Category Archives: Hard Copy Newsletter

When you are a commodity…

Posted in Athletes in Action, Hard Copy Newsletter, Sports Ministry by

A significant part of Athletes in Action’s ministry is providing sports chaplains in several professional sports and for Olympians. Many people think that elite athletes have it made because of the fame and money they enjoy, but chaplains to these athletes share a different perspective. “An athlete is viewed as a commodity, not as a person,” says Reza Zadeh, AIA chaplain for the Denver Broncos. “They don’t know who to trust because everyone’s out to get something from them.” Former Boston Celtics chaplain Bill Alexson says, “People love them for what they do, not who they are. Their careers are temporary, and when it’s all done, they’re kind of left high and dry. At chapel, they come in and give their burdens to the Lord. A lot of these guys find peace for the first time.”

“The one thing we do more than anything,” says Mike Tatlock, chaplain to the Portland NBA team, “is to help them with their emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. We bring to the table the peace of Christ that passes all understanding. That is the remedy for the things that these guys struggle with.” Chaplains offer Bible studies, retreats, chapel services and individual discipleship with players, coaches and others in the organization. Many chaplains’ wives also conduct Bible studies for the players’ and coaches’ wives and girlfriends.

When Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed during the game with the Cincinnati Bengals in January, the medical team jumped into action, and so did Vincent Rey, AIA chaplain to the Bengals (and one of Karen’s coachees). He prayed with the Bills’ chaplain and then went to the locker room to support the team. “I gave out a couple dozen hugs just to let them know I’m here.” He also saw the opening for the gospel: “I had a chance to give a message to some people within the organization and management and even some of the coaches. Even though it was a hard thing to get through, I think the Lord used it to get glory throughout our nation.”

Please pray for AIA chaplains as ministers of the gospel and for major sporting events like the upcoming John Wooden Keys to Life breakfast in conjunction with the NCAA Final Four basketball championship.

Thank you for your prayers and gifts that enable us to serve the Lord and help others to serve Him. 

We are grateful for you!

Please review our prayer page  and support needs and lift up our ministry to the Lord.  Click the following:  March 2023 Newsletter hard copy. 

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To Share the Heart of God

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I’d like to introduce you to Joel Greenfield, one of the new AIA staff members I am coaching as he prepares to report to his assignment with AIA volleyball. Joel grew up in California with several family members who encouraged his faith in Jesus. By the time he was in high school, sharing his faith was a passion, and so was sports. He played water polo, basketball and volleyball in high school and went on to play volleyball in college. Being cut from the team after his freshman year revealed that his sport had become an idol and he needed a reset. Now Joel helps other athletes learn to worship God through their sport, rather than worship their sport

Joel in black shirt on right working Volleyball Camp in South Asia.

In college Joel studied sports management and found that he loved coaching and also loved sharing his faith. As his involvement in ministry grew, he made the decision to invest his life in helping others know Jesus. An internship with Athletes in Action was the perfect place for him to pair his love for God with his love for sports; a place to pursue the vision of a Christ follower on every team, in every sport, in every nation.

Joel with student in South Asia.

During his internship Joel went on a volleyball mission trip to South Asia and a basketball mission trip to Alaska, coached high school volleyball and led Bible studies at a rehab facility for addicts. Then one of the graduates from rehab started going with Joel to lead a Bible study at a homeless shelter. Joel is eager to find a team of ministry partners and get back to serving with AIA volleyball full time. He says, “My sole purpose is to bring others to God. God has been teaching me consistency in prayer. He has me in a position where I MUST pray. I want to share the pain the Lord feels toward His creation. I want to share the heart of God.”

Joel in right and James from rehab study. (James in middle)

Thank you for your prayers and gifts that enable us to serve the Lord and help others to serve Him. 

We are grateful for you!

Please review our prayer page  and support needs and lift up our ministry to the Lord.  Click the following:  February 2023 Newsletter hard copy. 

Heart, Soul, and Passion

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Last month, Kaylyn, whom I coached and who is directing AIA Softball, made her fourth trip to a middle eastern country where she partnered with Competitive Edge and SportsLife to put on a softball mission trip. They worked with the softball national team of the country they visited, which is made up of 20-55 year-old women, mostly moms. Several of these were women they have met on previous trips. The women know that the American team members love Jesus, and they are open to that idea.

During the trip, Kaylyn got to share her heart and soul, her passion, not only for softball, but also for worshiping God through her sport. Rhonda, one of the women on the middle eastern team, had a believing mother, and she herself is now asking, “Who is Jesus?” Pray that the seeds that have been planted will take root.

