Central Coast Fellowship of Christian Athletes

2011 Campus Kickoff - 85 people representing 15 schools

2011-09-20T14:46:00.001-07:00

We had our Annual Campus Kickoff this past weekend at Robin and Stephanie Ventura's home in Arroyo Grande. I thought it went well and I am impressed with many of the students we have leading the ministry at their schools this year. This is a time were we try to gather student leaders, some key parents and adult volunteers from across our area with the goal training, equiping and inspiring our leaders to prepare for the year ahead. This year was by far the biggest group we have had with close to 90 people representing 15 schools from across the Central Coast. We talk about our role as a ministry as being a part of and a extension of the local Church and what it means to be a servant leader. We discuss the calendar of events for the year and go over some of the X's and O's of leading a ministry on campus.

One neat story that has been developing this year is the birth of FCA at Cabrillo High School. Over the summer I was playing beach volleyball with my friend Dan and his brother at the Pismo courts. We needed a fourth and found this tall 6'8" guy who was sitting with his family and watching us play. He played on my team and we lost. I don't think he was to blame. After a few games we all got a little tired and took a break. We meet his family and then his daughter and her friend played with us in place of her dad. I came to find out that she played volleyball for Cabrillo and so I told her what we do with FCA on campuses in the area. She said no way that sounds awesome. Just a few weeks earlier she had went to a camp and had been praying about wanting to reach out to athletes at her school and asking the Lord how she might be able to have a stronger impact on campus. We exchanged contact info and she contacted me as this school year was getting started.

Long story short, Cabrillo brought around 20 people to the campus kickoff, the family already provided funding for bibles and resources for the year and a leadership team of students has been formed! It is always encouraging when we get to see things like that happen in the Lord's timing. I had been avoiding starting Cabrillo becasue I didn't want to drive that far : ) I know right. But the students are motivated and taking the lead and I am excited to help them.

Ryan did a great job leading the activities outside including a water balloon toss. Big thanks to Matt Pearce who catered the event from San Luis Bar B Q!!

If you are someone who chooses to pray for this ministry please pray for God's protection over the minds and hearts of these student leaders as they step out in faith and choose to take a stand for the Lord on their campus. It is not easy going agasint the norms of pressures they face on a regular basis and it seems that some times with ministry comes heightened spiritual attack. If you are a leader at your school or in your community, keep up the good work, stay the course, finish the race...

Surgery Update - damaged trigeminal nerve

2011-08-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

So I had planned to start blogging more which I still hope to but this last month has gone by quick, wow! Here is an update on my surgery. The image below is the first of four incisions that they did to begin inserting titanium plates and re aligning my facial bones.

One day after surgery

Here you can see the five titanium braces they inserted. The red on the mouth is just imaging stuff and not related to the injury.

After getting back in the US I meet with an Ophthalmologist while spending a few days with my family in Laguna. They did an eye test and when asked to read the "bottom line" I could make it out fine with my right eye but my left was really blurry although I could still read it. The nurse said ok, well thats good, you still have 20 20 vision in both eyes! I thought, wow if the blury eye is 20 20 I must have had pretty good eye sight before surgery : ) My sight is now almost fully restored and I have no permanent damage to my eyes! This is very fortunate especially since one of the surgeons said if the fracture to the floor of my orbit had been over a millimeter I probably would have lost vision to my left eye. In Laguna my family made me take family pictures (which came out very nice Malea : ) and they were all kind enough to were sun glasses with me for most of the pictures.

I have a wonderful family!

None of us choose the families we are born into but I feel very blessed and undeserving of the family I have. We are not perfect by any means and all have our quirks but we love one another I really appreciate them in my life. I also have some of the coolest nephews on the planet and got to meet one of them (little Luke) for the first time that week!

By the time I got back to SLO my swelling was mostly gone but still had the blood hemorrhage in my eye.

Two weeks after surgery

Month after surgery

This is about what I look like now. I still have what they call ectropian in my lower left eye lid. As the insicion was healing it fused to the medal plate so it is pulling my eyelid down slightly. I can close my eye but am unable to move my lower left eye lid which hinders me from being able to squint with that eye. It looks a little funny but what the heck, I really can't complain considering...

I do not have any pain but I also still have no feeling in the left part of my face from below my eye to the top of my lip. Kinda feels like you would after going to the dentist only all the time. Basically the injury damaged whats called my trigeminal nerve which is one of three main nerves in your face. So I can't feel it when I shave the left side of my lip and stuff like that which is pretty trippy. Sometime I get a tingliny feeling which is a hopeful sign that I may get feeling back someday but they say it could take up to a year.

Anyway this month has been going well as I have been back on campus training students, working with coaches and speaking at FCA huddles. We got some new office space donated and made available to us for FCA which is a huge blessing! The ministry has been growing pretty subastantially and we now have FCA at 16 schools on the central coast. This kind of growth has required us to do more with leadership training, delegating, and recruiting more volunteers in local areas which has been good. It is also requiring us to generate more resources and funding from the community to help support all these school which we are working on.

I got a new roomate this month. My buddy Eric moved in which has been great. He works for a financial planning firm and used to wrestle for Cal Poly back when I was a runner there. It has been a season of a lot of change and transition for me over the last many months but the Lord is faithful and has been teaching me a lot. I hope to write some of my thoughts about my understanding of the role of suffering in our lives and about the grieving process when I have the time and it feels right...

I was at St. Joe's high today and we had about 35 kids come to the meeting. The students always seem to ask me to share my story about my eye which I have been and then challenge them to evaluate where their foundation in life lies and the importance and value of being grounded in Christ. We will all face challenges and hardships in this life and where our trust lies will effect how we are able to process those events and potentially reflect Christ in a way that honors the Lord or not. Students read out of Romans 5:1-8 and we discussed it and introduced some of the new student leaders....

AG High FCA on Tuesday

After that I meet with some of our former student leaders at Cal Poly and talked about ministry on the college campus... As I was walking back to my car I say my old teammate Jamey Mora running 1000's around the track. I am so impressed with him and many of my old teammates and opponents who are still training so hard. (I surfed 7 foot Hazards this morning, and got worked pretty good a couple times, does that count as training? : ) Jamey is training for the marathon and races in a couple weeks. He is trying to run the Olympic qualifying time which is 2:19:00 so please keep him in your prayers!!

Maxillofacial Plastic Surgery in Egypt - My Story

2011-08-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

So I decided i might start writing more on my blog again. It has been a while and I thought why not start with our trip to Egypt/Israel this summer. As some of you may have heard I got injured on the second day of camp while playing soccer in the second practice of the day. Through a fluke accident I got kicked in the face by one of the players named Muhammad who went to volley a ball I was attempting to hit with my head. I hit the ball first and he hit my face. It was a total accident and one of those simple mistakes that could have happened any of the 14 years I played soccer in the states. Upon impact I could tell it was a pretty hard hit so I checked to make sure I didn't loose any teeth and opened my eyes to make sure I could still see. My teeth were there although one was chipped and I could see fine but as I closed my mouth my bite did not align correctly and I knew something was off.

I got great care by the camp Dr. named Heidi and then got driven to an ER in Cairo. I got a CT Scan and my Dr. was the was the chief of radiology and the father of one of the players I had just coached at the camp. The CT Scan initially revealed five major fractures to my face. Three on my left check separating it from the rest of my scull, one above my nose and one on my left eyebrow bone.

I was scheduled for immediate reconstructive plastic surgery the following day in Cairo. Maged and I left the ER and drove and hour to his house. We picked up some nuggets and fries on the way to his house. I couldn’t chew then so we blended the McDonald's at his house which I ate with a spoon! It was actually pretty good. I had to stop eating by midnight and only had a couple minutes to spoon feed myself to get some nourishment before the next day.

Of course I didn’t expect to go through this over hear but I also know the Lord is purposeful with the suffering He allows us to go through and I wanted to gain spiritually and emotionally from this experience. As I laid down on a small bed at Maged’s house that first night I was alone, it was dark and I’ll be honest I was a little scared for the next day.

It is interesting how Paul talks about wanting to know Christ “even in his sufferings”. I don’t think as Christians we should pursue suffering for it’s own sake but when it comes I do believe there is great value in choosing to embrace it and to realize that we can have experiences with the Lord that we may not be able to have otherwise. I felt the comfort and presence of my savior as I laid in bed that night. I knew my appearance could end up forever altered, their could be complications, I was far from home and was about to have plastic surgery in Cairo, not your ideal situation. I assumed my chance of going with the team to Israel was over and I figured I probably wouldn’t get to say bye to the kids from camp…Still the Lord gave me His peace which surpasses understanding and a worship song came to my mind as I started to sing before I fell asleep for the night.

The Dr. was a maxillofacial surgeon named Emad who got his training in the US at Emory University and is one of the most renown surgeons in Egypt.

