Engage God First : See what happens when we give it all to God
When I started with FCA I had this grand idea in my head of how things would be. I mean how could it go wrong if my husband was a graduate from one high school and we had two cousins teaching at another high school, one of whom was also a coach. In my head, I would just waltz right into those schools, and they would hear me out because I knew people.
That is definitely not how it went at all.
See, I forgot the most important part of doing anything for Christ. Engage God first! I hadn’t prayed about it and I hadn’t stopped to dig into His word about it. Heck, I didn’t even think about God at all. I just dove in headfirst with no plan.
Thankfully, I have some amazing teammates who pour into me and lead well. They taught me that engaging with coaches and athletes didn’t start by reaching out to them first. They taught me that I must seek God first. While I know this principal in a general sense of things, I never took the time to apply it with my coaches and athletes or my schools. Once I started to seek God and His direction things changed.
Goodhue High School was one of those two schools I thought I could just waltz right into, and it would fall into place. My husband had graduated from there, of course they would hear me out. Instead, my reaching out seemed to fall on deaf ears. I felt defeated at first, but after I learned what engage God first really meant, I started praying and seeking God on how to reach this school. Wow, what a story it has turned in to!
About a year ago, one of the coach’s wives at Goodhue was searching for a video of Bailee O’Reilly wrestling for the University of MN. While she was searching for this video, she came across another video that Bailee had done the winter after Covid hit. The video was an interview with staff from FCA and Athletes in Action. (Click Here to Watch) Bailee was sharing his testimony of what being involved while at college had meant to him. Bailee had no idea the impact that video would have a year later. Nor the impact it would have on his alma mater, Goodhue High School.
The coach’s wife felt God calling her to share Christ with the students at Goodhue, but at the time she wasn’t sure how to get this started. She started praying God would work things out in His time, and she patiently waited. Little did she know all that God was getting ready to do.
This past summer Bailee was a huddle leader at FCA Leadership Camp. On the last day, we were introduced. I shared who I was, and he immediately knew who my husband was. I told him that I had been praying for God to show me how we could start reaching the coaches and athletes at Goodhue, but at this time, there still wasn’t an answer. Bailee asked what he could do to help. I simply asked him to pray and I would keep in contact with him.
In November, I received an email from that same coach’s wife. She felt God saying now was the time. She talked with a friend who had started the Pine Island huddle and got the information to get connected with me. This is where God really showed us it was all going to be in His timing and not ours. See, I had shared at her church in May and for some reason, she was not there the Sunday that I shared. God knew the time wasn’t right, so He made sure that she wasn’t there to hear me share about FCA. We met for breakfast in November with another mom and God started things rolling. I listened to all they had to say. I passed on all the information to them. They took it and God led them.
The same day she emailed me asking if we could meet up, I text Bailee and told him we had a coach’s wife interested in starting a huddle. He responded and asked what he could do to help. I simply stated, "Continue to pray." He said he was on it and to just let me know what else he could do to help once I knew. Which happened faster than I thought.
This past Sunday, after over 2 years of prayer, we were able to see what happens when you engage God first. An FCA staff, 2 moms, and a former high school alumni held an interest meeting. It just happened that the day these two moms chose to have the meeting was the one Sunday Bailee did not have a wrestling match. We all shared how God has used us and brought us to this point.
Bailee shared how God has used FCA and AIA on his campus to grow his relationship with God. He is now leading his own group of young men on his campus and even put a call out to the upperclassmen at this meeting to take a step and be the leaders. We also had another alumni join us and share her testimony from being part of FCA and AIA on her own campus.
And now, Goodhue High School kicked off its very first FCA Huddle ever this morning with 30 students in attendance!!
To wrap it up, when we engage God first, when we stop to pray, and when we seek His will and not our own, we see things happen. Maybe, not in our time, but in His time. This is just one story of many that can be told of what God does and can do when we engage Him first. Oh, and we had over 60 athletes and parents show up for the interest meeting. That is the power of prayer and of engaging God first.
Will you join us in praying for the Goodhue Huddle as they get started?
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