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.

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.”

“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.”