He was pretty encouraging and told me about all the “state of the art” equipment and titanium he was going to put in my face. My nurse at the surgeons clinic was named Eman which means "faith" which I thought was pretty cool!

I went under general anesthetics and the surgery lasted five and a half hours.

When I woke up the first thing I did was try to close my mouth. It lined up well and my jaw wasn’t wired shut...I was thrilled! I stayed the night at the hospital that night and then they actually drove me back to the camp at Wadi the next day. I was welcomed back to camp by the cheering of the kids. Friday morning I was feeling pretty good and got to give the talk for “treasure time” and speak to all the athletes. One neat story is that during the daily talk the day after I was injured the Muslim and Christian kids took a moment to come together to pray for me. That was just hours before I went into surgery. At the beginning of my talk Muhammad came up and gave me a big hug and all the kids clapped.

At wadi I received incredible care from my friend Hema who practically never left my side and Heidi who oversaw the distribution of all my medications and general care. Honestly I would not have gotten through this the same without them and am deeply grateful the Lord had them there for me.

For those of you who are curious I ended up with a total of six fractures to my face and had five titanium micro braces put in place with 21 micro screws. I got around 40 stitches on my face and in my mouth, a micro titanium mesh inserted in the socket under my left eye, and a chipped front tooth. (The pictures from the surgery are pretty intense so I decided not to post them here but the right eye in the example below is similar to what they did on my left eye)

On Saturday I returned to the Dr. for a post op appointment. They removed half the external stitches, did a new CT Scan to see how everything came out and did some dental work to better align my bite.

The Dr. said I was healing really well and that my attitude probably helped as well. We were all having fun and joking around a lot. I got to talk to him briefly about what I do with FCA in the states and we finalized insurance and payment stuff.

At this point half my left eye is still filled with blood with milled blurriness, my face is swollen, I have quite a bit of numbness on the left side of my face and congestion in my left nostril. Other than that I am able to talk, see, smell (out of one nostril) and eat! On Sunday morning I flew with our team to Tel Aviv as we had originally scheduled! The timing of everything was pretty incredible and I feel really blessed to have been able to continue on with the trip in light of the severity of the injury. The surgeon was the one most convincing that I would be fine to travel as long as I was careful and keep the incisions out of the sun. (I've since been to the Dead Sea, Qumran, Jerusalem, Jericho and Bethlehem and have keep the incisions covered pretty well : )

My surgery has become part of the message and story I share with the kids and because the injury was so recent they have sure been pretty attentive and it has been great getting to teach over here.

If you would like to pray for me please pray for:

Reduced swelling

Congestion to clear up

Fully restored sight to my left eye

No infection

That my chewing and eating would improve

And appropriate treatment and care when I return to the states

Over the last couple days we say a few sights in Israel and are now running sports camps for Palestinian kids in Bethlehem (the West Bank). Here in Israel we are using our coaches to run camps for Basketball, Swimming and Volleyball players and are having a lot of fun. We have meet so many amazing people and seen so many incredible historic places and I look forward to sharing more stories and video when I return home!

To be honest one of my biggest fears was how my injury might effect other people or FCA staff when thinking about foreign missions. I have seen God use sports ministry internationally in such incredible ways and I feel led to mobilize and encourage others to use sports internationally for the Lord as well. Even though my injury was somewhat serious it was pretty unusual and I just hope others wont fear international ministry and travel becasue of something they heard I went through. We have all been given many gifts, abilities and opportunities and for those of us who know and serve the Lord I hope we will use those gifts for His Kingdom and the nations as He leads us. Thanks for letting me share some of my story! Thanks for your prayers. God Bless.

Wadi Sport Camp 2011 - Green Light!

2011-08-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a post I started while in Egypt but just finished more recently : )

I wanted to give an update from the trip over hear in Egypt. The travel and camps have all gone really well and the Lord is doing some wonderful things in the kids lives. It has also been a blessing to reconnect with old friends and the staff that we are able to encourage over here.

As we have over the past four years we coached basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis and volleyball for club athletes from throughout Cairo. About 90% of the athletes that come to this camp at Wadi come from a Muslim background and we get to enjoy coaching, teaching and developing relationship though out the week. We also man the stations for the high ropes, rock climbing wall and zip line and help with the evening activities like dodge ball and a talent show...you know typical camp stuff : )

With all that was going on with the revolution and seeming instability in Egypt right now we were not 100% convinced that we would be able to bring a team again this year. Still we prayed and keep moving forward planning the trip unless the door was closed and it just never really closed. After about six months of planning we were able to form a team of seven coaches from FCA to partner up with a team of fifteen from San Jose and six from Texas to serve as the clinicians and help make the two camps at Wadi a reality.

We had our veteran coach Jem McAdams from Palomar College out at the pool with the swimmers, with his two daughters, Jana and Andra. Jana is an incredible photographer and is great with the kids as is Andra who helped coach volleyball and swimming. Tobie Helman was a great addition to our team and is a Volleyball Coach from Idaho. Art Wilmore from Point Loma Nazarene was our Tennis clinician along with coach Will from Texas who took the lead the first couple days as Art came a little latter than the rest of us and his flight got delayed a day as well. It actually was a blessing for me that Art's flight was delayed becasue he arrived in Cairo while I was in surgery and was the first person who's voice I heard when I got out of surgery. It was a real encouragement to have him there in those first hours of recovery. If his flight had not been delayed he would have already been at the camp.

We borrowed Marcus from the San Jose team for Basketball who is a great guy and it was a real pleasure working with him! In Soccer we were fortunate enough to have Aaron Tredway from South Africa come and coach the soccer players for us. Aaron played thirteen years of professional soccer for six different countries at the top division and has a PhD in Sports Ministry! He also has his UEFA A coaching licenses and the kids and I really enjoyed learning from him out in the soccer stadium.

Whenever you put together and plan a project like this one there is some uncertainty and at times requires a pretty high level of faith. I remember a conversation I had a couple years ago with my supervisor who was Donnie Dee at the time. He said, "Luke if you are willing I want you to lead the team to Egypt this next year. What do you think?" I was surprised and humbled that he asked and then prayed about it and said, "Ok, If you think I can do it..." Later I remember thinking, "Oh great what did I get my self into." The planning and trust was difficult but I am glad I said yes and the things I learned through that experience were very valuable and formative for me.

This year was similar but different. This year I had our veteran team member and friend Jem to help me plan and bounce ideas off of which was really valuable. While we were planning this years trip, as you may have heard in the news, two churches were burned down in Cairo in May and 12 Christians were killed and 230 Egyptians were injured. In the same month Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan and there was threat of potential back lash against Americans in other middle east countries. After each of these types of incidents we would go to the Lord in prayer and talk to our host contacts and to our team members and each time we all felt the spirit leading us to keep moving forward so we did. We had decided that unless a formal travel alert was put in place by the state department we would still go. The travel alert would hinder us from being able to insure the trip. I checked for that alert every week in the months leading up to out travel date and they never put it up so we had the green light!!

Some have asked me if I ever felt unsafe over while in Egypt or Israel. We spent quite a bit of time in Cairo (me more that others cause of my surgery) and Palestine and I never once felt unsafe. As Americans and as Coaches/Athletes they love having us there and the people are very kind and hospitable. Even on the first night we were driving to a mall in Cairo and the traffic got really bad forcing us to have to turn around. We found out later that the traffic was caused by a demonstration close by. In that demonstration 125 people were hospitalized! But even then we never felt unsafe becasue we were not involved at all (kinda hard to explain unless you experience it). Now if I was an Egyptian protestor with somewhat provocative or radical political views, then yes I would have probably felt a little unsafe. But as I said we were not involved in any that. Most of the people see us as tourist and an important source of their economy and they are usually glad we are there, if they even notice us at all. I actually feel really fortunate to have been in this part of the world during a time when such significant world events are unfolding. I mean we were in Palestine a month before they tried to declare them self a state in the UN. We got to learn and see so much first hand and from the people these events are effecting and I think that is pretty neat. Hopefully we were able to be a source of encouragement and joy in the lives of the few people we got to interact with in the midst of difficult circumstances... Thanks for reading, feel free to comment or ask a question... : )

New Website for Central Coast FCA

2011-02-14T11:05:00.000-08:00

We now have a new Central Coast FCA website! Check it out. CLICK HERE

FCA All Star Football Classic!!

2011-02-14T10:56:00.001-08:00

KCOY Article Jan 13th - "Local high school football coaches have long dreamed of creating a new high school all-star football game involving the teams that make up the Los Padres andPAC 7 Leagues. With the help of the local non-profit Central Coast Fellowship of Christian Athletes, this game has become a reality.

The building of two new high schools (Nipomo and Pioneer Valley) over the past 10 years has drastically changed the football landscape as we once knew it. There has been the formation of new leagues, the realignment of divisions, and the creation of new rivalries that have added to the already long standing rivalries of old. On Saturday, June 4, 2011, a new rivalry game will kick off between the top senior athletes from San Luis Obispo County (Paso Robles, Atascadero, Templeton, Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande and Nipomo) and the top senior athletes from Northern Santa Barbara County(Pioneer Valley, Santa Maria, St. Joseph, Righetti, Cabrillo, Lompoc and Santa Ynez).

