God's Faithfulness - Revisited

I have posted about this before, but today I feel like God is leading me to write about His provision and faithfulness in FCA.

FCA stands for Fellowship of Christian Athletes. FCA is in my heart, but I am not an athlete. I have often wanted to be! But....I am not athletic at all.

Over 20 years ago, I sensed God leading Michael and I into FCA. Mind you, I didn't really know what that was. I had heard people speak about it, but FCA wasn't around when Michael and I went through our local high school. Perhaps that is why I considered it strange that I couldn't get FCA out of my head. God just kept putting it in my thoughts, and I couldn't get it out.

I hadn't really mentioned it to anyone, until one day Michael came home from work for lunch, and I told him that I thought I knew something "God wanted him to do". To his credit, he listened and then acted immediately. He picked up the house phone, (we had one then), called directory assistance, and asked for a number in the state of Missouri to Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He dialed the number the operator gave him, and asked to speak to someone about starting an FCA in our local school system.

He had reached a secretary, and she put him through to someone named Gary Beets. Michael told him where he was from, and asked for information on how to start FCA in our community. Silence. Gary Beets was speechless. Michael kept saying "hello?", until finally Gary answered. He told Michael that less than 24 hours earlier he had spread out a map of our state on a desk. He and his staff had prayed over it, earnestly asking God specifically for someone to lead FCA and bring it to our area where there were no FCA huddles. (It turned out that Gary was the state director of FCA, and he became a good and trusted friend of our family.)

God is faithful.....and God loves kids.

With God's provision, we were equipped to begin FCA in the high school. Next, it spread to the junior high and then middle school. A few years later, our school system was the first FCA in the state to have a huddle in an elementary school. God opened doors, provided workers, cut through red tape, and multiplied his work. It was a miracle if I have ever seen one.

What does FCA do? It provides a club inside the local public school where kids can speak openly about their faith. It is student-led, and at each meeting a student is bold enough to share his faith in front of his/her peers. FCA leaders are allowed to pass out Bibles in a public school, because the Bible is their club material. No other organization can do that.

Today, if you walk into our local school, you will see an FCA coach who became a believer in FCA as a student. He is now a father and a coach, and he volunteers his time to support FCA. That's amazing to me.

I am thankful today for a God who does miracles, meets our needs, gives us dreams and then fulfills them. I give Him all the glory.

And, by the way, you don't have to be an athlete to be in FCA!