Another middle eastern softball player recently trusted in Jesus along with her whole family. Kaylyn was able to give her the AIA Five Principles book about how to worship God through sport. The woman responded through her tears, “I can’t get this here. It’s hard to grow in my faith when there are no resources.” Pray for her continued growth in Christ.

During a dinner shared with the middle eastern women, Kaylyn said they were asked questions like: “If what you are telling us is true, Jesus is the human example of God and He is the Messiah?” To which we were able to answer, “Yes! He is.” Pray the women would seek Jesus as their Messiah.

This year, Efrat, whom Kaylyn met on her first trip to this country in 2017, and who has been pretty closed to spiritual things, has been pondering what it means to know God personally. Sandy, their softball contact in the country, was able to share her journey of faith in Jesus and what it means to know Him personally. Pray Efrat would hunger for a personal relationship with Him.

Thank you for your prayers and gifts that enable us to serve the Lord and help others to serve Him. We are grateful for you!

Please review our prayer page  and support needs and lift up our ministry to the Lord.  Click the following:  November 2022 newsletter hard copy. 

In and Through …

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The vision of Athletes in Action is to see God work IN the lives of athletes and THROUGH their lives to bring others to Himself. We help athletes learn to share their testimonies of God’s work in their lives, and we tell their stories too. One way we do this is through the Struggle and Triumph (S & T) Bible, which features the testimonies of athletes from around the world, a presentation of the gospel, and the AIA Five Principles.

These Bibles have been translated into Spanish, Russian, French, Arabic, and recently Amharic, which is spoken in Ethiopia. We have taken the sports Bibles to 30 countries where they’re being used to open doors to international sports federations and in ministry with athletes. Or coworker Cristobal has been able to share S & T Bibles with every player in the premier soccer league in Guatemala! The very last batch of these Bibles is going out, and new international athletes’ stories will be written for publication in a new sports Bible.

Along with some of the S & T devotions which have been translated into many languages and can be read on the Bible app, Karen wrote some of the additional material in the S & T Bible, so she jokes that she wrote the Bible

Several of our AIA coworkers were in Oregon for the World Athletics Championships over the summer where over 1900 athletes from 192 countries competed, and our staff members got to minister to them. Our coworker Tim has personal connections with some Ethiopian athletes, and he got to meet Werkuha, the silver medalist in the steeplechase event.

Tim was able to give Wehkuha S & T Bibles in her native Amharic language (which she is now studying with her teammates), connect her with our Ethiopian AIA director for discipleship when she returned home, and encourage her to reach out to Luisa, a competitor and top athlete in Albania where an AIA ministry was recently started. Werkuha befriended Luisa in the hope of sharing the love of Jesus with her. Our staff were able to provide resources, encouragement, and discipleship training to Werkuha, and she in turn is reaching out to other athletes.

Thank you for your prayers and gifts that enable us to serve the Lord and help others to serve Him. We are grateful for you!

Please review our prayer page  and support needs and lift up our ministry to the Lord.  Click the following:  September 2022 newsletter hard copy. 

Living a “Sent” Life

Posted in Hard Copy Newsletter, Sports T.E.A.M. by

Gathering regularly means so much for every family. Until our recent national staff conference in Milwaukee, it had been three long and challenging years since all the Cru ministries were able to gather as a family, face-to-face! The Lord showed up in so many ways as we spent time in worship and prayer, heard messages from His Word and attended seminars to equip us to serve more effectively

We celebrate what God is doing through Cru ministries drawing people to Himself! In 2021 there were 764 million views of the Jesus Film Project with 19 million indicated decisions for Christ! We are releasing our 2,000th language version of the Jesus Film along with 200 other short films, and planning has begun on a new version in 2024. Did you know you can have these FREE resources in your pocket to share any time in all these languages? It’s available in the App store or Google play. Just search Jesus Film Project. There are countless stories of God using short, divine appointments where someone has heard the Good News in their heart language!


Our biggest personal takeaway from the Conference was the message on being sent. The #1 way Jesus referred to His Father was “the Father who sent me.” In John 20:21 He said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.” If we are honest, we are excited and terrified by that verse.  Heather Holleman’s personal journey of learning what it means to be “sent” is priceless.  Heather talked about having a “rich theology of place” — understanding that wherever God takes us, even through personal pain, there’s more to the story. He may have us there to allow us to connect to a moment in eternity.