Regardless of the student population growth in both counties, massive cuts to education have dealt a big blow to the budgets of each and every district. High school sites have had their Athletic Departments impacted in ways never seen before. The cuts were so severe in some districts that freshman sports were dropped or programs were required to be run mainly by volunteers. As a result, there is a dire need to provide financial support for the current shortfalls that exist, especially in the sport of football. The new All-Star Game will be an avenue to raise some much needed funds for the local high school football programs and showcase the local talent one more time before graduating seniors move on to the next phase of their young adult lives.
Money raised from the game will support 14 participating local high schools and will go a long way toward bridging the gaps created during these tough economic times."

Date of Game – Saturday, June 4, 2011 (End of Spring Football Practices for most schools)
Time of Game – 7 pm Kick off (Gates open at 5 pm)
Location – Pioneer Valley High School (675 Panther Drive, Santa Maria)
Teams – San Luis Obispo County vs. Northern Santa Barbara County
Participants – All League Senior Football Players from the Pac 7 and Los Padres Leagues
Coaching Staff – A collection of Head Coaches and Assistants from each of the 14 schools.
All Star Planning Committee – A collection of local active and retired Football Coaches, Officials, and Business Leaders

KCOY News Announcment

How to run a huddle meeting - The 4 W's

2010-09-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

Check out this video that gives a glimpse into how to run a huddle meeting on your campus.

Huddle - Structure from FCA on Vimeo.

Calendar of Events - Sept, Oct, Nov

2010-09-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

As the school year start up we have quit a few exciting event going on and the beggining of the year...

Annual Campus Kickoff
FCA Leadership Training for student leaders, coaches, and volunteers.

Sunday September 19th
3:30-7:30pm
Robin & Stephanie Ventura's House in AG.
Tri-Tip sandwiches, team building exercises, and training on how to run a ministry on campus.

See You At The Pole Rally

Wednesday September 22nd
6:00-8:00pm
Meet at your school flag pole in the morning (7:00am) to pray for your campus, community and country. Then the youth groups in Santa Maria are partnering to host a Rally that Night in the One Way Board Shop parking lot.
Skate Demo, Live Music, food, student speakers, gospel message...

Fields of Faith

October 20th
6:00-8:oopm
AG High Football Field
Ice Breakers, Live Music, Student Speakers, Giveaways

My Speaking Schedule (not including huddle meetings at lunch):
Optimism Club - 6:00pm September 14th
Atascadero Skate Church - 7:00pm September 28th
Santa Maria Foursquare Youth Group - 6:00pm September 29th
AG Kiwanis Club - 12:00pm October 5th
Grover Beach Youth Conference - October 8th-10th
Board Meeting - October 18th 12:00-1:30

Annual Coaches Clinic -
In November we plan to host our anual coaches workshop for coaches on the central coast.
Athletes and teams are invited this year as well.

3:00-5:00pm
Sunday, November 21st

We have a wonderful guest speaker coming to present at our annual coaches workshop this year.
"David Lightsey, M.S. is an exercise physiologist and nutritionist who has worked for the past sixteen years with the National Council Against Health Fraud, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization combating misinformation in the health marketplace. He is also an advisor to www.Quackwatch.org, and has appeared on Dateline NBC, the CBS Evening News, and has provided research support for ESPN's Outside the Lines."

Mr. Lightsey is also a committed Christian and has a heart for coaches and athletes and their physical as well as spiritual development.

FCA Camp 2010 - Update!!

2010-07-07T19:01:00.000-07:00

FCA camp was truly amazing this year. Camp is usually always a highlight of the year but this year God's presence and power were so clearly evident at camp and the healing, transformation, and new birth that took place in so many athletes lives was tremendous to watch.
We had just under 700 students attend camp at UCLA with over 300 volunteers working as clinicians, huddle leaders, trainers, and behind the scenes helpers.

We were able to send 28 students to camp on scholarship from the central coast representing 11 different high schools, middle schools, and home schools from our area. We also had five college age huddle leaders serve at camp including Chase Pami (Cal Poly National Runner up in Wrestling), Josh Swaney (Cal Poly Football tight end), Rachel Vallerie (former Cal Poly Cross Country), Dan & Chloe Murdoch who lead a surf Bible study at the Esteem surf shop in Pismo beach, and Ryan Pahler who helped with huddle leader training and as a assistant clinician in football......
Coach David Kelly (SLO High head football coach) also served as a clinician at camp along with my wife and I who helped with training and surfing.

Above are some of the students who attended camp from the central coast.

The athletic training this year was incredible with over 30 college and professional coaches running the practices, along with numerous guest clinicians like Michael Chang (Tennis), Leah Amico (three-time Olympic Gold Medalist in Softball), and Chris Klein (MLS Galaxy).

The camp speaker was Mike Ere, a teaching pastor at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa. He did a wonderful job communicating the Gospel through exalting Christ, relating to the athletes, showing God as "Father", and bringing the students to a place of decision in this pivotal time of their lives. The camp theme was "Unleash the Power" based on Colosians 1:11 and the campers talked about FCA core values of Integrity, Service, Teamwork & Excellence in their huddle meetings.
Guest speakers like Matt Barley (USC Quarterback), Michelle Perry (womens 100m World Champion in 07), Eric LeMarque (NHL), Kelenna Azubuike (NBA - Golden State Warriors) and Darrell Stuckey (NFL - San Diego Chargers) all also did a great job pointing students to Jesus through prayers and short testimonies of God's work in their lives.

I know many of the campers really enjoyed worship with the Katina's as many told me this was one of their main highlights from the camp.

On Thursday night we saw 223 kids make the decision to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord for the first time and getting the chance to pray with some of them in a separate room was one of my greatest highlights from camp. Seeing 200lb. football guys, and junior high softball girls with tears of joy in their eyes after committing their life to the Lord was a moving experience and one I will never forget.

The following night 215 other campers stood to rededicate their life to the Lord and receive prayer from their piers. As neat as it was to see God work in the evening programs, the stories we heard and things we saw made it evident that the deepest ministry and transformation took place in the smaller huddle groups following the program and in the mornings. This provided the time for the athletes to be real and transparent with each other in small groups throughout the week. Our huddle leaders (college athletes) were awesome this year, and although I only got to hear a couple of the many stories from the huddle times I know that hundreds of students were able to open up about their life and beliefs in a safe environment where they were challenged and encouraged by athletes that they respect and look up to.

Click Here to see more pictures from camp on Flickr!

We praise the Lord for the work HE did in so many students lives last week and look forward to the follow-up and continued ministry that can take place as students stay connected through the campus huddles and team bible studies that meet at their schools.

Week in Review

2010-05-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

Last week was great as Ryan and I traveled to Schools together and shared about FCA's One Way to Play - Drug Free Program. We shared our stories and challenged high school students to make the commitment to not use and abuse drugs and alcohol. I talk about some of the positive consequences making that decision had in my life in high school and into college but also the impact it had on some of my friends and teammates as well. We also talked about the all to familiar and frustrating stories of seeing teammates and peers who waste thier potential and forfeight the opportunities in front of them through substance abuse.

I had three friends (two of them teammates) die in high school in an alcohol related crash and one friend while in college. Two students died in a substance related crash last year at Coast Union and sadly these kinds of stories are endless. We have had over 50 students from the four schools we shared at commit to the program last week and it is neat to see students stand up to make a commitment and be examples to their peers.

Gabe Dominguez shared at Santa Maria High School Monday of this week and we had our last FCA meeting for the year at Coast Union on Tuesday. There are quite a few non-believers in their group and we talked a lot about the Resurrection and then One Way to Play. Atascadero also met on Tuesday and we took time for students to share highlights from the year and prayer requests/thoughts the Lord has given them. It was really encouraging to hear so many students share.

Chelsea Norton shared about Romans 12 at SLO High on Wednesday and I shared out of 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 about being and ambassador of Christ and what it means to represent Christ to those around us at Nipomo. Before I shared the leaders gathered the students in a circle to pray to end off the year. It started slow but then one after another students began to pray and thank the Lord for the ministry on their campus and the imact FCA has had at their school this year.

Of the 60 kids that where present 8 or 9 of them prayed and I was encouraged when one the students shared how he just got involved this semester but how FCA on Wednesday's was the highlight of his week!

Yesturday Vinnie shared out of Romans 10:14-18 at Pioneer Valley and it was neet to hear students stories about how they came to know the Lord through people sharing Christ with them and opportunities they have had to share their faith with others as well.

One student named Armondo shared his story and was glad to share it with me after the meeting as well. Watch video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgdktjum3Tw

Today I am off to St. Joes for their last FCA meeting of the year!

