ was illuminated long before Dan Orlovsky could see it for himself. No one who would be spending so much time with two such evangelists could escape the Holy Spirit.
No, Orlovsky had no shot.
The life of Pro Football Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews has been epitomized by resilience and perseverance, stability and strength. The stats he produced as a fixture on the Houston-turned-Tennessee offensive line are legendary, and his name is a consistent example for line coaches who seek to inspire greatness in their athletes. And if those athletes never had the opportunity to see Matthews play, a quick reading of his accomplishments makes their jaws drop in awe.
Once people find out that I serve in the FCA Health and Fitness Ministry, I get bombarded with questions about everything from food to fitness equipment, exercising to eating right, calories to carbohydrates. If I am eating out, people watch what I eat and ask me if it is OK to order certain entrees. And frankly, I love it! It gives me countless opportunities to help cut through the confusion and restore some basic truths about how to take care of our bodies the way God intends.
So, this month’s column is all about questions and answers.
Have you ever fallen into the pit of despair, landing in a pool of your toxic mistakes and filthy sin? There in the depths you gaze in doubt at the slippery walls of consequence that rise 20 feet above you on all sides. “I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold,” describes the psalmist in 69:2 (NIV).
We’ve all been down there—we’ve all experienced deep anguish. But, if you read further, you find that the psalmist escapes. “Praise the Lord, O my soul,” he shouts, “who redeems your life from the pit!” (103:2-4, NIV).
The story told in the Psalms is familiar to Mississippi State senior Alexandria Hagler.
This summer, FCA partnered with Korean Central Presbyterian Church and Global Christian School in Seoul to host a first-ever sports camp in South Korea. Our host, Jacob Hong, whom I’d met when we were both living in Northern Virginia, had been talking with me, praying and planning, for nine months to see FCA come to South Korea. And on July 24 that prayer materialized as an FCA team of 21 people crossed the Pacific to serve 175 South Korean campers through language, sports and spiritual education.
Anthony Henry remembers the 1.5-hour walks well.
Who knows how much of his childhood was spent accompanying his mother, Mae Robinson, on her treks to work? Sure, she could’ve tried the car; but it broke down all the time, so why bother? Besides, many weeks, this was the only significant time Anthony and Mae got to spend together, considering the long hours and multiple jobs she had to work to keep the creditors at bay.
The walks were good for reflecting, at least for Mae. There was plenty to think about: life as a single parent, the surrounding crime that threatened to snatch her youngest boy, and her older children who had already been ensnared.
Nic Cardwell’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
It was 2002, and Cardwell, then a senior at Robert B. Glenn (N.C.) High School, and his father were on a football recruiting trip to nearby Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. After a short wait in the lobby of the on-campus inn, a team representative — an “old guy,” as Nic remembers — greeted the Cardwells and sat down to chat with them.
Thirty minutes passed, and Cardwell’s mind drifted. Finally, the older gentleman got up and said, “OK, let’s go eat.” Cardwell quickly snapped to attention. Perplexed, he blurted, “Wait a second! I haven’t met the head coach yet.”
STV profiles D-I quarterbacks to watch this winter -- those who compete for more than the glory of the gridiron.
Included: Florida QB Tim Tebow, Texas QB Colt McCoy and Tennessee QB Erik Ainge.
“It makes me feel good that FCA cares about it’s people!”
That was a common statement after a week of clinical exercise testing at the FCA World Headquarters in November. This effort, led by the FCA Health & Fitness Ministry, was designed to help our FCA team improve its health so that everyone involved could have the strength and energy necessary to perform at the highest level. FCA President Les Steckel put it best: “We believe that our initiative to serve our people on the front-edge of ministry will define us as an organization that genuinely invests in the personal and professional development of its people.”
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Book of the Bible
FCA Bible Topic