Do you ever think, “I must be missing something about being sent,” or feel bad about your role in the Great Commission? Heather shares her journey through these struggles in the tough world of academia. Our original post contained a link to view Heather’s message. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, her session is no longer available. You can get her book “Sent” and many other resources from Heather at heatherholleman.com. By the way, other main sessions from Cru22 are currently at https://www.cru.org/us/en/about/cru22-sessions.html.

Thank you for your prayers and gifts that enable us to serve the Lord and help others to serve Him. We are grateful for you!

Please review our prayer page  and support needs and lift up our ministry to the Lord.  Click the following:  August 2022 newsletter hard copy. 

It would not be possible without …

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AIA Catalytic Ministries, the part of our ministry where Rick serves, is a short-term, direct ministry experience to a specific audience that will start or accelerate a movement-building strategy. Primarily, this is played out through three categories: camps and clinics, training and academies, and team building and retreats.

Each part of Athletes in Action has its own distinctive contribution to reaching “every” and creating movements, and no one staff member is responsible for an athlete’s complete spiritual journey. Sam, pictured below, is a great example of this.

As a wrestler in Indianapolis, Sam came to some Indy AIA events. There, he connected first with our campus staff, and later with our wrestling ministry. Our staff were able to connect him with a scholarship, which gave Sam the chance to travel to Moldova and Ukraine with AIA Wrestling. There he shared his faith, presented his testimony in a juvenile prison and  grew tremendously.

Through Sam, our campus staff continued building relationships with the Indy Men’s Wrestling team and organized a community service project for the athletes to do. This increased trust with the coaching staff, and when our campus staff were given the opportunity to present AIA to the wrestlers and share what we are about, 30 of the 40 student-athletes on the team indicated interest in further involvement.

Multiple touchpoints, events, people, and conversations took place for all this to happen. It was a dynamic movement with lots of moving parts, and much of it wouldn’t have been possible without many team members working together to reach “every” through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This Is what AIA Catalytic Ministry is all about.  Spiritual movement is not only taking place on a national scale, but also around the world. Italy, Albania, Croatia, South Africa, Puerto Rico and Jamaica are our partnering countries for 2022. At minimum, each of these places is post-Christian, under evangelized, and characterized by spiritual darkness. We also have a presence in six restricted countries comprising 3,342 unreached people groups.

Your partnership is impacting the sports world both here and around the world so that one day people from every nation, tribe and language will surround the throne of Jesus to give Him glory.  We are grateful for you!

Please review our prayer page  and support needs and lift up our ministry to the Lord.  Click the following:  April 2022 hard copy Newsletter to print a card copy. 

Can Soccer Spread the Gospel?

Posted in Hard Copy Newsletter, Sports T.E.A.M. by

Shaun and Karlie

Shaun and Karlie, a couple I (Karen) am currently coaching, will be joining AIA’s soccer department. Isaac, the director of the department, recently used our brand-new sports performance facility to coach a group of boys from inner city Dayton. He and fellow soccer staff member, Karen work together to reach out to refugee and immigrant kids through “the beautiful game,” since soccer is played worldwide by 250 million, and is watched worldwide by 3.5 billion people. There are even kids from an unreached people group in the youth soccer program.

Isaac says, “Ohio winters offer limited opportunities for outside play. A lot of the kids we minister to don’t have transportation to, or can’t afford club sports, so they have no chance for training throughout the winter, but they have skill. Some could be good enough to get college scholarships. We can help build a brighter future for these kids. They, in turn, can reach their families and friends for Christ as they give back to their communities. We pray the Sports Performance Center will be a place of spiritual multiplication.”

A group of Dayton Soccer participants in the Sports Performance Center

Amos was a kid participating in The Academy, an invitation-only development camp held at the new center. He wanted the soccer help, but not the personal and spiritual stuff, so he dropped out. He got into some trouble, and a couple of months later he returned with an apology. “I want to come back. You wanted what’s best for me,” he acknowledged.

AIA soccer provides for kids’ needs through donating cleats, clothing, food, sports training and Bible study. We also partner with a local ministry called No Longer Strangers, which provides after-school tutoring and rides to our campus in Xenia. As we serve the total athlete by helping them grow physically, mentally and spiritually, we pursue our mission of building spiritual movements everywhere through the platform of sports so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus.

Please review our prayer page  and support needs and lift up our ministry to the Lord.  Click the following: April 2021 newsletter to print a card copy.