Camp Kickoff Update

2010-05-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

The camp kickoff went great this past weekend. We had about 20 families and a few dozen students attend. Through the donations of our board and a hand full of other families we were able to raise $9,925 toward our goal to send 40 athletes on scholarship to the FCA sports camp at UCLA this summer.

The bar-b-q was great, and although it was a little overcast we still had a fun water balloon fight, and pool basketball, etc : )

Thank you to everyone who was able to contribute at the event!
If you were not able to come but would still like to help students experience a life changing sports camp this summer you can do so here. Select "send an athlete to camp".

I'll put up another post soon with all the details about camp.
http://www.socalfcacampoffice.org/

End of the Year FCA Bar-B-Q - Sun May 16th AG!

2010-05-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

End of the Year FCA Bar-B-Q

“Annual Camp Kickoff Event”

Where:

Pat & Dana Cusack’s Home in AG
1080 Newsome Springs Road
Arroyo Grande, CA 93420

When: Sunday May 16th 3:00pm

What: Big Bar-B-Q, FCA ministry update, basketball, pool water basketball, fundraiser, camp info, games, etc.

Who: Families and individuals who have been or may like to be more involved with FCA on the Central Coast. Students and Parents welcome! Fun day in the Sun.

Directions:

Exit Traffic Way (or Grand Ave.) turn onto E. Cherry Ln.
R on Branch Mill Rd, R on Newsome Springs Rd, Very Top of the Hill

Call Luke (805) 215-4175 with any questions?

Assembly Update!! 5,640 students in two and a half days....

2010-03-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

It was a tremendous blessing to have Melvin, Roberto, and Brandon in town for the assemblies at the end of last month. It was also humbling to be a part of the whole endeavor as we saw the Lord do some pretty exciting things in students lives.

We hosted six assemblies and three evening rallies in two and a half days. We had 5,430 students attend one of the six assemblies and 492 students attend one of the three evening rallies.

Not including New Life we had 112 students and one Athletic Director respond to the gospel during the invitations to receive Christ at the rallies!

There are many incredible stories of students that were impacted by the speakers, and presentations. Please keep these students, local youth groups, and the FCA huddles in prayer as we seek to provide effective follow up in the Santa Maria Schools.

Righetti's First Assembly

Righetti's Second Assembly

Roberto talking with students who where crying after the assembly. One of these girls said to me "I feel like crying but I can't, my uncles tell me I am not allowed to show emotion because I'm a Gonzalez, so I just keep it all in side...but then it just comes out in other ways."

Santa Maria High Assembly

The Mayor of Santa Maria attended this assembly with the assistant city manager, Rick Haydon, who is one of our board members. Mr. Lavagnino seemed to enjoy it and the students were glad to have him on campus.

Melvin answering questions after the Assembly

Roberto at Pioneer Valley's Second Assembly

Gotta love the fro!

Melvin also spoke for the St. Joe's FCA club as well (which was one of the best and by far funniest meetings he did : ) you had to be there... (I'm working on a video of the events that I hope to get out soon)

New Life on Wednesday Night

Brandon (SYPREME) praying with a student after the first Rally

Second Rally at the Pacific Christian Center

This young lady has a really neat story...
Her name is Katheryn Martinez and she has a dream to be a paramedic but she has a learning disability and has a very difficult time reading...She gave her life to Christ at the third Rally and said "this is the first religious thing I have ever been to and it like made realize that He (God) is there and that He wants to help..."

We had given her an FCA Bible but when she told Emmy and I about her learning disability I remembered an audio Bible that had been sitting in the back of my car forever and I was able to give it to her! She got teary eyed and seemed really moved by the whole evening. Emmy (my wife) got to share her experience with Katheryn of having a hard time with school when she was younger and then going on to become a Nurse... It was a great night.

There were many students who have been involved with gang activity and come from broken homes that seemed deeply impacted by the presentations, especially Roberto's story. At the third rally we had kids who gave their life to the Lord who didn't want to go home because they knew the challenging environment that awaited them.

Fortunately we had four or five awesome youth pastors in the Santa Maria area help make all of this happen and we where able to point students to them for help with follow up.

If you would like to help us reach out to students on these campuses please let me know. We do need help with follow up and continued prayer support. (lllamas@fca.org)
If you would like to contribute financially to help with the cost of these events and other rallies and campus ministry in the future you can click here.

We hope to host more assemblies and non-school based rallies at more schools in the future and I am so grateful to everyone who volunteered their time, resources, and insight to allow these outreaches to take place! Thank You

Santa Maria School Assemblies and Rallies!!

2010-02-03T15:15:00.000-08:00

The Central Coast Fellowship of Christian Athletes is partnering with Melvin Adams and the IMAGINE Program to host school assemblies and evening rallies in the Santa Maria Valley this week on Thursday and Friday.

We are very excited about this opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students in the community through these dynamic presentations.

Melvin Adams is a former Harlem Globetrotter who uses basketball skills, comedy, and personal life story to inspire and motivate students. His assembly presentation addresses issues of drug and alcohol abuse, reaching your potential, broken homes, and racism...

Melvin Adams - Former Harlem Globetrotter

Roberto G. Flores is a Presenter/Educator who was surrounded by drug and gang activity from a young age. Roberto survived being shot three times which drastically changed the direction of his life. His presentation addresses issues of gang and youth violence, challenging students to strive for there dreams and abandon a life of gang and drug activity. He begins his portion of the presentation wearing his former gang attire and slowly removes the various articles as he tells his story being left in a business suit...

Roberto G. Flores - Presenter/Educator

There will also be guest performances by Hip Hop Artist Brandon De La Garza aka:SYPREME
and at the Thursday night Rally there will be a guest performance by Righetti student Damon Garcia aka:OVERFLOW.

Assembly/Rally Schedule:

Wednesday February 24th

Evening Rally
New Life Community Church Vertex Center
990 James Way Pismo Beach, CA 93449
7:00-8:30pm

Thursday February 25th

Assembly
Righetti High School Gym
941 E. Foster Rd. SM, CA 93455
9:30-10:20 & 10:30-11:20am

Assembly
Santa Maria High School Auditorium
901 South Broadway SM, CA 93454
1:00-2:05pm

Evening Rally
Pacific Christian Center
3435 Santa Maria Way SM, CA 93455
6:30-8:30pm

Friday February 26th

Assembly
Pioneer Valley High School Gym
675 Panther Dr. SM, CA 93454
8:00-9:00 & 9:10-10:10am

Assembly
St. Joe's High School Gym
4120 S. Bradely Rd. SM, CA 93455
1:08-2:00pm

Evening Rally
Santa Maria High School Auditorium
901 South Broadway SM, CA 93454
6:30-8:30pm

We anticipate that we will present to approximately 4,700 students over the next two and a half days and would cherish your prayers for strength and endurance!

If you would like to attend one of the assemblies please let me know.
(805) 215-4175 lllamas@fca.org

and feel free to come to one of the evening rallies listed above!

FCA Coaches Workshop - Sun Feb 21st 2:30pm New Life Pismo

2010-02-03T14:37:00.000-08:00

Hey Coaches,

I am excited to announce that we will be hosting our second annual Central Coast Coaches Workshop later this month!

What: Coaches Workshop/Gathering
When: Sunday, February 21st 2:30-4:30pm
Where: New Life Community Church, Pismo Beach
Cost: $5

Purpose: To encourage, introduce, and equip coaches of faith from across the central coast to have greater influence in the lives of their students, athletes and families.
(Fellowship, Inspiration, Discussion, and Lunch)

Topics:
1) Coaching as Discipleship/Mentorship (R12 Coach)
2) Biblical Basis of Sport and Competition
3) Challenges Coaches Face
4) Building A Spiritual Pillar Into Your Athletic Program

For Information on "R12 Coach" developed by FCA and Chip Ingram Please visit this link below.
http://www.r12coah.com

R12 stands for Romans 12 and is a excellent video and workbook series developed for training coaches in discipleship, based on principles from the book of Romans...
Please RSVP if you think you will be able to attend to help us with planning #'s and I would love any suggestions and feedback to help make this a wonderful time for all of us.

Sincerely,

Luke Llamas

Area Director
Central Coast FCA
(805) 215-4175
lllamas@fca.org

Ps.
New Life Community Church Address:
990 James Way
Pismo Beach, CA 93449

January Huddle Highlights and Pics

2010-02-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

It has been great to be back on campus this New Year as students start new semesters, new sports, and new outreaches for their FCA clubs.

Below are a few pictures and thoughts from the month of January.
Many of our FCA clubs are going through the book of Romans this year, as the theme is "Inside Out" based on Romans 12:2.

I really enjoy teaching through Romans and many of the students seem to enjoy it as well and are doing a great job leading discussions and bible studies through God's word. As a brief outline of Romans we have focused on five key words that can help as a general outline of Romans.

Sin ch 1-3
Salvation 4-5
Sanctification 6-8
God's Sovereignty 9-11
Christian Service 12-16

Most of the huddles where in chapters five or six last month.

Santa Maria High Warm Up

At Santa Maria High we did a warm up seeing who could hold two FCA Bibles up the longest while talking about endurance and being surrounded by a cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12...
The young lady in the middle actually beat her older brother on the left! : ) I was impressed.

Student Leaders at Dos Pueblos High in SB

I was able to make a trip down to Santa Barbara with Emmy, last week and visited some of the student leaders from the Dos Pueblos FCA club...They meet on Tuesdays in the varsity Basketball coaches room and I try to help them from a far. Robert Laskin is one of their leaders and is doing a great job reaching out to his peers and seeking to make a impact on campus.
We also watched "To Save A Life" which is playing at the Arlington Theater down there.
If you get the chance to see it, I recommend it. Pretty powerful movie! It was pretty neat to see a group of students standing in a circle, discussing the film after it was over.
http://tosavealifemovie.com/

AG Announcement about Haiti Relief Packets

At the AG High huddle the students are making Haiti Relief Packets to send to the earthquake victims in Port-au-Prince. They are gathering first aid supplies and general hygiene packs to place in bags and mail out later this month. I thought this was a great idea and really proud of these students for their effort.

Rocky Kim at Nipomo High

One of FCA's core values is Teamwork and it has been a real blessing to work along side many of the awesome youth pastors to impact kids on the central coast. Hear Rocky Kim is speaking at Nipomo High. He and Doug Smith, along with many others have been a tremendous blessing in FCA and always do a great job connecting with the students and athletes when they speak at the huddles...

Lompoc High Campus Beautification

The Lompoc Huddle is the furthest school from where I live which makes it difficult to get their much more than once a month. Fortunately we have some great student leaders, like Zack and Casey, and adult volunteers who help their huddle continue strong down south.

They are trying to incorporate different outreaches on campus each month and at one of their recent meetings they took turns cleaning part of campus, planting bushes, and helping with a Campus Bautification project that one of the teachers initiated.

They also had some pretty sweet FCA shirts made last month, designed by one of the students, and I had fun delivering them! One of the things I get to do in FCA is bless the students with bibles and shirts and outreach materials. So many have generously given to FCA and I get the privilege of giving it out to the students to help them reach their peers...

Ryan Pahler is Coming on Staff with FCA on the Central Coast!

2010-01-23T21:19:00.000-08:00

Ryan & Emily Pahler

I am excited to announce that Ryan Pahler has been asked to come on staff with FCA as an Area Rep for the central coast and, with the support of his wife Emily, he has gladly accepted this ministry opportunity.

Ryan has been a wonderful volunteer with FCA for a few years, serving as a guest speaker at our campus huddles and as a football huddle leader at FCA camp in the summer.

Ryan has now begun the support raising process to come on staff. If the Lord would lead, I invite you to join Emerald and I in supporting Ryan and Emily by joining their "home team" to partner with them through prayer and financial support on an ongoing basis.

You can support Ryan using this link below:
http://www.socalfca.org/DonateLocally/RyanPahler/

Please keep Ryan and Emily in your prayers as they make this transition into full-time ministry and trust the Lord for His provision and guidance in their marriage and vocations.

Sincerely,

Luke Llamas
Area Director
Central Coast FCA

Pahler Family Bio

Ryan and Emily met the summer of 2006 in the Grace Church college ministry where Ryan was serving as the events team leader. Ryan received Christ while at a church summer camp and Emily came to know the Lord following an Easter service when she was young.

Ryan played football, soccer, and golf at SLO high school and went on to get his degree in Recreation Administration with a minor in Communication Studies from Cal Poly. During those years Ryan had the opportunity to serve in a variety of ministries. He was an active student leader in Young Life and was on volunteer staff for two years. Ryan has also served with the college ministry at Grace Church and is now their part time junior high ministry director.

Emily was a track and cross country athlete in high school and recently finished her degree in Communication Studies from Cal Poly. Emily has greatly enjoyed her time working with the young girls in the Grace youth ministry.

Ryan and Emily where married in July of 2009 and Ryan has been working as a youth soccer coach throughout the Central Coast. Feeling God’s calling to full time ministry, and with his love for sports, Ryan has accepted the opportunity to come on staff as an Area Rep with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He will be working alongside Luke Llamas to help strengthen and grow the ministry with coaches and student athletes in our area.

In 2008 Ryan served as a huddle leader at the FCA camp at UCSB and has been used by God to share his testimony and the gospel as a guest speaker at many of the twelve high schools that have an FCA presence on the Central Coast.

Dave Delong - Age of Excellence ( Thoughts on Signal Article)

2009-12-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

http://the-signal.com/news/article/22405/

This is an article about my former high school cross country and track coach, Dave Delong.

He is an amazing coach and an even greater man of faith.
His son Justin passed away from Leukemia at the age of 15 and his second son Jacob was diagnosed with Leukemia six years later. I remember hearing about Jacobs diagnosis while sitting at an Applebees on my day off in between the prelims and finals of the Div 1 Nationals in Sacramento in 2007. It was a night full of anticipation as I had placed third in the prelim for the steeplechase and qualified for the final with the chance to make All American the following day. I remeber the devastation of the news that Jacob had cancer thinking about the pain that the family must have been facing.

Coach Delong had a tremendous impact on my life when I was a young high school athlete. I was a pretty arrogant kid that liked soccer but could care less about running (especially 10 mile tempo runs at 6 minute pace). I had gone out to a couple races in junior high and got first place (which I liked) so people told me I had to run cross country. I would slack off and skip workouts and then quite track my freshman year. Still coach Delong, and Cal Linam and Paul Broneer never gave up on me.

My sophomore year God used running to get my attention and give me a heart for Christian ministry and coach Delong was always there challenging me and pushing me to not waste my abilities but use them for God's glory and pursue my highest potential.

As the article says our team went on to win state my senior year in 2001 and after falling with a mile to go I personally finished second behind Eric Maldonado.

That was a great season and source of joy for the Delong's, having lost there son just months before.

From a faith perspective it is neat to see the influence coach Delong had in my life and my two closest teammates Jameson Mora and Ryan Morgan. The three of us were the core of our team with other great runners participating in various years (Zoeteway, Bingham, Harris, Werner to name a few). Jamey was a proud, self proclaimed atheist in high school who later came to faith in Christ his sophomore year of college (we both ran for Cal Poly) and Ryan came to faith after high school as well. Jamey is now a engineer and serves as a junior high youth pastor in Morro Bay. Ryan is finishing up school and all three of us now live on the central coast. Jamey is still running and trains for marathons (he has run 2:24:00!), I back slid and became a surfer and Ryan still runs and enjoys his Cannondale mountain bike. (any one remember mammoth trips?)

http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/22404/

Wow we look young there (especially Jamie)

Following high school Jamey and I continued to run in college for Cal Poly and we both got to score for the team at Cross Country Nationals in Indiana in 2006. (I think our team got 13th in the country that year)

After college I continued to pursue faith and sports accepting an opportunity to start doing sports ministry with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes on the Central Coast, as part of the Southern California Region.

It is neat how things come full circle as two months ago I was able to return to Canyon High School and with the help of Dave Delong, Paul Broneer, Kent Richardson and a handful of about five student leaders start at FCA Huddle on campus. They now meet on Friday's as a student lead, school club.

Coach Delong truly is a remarkable man and a tremendous coach. He couldn't do any of this without his wonderful wife Lisa and his faith in Christ.

I am proud to have come out of the legacy of his influence and am excited to see what is still in store in years to come. Please don't think coach delong is perfect however. he did give me a D in Algebra II Trig and almost made me ineligable to run my sophmore year...
Ok, I guess he is actually a good teacher as well and doesn't give his athletes any breaks.

If you are reading this please take time to pray for Jacob and the Delong family. The Lord holds them in His hands but that does not mean life is easy.

I know they would cherish your prayers.

God Bless,

Luke Llamas

Canyon Alumi
Area Director
Central Coast FCA

SLO High - Stories from Africa...

2009-12-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

Chelsea Norton's Sister came and shared about her experiences serving on a missions trip in Africa and working with aid's orphans showing Christ love.

It was a really neat meeting and awesome to see how the Lord is using students who surrender to him and use their lives for his Kingdom!

Thankfulness through Brokenness

2009-11-25T22:20:00.001-08:00

The past few weeks have been a season of brokenness for me having faced various trials recently but the Lord is really teaching me a lot about commitment and authentic faith when it comes to life and ministry.

I have often found that it is easy to put up a facade in ministry at times so that things appear as though they are going great or that God is really at work when at times I am simply seeking to serve out of the flesh or with a selfish motive for attention or praise.

Jesus said "do not do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them for if you do you have no reward, but for that which you do in secret you will have a reward from your father in heaven." (paraphrase Mat. 6)

I feel that at times there are things that I do in ministry "to be seen by men" and that is not honoring to the Lord. He is showing me that it is easy to substitute soundbites and showy presentations for authentic love and selfless ministry.

The past two weeks I drove to campuses with many of these things on my heart and I sat in the back of our FCA meetings listening to students share testimonies and deliver messages. (I also spoke at some meetings but the ones where I simply observed really taught me a lot).

I was so blessed by our kids and the things they where sharing that it almost brought tears to my eyes. I will share two such occasions as examples but it truly has been such a blessing to see the maturity and growth of so many of our student leaders and kids involved in the ministry.

At Atascadero High I ask the students (at one of the meetings a couple weeks ago) to take some time to reflect and right down "if they where going to share a message with their peers or give a talk, what would they share? What is something the Lord has put on your heart or taught you recently?" I gave them time to reflect and think and then share with a small group and eventually with the group as a whole. Students came up with some great topics and four of them agreed to develop the topic they shared and deliver it as a message in a future meeting.

Last week a young lady named Lauren shared her message on prayer. She did a wonderful job and and really engaged the whole huddle. She had students look of nine passages related to prayer, read them out loud and then led the group in a discussion about what each verse meant and how it applied to our lives. We closed by choosing three people in our lives that we would commit to pray for that week and then prayed for many of them as a group to end the meeting. We had a competitive game of Bible pictionary to start the meeting and it was an all around, really edifying time. Way to go Lauren.

The second one was the huddle at Pioneer Valley High School last Thursday. A student named Lee led the group in a couple worship songs after being introduced by another student named Vinnie (also a great leader) and then sahred some of his testimony and a message on light and darkness...

Lee was born in Brazil and aboned to an orphange when he was very young. He shared how the orphanage was a terifying and terrible place at night because of all that would happen when it was dark. Every morning he longed for the sun to rise and the light to come. He talked about how Jesus is the light of the world and how we are called to reflect Him and be light in this world as well.
He talked about brining our lives into the light so we can have fellowship with on another (1 John 1) and led a discussion with the group about ways they thought they could do a bettr job being light on their campus...

The whole meeting was led by these students with about fifty kids in the room and was awesome to hear the ideas and insight they came up with.

The Lord is so faithful even when we are unfaithful and as much as I drive and speak and seek to minster to atheletes, they ministered to me these past couple weeks and I am really proud of them. Keep up the great work gang!

Happy Thanksgivig everyone! We truly have so much to be thankful for, give praise to the King!

September/October Newsletter

2009-10-31T11:43:00.000-07:00

"During my first year with FCA the highlight for me was getting the opportunity to travel to schools and share the gospel with students. As I start this third year the highlight has been traveling to schools and sitting in the back to watch students speak as they share the Bible and testimonies with their peers..."

Sep-Oct Newsletter 09

Some October Pics

2009-10-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

Egypt Team Reunion in Encinitas

Our missionaries friends from Egypt where in town for a missions fair at North Coast Calvary Chapel so we got some of our team together to spend time with them. It was great to see everyone and to begin making some plan for future trips...

I went to a huddle in San DIego while I was down there. The is La Costa Canyon

Peter is a new staff guy in San Diego who did the Bridge Conference with us. Jamila and Dean are from Barbados and do sports ministry there using basketball and "kids games".

We prayed for Cassie before he headed back to South Africa

Nipomo has there FCA huddle in the Gym now

Josh Swaney (CP FB) came and Spoke at two schools in the North county with me. Here we are at Templeton High

Josh at Atascadero High

These are some of Righetti students at a club fair

The students are taking a lot more ownership at righetti this year and it has been neat to see the student lead and teach the word.

Fields of Faith

2009-10-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

Fields of Faith went really well this year. We had about 375 students attend. 200 students committed to read and begin following God's word and seven students made a first time commitment to follow Christ. We had planned to meet on the football field but due to the rain we moved it to the basketball gym. By God's grace and the help of one of our board members we able to get permission to use the gym two days prior the event.

We had live worship from the New Life band, card board testimonies, 5 formal student testimonies and a time for students from the audience to come down and share as well. I closed with a gospel message and gave the invitation for students to respond. We ended the evening with a time for students to gather and pray together.

One young lady who received Christ was named Ashley who I got to talk with afterwards for a little while. She is in a broken family and was invited to attend by a close friend on her volleyball team. The next day I saw Ashley on campus at the Pioneer Valley FCA huddle! She had a smile on her face but I think her friends where more excited she was there that she was : )

It is exciting to see the Lord at work in our community and in students lives.

I also must give a big thank you to our board and the other volunteers who helped bar-b-q and set up allowing us to provide a free dinner for the students. Great teamwork, you guys are the best!

Fields of Faith Announcment!

2009-10-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast says it is supposed to rain on Wednesday October 14th the day of fields of faith.

We are still going to meet at AG High that night and Fields of Faith will be held in the Basketball Stadium (Gym) rather than the grass.

Hope to see you there and help get the word out.
There will still be a free Bar-B-Q and live worship!

Some more Huddle Pics

2009-10-01T20:26:00.000-07:00

Righetti Huddle

One of the highlights of my week is when I go to a school and visit a huddle and just sit in the back and watch as the students lead! It is so exciting to see young men and women serve their peers and teach the Bible and share their testimonies of what God is doing in their lives on campus.

Vinnie did a great job this last week leading a Bible study and teaching out of John 17 and Romans 2.

AG High

Coast Union

Campus Kick-off!

2009-09-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

We had a great turn out at the Campus Kick-off last nigh at the Ventura's in AG.
There a little over 75 people representing the leaders from the FCA clubs at 10 high schools present.

We watch this video about FCA

and discussed this year them for FCA which is "Inside Out" based on Romans 12:2.
"Don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."

We talked about about servant leadership and discussed Mark 10:42
"Jesus called his disciples over and said to them, 'You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the gentiles dominate over them, and their men of high positions exercise power over them. But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to served but to serve and to give his life - a ransom for many."

Below is an article that was recenly printed in the Tolosa press about FCA on the Central Coast:

"FCA Club Spreads Word Through High School Club"

God and Sports?

2009-09-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

In my experience in sports ministry I think there can be a tendency for some athletes to think that if they are a "good" Christian or if they believe in God then God will help them win and there will be some type of correlation between their faith and their success in sports.

I remember when I was on a youth soccer team (I was about 7) and my dad was our coach. We would pray before our games and I remember looking over one day and seeing the other team praying before the game as well. I got mad and thought "they aren't allowed to pray..." and then I think I prayed and asked God to not listen to them (pretty bad I know : ). Then I felt kinda of awkward and it made me wonder what God was thinking about in this whole dilemma...

I have come to the personal conviction that God does not care who wins in athletic competition. I think He cares very much about our character and our witness in competition and the discipline and values He can teach us through sport but I do not believe He cares who wins the game or the race or the match.

Those who say "God helped them win" or "God was on our side", I feel, have a skewed understanding of God's interaction with His creation and His process of sanctification in our lives. I see this type of thinking as the "prosperity gospel of sports ministry."

It might be true that a Christian athlete might be hard working and a good team player, and understand biblical principles of stewardship as it relates to their natural and spiritual gifting which can lead to them being a good athlete, and have success in competition, but it is wrong to say that God made us win or even that God cares, or has a preference for who wins.

He is concerned about our character and salvation not our titles or win loss records.

Below is a great video of a athlete that I think "get's it" and it is definitely worth watching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijfkZttfRi4&feature=player_embedded

September Pics

2009-09-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

SLO High Huddle

St. Joes Huddle

SLO High See You at The Pole

Emmy and I at our friend Heidi's wedding

St. Joe's girls Basketball team after the One Way to Play - Drug Free presentation.

St. Joe's Guys football team during the One Way 2 Play - Drug free presentation.

I got to travel back to my home town and start FCA at Canyon, my old high school. I visited oart of an assembly before the FCA meeting and then I got to share with the crosse country team later that evening...

Canyon Cross Country Team

Righetti Huddle

St. Joe's

Templeton Huddle

New Logo

2009-09-24T13:00:00.000-07:00

FCA Staff Retreat

2009-08-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

All of our staff from Southern California Staff and our families got together for two and half days for an awesome staff retreat with great fellowship and prayer and preparation for this new school year.

We were at the Inner Varsity camp ground called Campus by the Sea at Catalina.

Egypt Pics 2009

2009-08-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

Wadi Sports Camp

Reaching out to the Poor...

Orphans at Helwan Presbyterian Church

Garbage City

Garbage City in Helwan

Cave Church in Mokatam

click here to hear the story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e01d4OlTi_k

Cave Church Sports Field with Garbage City kids from Mokotam

Experiencing Egypt

This couple accidentally forgot to their baby at a pizza hut and thanks us fr watching over the little guy until they got back...

The Nile

Citadel in Alexandria

Egyptian Traffic

The Pyramids

Egyptian Museum

Our team had an incredible time in Egypt and developed wonderful friendships with so many of the kids, staff, and volunteers from the various groups we served with!

Leaving for Egypt soon!

2009-07-22T23:47:00.000-07:00

We leave for Egypt in two days!

Last year I got to go with a team of coaches to Egypt to run a sports camp at the Wadi Sports Complex outside of Cairo.

We are taking a team back this year and the dates of the trip are July 25th - August 8th.

We are taking 15 coaches to run a sports camp in volleyball, soccer, basketball, swimming, and tennis. We also plan to serve the poor in the slums of "garbage city" buy conducting day long sports camps for the youth and families in those areas.

We have now recruited our coaches, raised the funds for the trip, had times of training prayer and team building with our coaches, gathered equipment, coordinated with the missionaries in Egypt, prayed more, prepared talks and gathered more equipment.

Thanks to everyone who has helped provide equipment and funds for our teams trip this year. It is going to be a tremendous blessing to all the kids and staff at Wadi and in the slums!

Equipment

My younger brother Landen is actually leading a team on a missions trip to the Czech republic right now with his wife Jenny. It is pretty neat to be doing similar ministry as him at the same time...

Please pray for our team if you think of it. and if you would like to receive email updates of the trip email me at lllamas@fca.org and I'll let you know how things are going.

Camp Last Year

FCA Camp 2009 at UCLA

2009-07-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

To say Camp was amazing this year feels like an understatment! It is difficult to express in words and even with pictures all of the healing, and transformation that we got to witness and see over the course of this past week.

The athletic training was excellent, the worship was powerful and the speakers and camp chaplain where clear, passionate, and compelling.

Justin getting a fun wave at County Line where we hosted the surf camp this year.

Mike Shepard from the Bangels and Jay Shraeder who played for the Raiders where the head clinicians for football. SLO High's new head varsity coach, Dave Kelley, was an asistant clinician this year at camp.

Mens basketball was in the Pauley Pavillon which was pretty sweet!

Girls Volleyball was one of the larger sports on the girls side.

Here's Stevie from Pioneer Valley High in wrestling.
Stevie gave his life to Christ at camp last year at UCSB.

Worship with the Katinas

Some of our surfers in front of the Dorms.

I believe softball was the largest girls sport at camp this year.

Maehem Dogeball at the start of one of the evening programs.

Our camp speaker - Kevin Singleton

He is an assitant pastor in New York and was our speaker in Egypt last summer. He also played pro basketball in Europe (75 pounds ago, as he puts it :) and is a very talented speaker, musician, and basketball player.
The evening programs where great this year. The Katinas where awesome and Kevin did a great job teaching through Romans chapter 12. Specifically verses 1 and 2.

"Therefore I urge you brothers by the mercies of God to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do ce conformed any longer to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, do might know the good pleasing and perfect will of God."

We also had numerous guest speakers share testimonies at the evening probram including, Leah Amico (three time olympic gold medalist in softball), Green Bay Packers, Matt from Mater Dei and now USC, the head football coach at USC, along with some of our college huddle leaders.

Robin Ventura was a guest clinician for a few days in Baseball.

Robin was awarded six golden gloves as a third baseman in the Major League and has the longest hitting recond in college baseball. Here he is giving some one one bating lessons to a camper.

Some of the guys praying after a baseball practice.

Here you'll see Michael Chang in the background. He came out to serve as a clinician in tennis.
He was also the youngest tennis player to ever win the French Open.

Our vision for camp this year was to create an environment where the athletes could improve athletically, connect relationally, and encounter Jesus Christ powerfully. I believe this happened on all levels and it was such a blessing to be a part of it!! More post to come...

Transportation To FCA Camp at UCLA Tuesday June 30th

2009-06-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

FCA Camp is almost here!

Transportation to FCA Camp
Tuesday, June 30th - departing from Arroyo Grande and Santa Maria.

Charter Bus:
We are taking an American Star Trailways Charter bus to FCA camp at UCLA this summer.
If you have not yet registered for camp and would like to call the number below before 3:00 pm Mon-Fri.

1-866-269-2267

If you have registered but have not filled out your permission waiver form
click here, then click on your sport and fill out the wavier from now!
(This must be done by Friday June 26th if you are going on the bus)

The charter bus will be picking up and departing from two locations:

7:00am at KMART in Arroyo Grande

7:45am from COSCO in Santa Maria

For the cost of the bus please bring $30 cash or check (made out to FCA) when you arrive at the bus. This should be given to our adult chaperon.

Please call me (Luke) at (805) 215-4175 if you have any questions.
(students and parents feel free to add my number to your phone in case you have any questions)

I will be at camp when the bus arrives Tuesday morning to help all of our athletes with registration.
Make sure you bring a check for any remaining balance you have for camp.

God Bless and

See you soon!

The Role of Faith and Works in Salvation?

2009-06-15T21:59:00.000-07:00

Last night one of our FCA student leaders at Pioneer Valley high school sent me a message on facebook trying to understand how faith and good works play into salvation and our relationship to God.
I was stoked to answer as I think this is such an important topic to our faith and yet I also think it is so often misunderstood. I was glad to re-think through the issue as I wrote, and I thought I would post our conversation here on the blog as well. Enjoy...

"Hey Luke, it was good seeing you; thanks for coming (to the end of the year FCA gathering).
I am curious. In Ephes. 2:8 it says you are saved not by works but by faith alone. Then in James is says faith without works is dead and in Rev. it says if you are lukewarm you will be spit out by God.
What is up with that?"
-Vinnie

"Great question Bro!
That is probably one of the most important questions to think through and understand regarding our faith...

I think the Ephesians passage is most helpful especially when we read the whole thing including verse 10...

I can only give a short answer here on facebook but I would love to talk about it more.

There are really a few questions here. How is a person saved?
and what role does faith have in salvation? What role do good works have in salvation? and what role do good works (or fruit) have in the life of a believer.

Lets back up a second and try to think about it from Gods perspective. God is holy, perfect and just. He created man in his image to have a relationship with him and yet we have all rebelled against him by breaking his law, seeking our own desires, and sinning against him. This causes us to be spiritually dead in his eyes deserving judgment and punishment for our sin. At the same time He is a loving God and provided a way for our relationship with Him to be redeemed by sending his Son, Jesus to live a perfect life that we couldn't live, die a horrible death in our place so we wouldn't have to, and rise from the dead to prove this was all true and give us the hope of eternal life...

He then offers us eternal life as a FREE GIFT and tells us to repent of our sin and place our faith in His Son so that this free gift of eternal life and a restored relationship to God can be applied to our life.

Basically, Jesus lived a perfect righteous life in our place so that when we put our trust in him, his righteousness is given to us as a free gift. In other words, God now sees us as sinless because we have believed in Jesus and received Him into our lives. At this point a person is saved, or "justified" before God (and good works had nothing to do with it). Actually that is not true, good works had everything to do with it but it was Jesus' good works NOT OURS. By trusting in Him His good works are attributed to us and our sin is completely forgiven being placed upon Him and washed away by His blood. This has been called by some, the great exchange, and it is very good news!

So then what role do good works play into all this? A very important role!

When a person comes to place faith in Christ and understand all that God went through (killing His own son) so that we could be redeemed it will produce in the believer a deep heart of gratitude and love for God that our lives will begin to be changed and transformed producing the fruit of good works.

Pioneer Students (Vinnie is on the right)

This happens in two ways: One, a new Christian is born again, which means that they are adopted into Gods family and receive spiritual life as God the Spirit comes to live inside of them. The Spirit begins to change our motives, our desires, and our affections and we develop a hatred for our sin and passion to live for God and to honor Him with our words and our actions (with our whole lives). This means our lives start to produce good works! But it is really God the Spirit who is producing the good works through us and it is our responsibility to surrender our will to Him and let Him transform us. This is a process in the Christian life called sanctification.

The second way is that as we grow as a Christian through prayer, studying the scripture, fellowship with strong believers, sharing our faith and so on we come to learn that God doesn't just want to remove sinful habits from our lives but He actually wants to use our lives to reach out to others and make a difference for His Kingdom! As we mature in our faith He invites us to be a part of His redemptive work in the world and He begins to use our lives and the natural and spiritual gifts He put in us to love, serve, and minister to other people that He has placed around us! This is when the Christian life gets exciting!

Now here is the problem - many people in the world say that they are a Christians and that they "believe in Jesus" but none of the stuff that I just described is taking place in their life. According to the Bible and some of the passages you pointed out, if a person says they are a Christian but do not display any "fruit" in their life as I described above and no change is beginning to take place in their life they are not truly a Christian and in fact, sadly, they are deceiving themselves.

Someone who truly knows Christ will exemplify a changed life and will follow Him and obey Him as their Lord. As He put it, "if you obey my commandments then you are truly my disciples", or "a good tree produces good fruit", and "you will know them by their fruit." Jesus also said that when our lives produce fruit (good works) "we prove to be his disciples", and God is glorified by this (John 15). Or, in other words, like James said, "faith with out works is dead." If we say we believe in Jesus but our life does not begin to change we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

So there we have it, good works are a out come or proof of salvation not a means to salvation. Good works do not saves us but they prove that we have been saved!

I hope this is starting to help a little.

Think about the passage in Ephesians 2:8-10
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

It says here that we are saved by grace, not by works, so that we can freely go on to carry out the good works that God prepared for us to do!

I think that is Awesome. The danger is when we start to look at our good works and think God is impressed or something (trust me He isn't.) I don't have to impress God or please God to get to heaven He already sees me as perfect!! Just as Jesus is perfect. Now I do what is good to obey Him, honor Him, and to be apart of this crazy adventure of serving others for the cause of Christ and His Kingdom. I also desire to do what is right because I know God is a loving father and therefore I fear Him knowing that He disciplines those He loves!

He cares about us too much to watch us continue in sin and not do something to wake us up. He will bring trial or hardship into our lives or allow the natural consequences of sin to take place to get our attention if we start to give into sinful habits again (and it is never fun in that season of the Christian life...)

I really like the way one pastor talks about this subject. He says that we must come to understand that God's grace is FREE GRACE but it is also COSTLY GRACE. It is free to us but it cost God a lot (the bloody death of His Son).

He goes on to say that an understanding of costly grace with lead to MORAL SERIOUSNESS. God takes sin seriously. It isn't a little thing, or no big deal to Him. Sin is such an offense to God that He punished His own Son knowing it was the only way sinful people like us could be forgiven. When we realize this it should create a demeanor of moral seriousness with in us, meaning that we also take sin seriously and seek to depart from it wherever we see it in our lives and confess it to God when we stumble...

Well I was gonna keep it short but I guess I just kept writing : )
Let me know what you thought of what I wrote.
Again, great question bro!"
-Luke

"You know I couldn't have had a better answer!

Wow!

It makes so much sense now, sheez. Salvation isn't through works; works are the result. So if there are no works than obviously there was no faith or salvation and thus it is "dead".

Man Luke, just to let you know the time you put into this will go a long way, thanks so much.

If you were "lukewarm" then obviously God didn't transform you which means you never truly accepted him into your life! Yes!

Amen to that"

-Vinnie

I hope this post might challenge you and help you to think through this issue as well. Feel free to leave a comment about your thoughts on the role of faith and works in salvation...

Life/Ministry Update

2009-06-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was incredible! First because I did not drive any where and second because my sister Malea, her son James, and my parents came into town to visit. Malea currently lives in Canada where her husband Andrew is getting his Master in Theology at the University of Toronto.

It was nice not to drive because I drove over three thousand miles in the last month! I already drive a lot to the various schools in our area but I also went to Orange Conty/LA/San Diego, the last five weekends in a row for Staff Meetings, Egypt Meetings, and to see Family in OC. Sadly, Emerald's step mom, Katie, passed away from kidney and liver failure on May 14th at the age of 47. We got to be with her in the hospital and spend time with Emmy's father and brothers. In fact Emerald's step brother Blain and two of his friends now moved up to live near us and are going to start going to school out here. That was another highlight of the weekend as we started a guys Bible study last night with them and Steve Jones and other guys in our appartment complex. Please pray for our family at this time.

On campuses the past week or two I have been teaching about what it means to "Abide in Christ", teaching through John 15 about Jesus being the vine, where the bracnches and the Father being the gardener/vine dresser. With students getting ready to embarck on summer I felt in important to challenge them to be mindful of how they spend there time and be intentional about pursuing healthy fellowship with believers and intimacy with Christ.

For the most part, this is or last week of FCA meetings before the year ends. I am about to head to Arroyo Grande High for our last meeting. We have had some great student leaders at AG and one of them, Logan Wais, may go with us to Egypt this summer to help coach volleyball. (Jerimiah from the Jonah Project is not going to go this year, but hopefully in the future).

I will write more about our Egypt trip in future blogs...

Skid Row Trip #2

2009-05-24T08:37:00.000-07:00

We had a staff meeting at UCLA on Thursday and I think all of our staff are getting excited for Camp coming up this summer! After the meeting I drove over to Malibu to check out the spot we hope to have the surfing portion of the camp and then to Santa Clarita to see my family.

On Friday night my Dad and I and and young man name Andrew (who my dad disciples in the youth group at Grace Baptist Church) went down to Skid Row in LA to do some street evangelism and meet up with Doug Smith and the New Life youth group.

I was encouraged to see over twenty kids from their youth group down there to give out water, cookies, and blankets and spend time sharing the gospel and praying for the homeless people on the streets.The streets were much more crowded than last time I was down there with the group a couple weeks ago. I went down this weekend because my dad has wanted me to take some of the guys in his shepherding group street witnessing and to meet up with Jeremiah from the Jonah Project.
The Jonah Project is a unique ministry that preaches Christ down on Skid Row and is having an on going ministry in the heart of the homeless masses down there in LA.

Jeremiah played volleyball for some time on the AVP Tour and may come to Egypt with us this summer to help coach volleyball. We have our second Egypt meeting this Sunday and I plan to bring him to meet the team as we continue to prepare for travel and ministry in the middle east.

GOLD MEDAL OLYMPIAN HELPS RAISE FUNDS FOR LOCAL FCA CHAPTER

2009-05-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

Arroyo Grande, California - On Sunday, May 17th, the Central Coast Chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes held a community fundraiser geared toward raising funds to send local high school athletes to the Annual FCA Summer Sports Camp, held this year down in UCLA.

The event was highlighted with the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Gold Medalist Stephanie Brown Trafton as its keynote speaker. Brown Trafton, a local graduate from nearby Cal Poly University, won the women’s gold medal in the track and field’s discus competition. Brown Trafton graced the crowd on Sunday with her heartfelt testimony on how she came to know Christ as an aspiring young college athlete and how winning the gold medal in the Beijing Games has provide her with a platform in which to reach out to others and share the gospel of Christ. Brown Trafton also shared her remarkable story on how athletics and Christianity has propelled her into being a true champion.

Through her efforts and the kind generosity of those in attendance at the Sunday afternoon fundraiser, close to $12,000 in scholarships were raised, with all the proceeds being used to send financially strapped local high school athletes to the Christian based summer sports camp down in UCLA.

Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a sports ministry that reaches out to middle school, high school, college and professional athletes all across the country. The ministry on the central coast of California is expanding and has a presence on almost a dozen local high school campuses with the mission “to present to coaches and athletes and all who they influence the challenge and adventure of receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, serving him in their relationship and in the fellowship of the church.”
If anyone would like more information about the Central Coast Chapter of Fellowship of Christian Athletes or would be interested in helping support the local chapter, you’re encouraged to call Area Director Luke Llamas at (805) 215-4175 or check out their website at www.centralcoastfca.org.

written by Rick Haydon - FCA Leadership Board

Our March/April Newsletter

2009-05-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

In March we were able to host a coaches gathering at Cal Poly for coaches from across the central coast. It was exciting to see coaches from nine high schools and two colleges join us to hear from...

March/April Newsletter 2009

I finally figured out how to include PDF forms onto the blog which I am pretty stocked about. Here is my first one, more to come.

Alvaro at SM High

2009-04-27T22:48:00.000-07:00

Alvaro shared at the Santa Maria huddle today. He came to the Lord a little while back and has really grown a lot and taken his faith in Christ seriously.

He shared out of Jeremiah Ch. 9 about how the prophet Jeremiah tried to hold back from speaking the word of the Lord but could not because the message burned with in him...He talked about how new believers are often so passionate about there faith and quick to share with others, and to spend time with the Lord, but how over time that can be replaced by routine...He encouraged the group not to let that happen but to strive for a deep and authentic relationship with Christ. He gave some examples of those in the Psalms who had experienced such meaningful interaction and relationship with the Lord...

I went on to share from Revelations Ch. 2 about Jesus letter to the church in Ephesus and after giving some context talked about Jesus rebuke that although they cared about doctrine and where religious they had left there first love...and his order for them to repent and return to the love they had at first...

It was a neat meeting and a time to reflect on the deep love relationship Christ offers us, and we also reviewed the gospel as there were a few new people this week.

Leadership Academy Part II

2009-04-27T22:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend consisted of a lot of driving and some pretty exciting ministry down in Southern California. A couple months ago we had the Fieldstone leadership academy...and as the community service portion of the academy those same 36 students helped run the Long Beach Special Olymics.

Orange County Night of Champions the night before
(over 100 students recieved Chist at this event)

Bowling Competition after night of champions : )

Group prayer before the Special Olympics began

Swimming and Basketball were the two main spots that the athletes participated in and our students served as officials, referees, and fans!

Bagging 750 lunches

At the end of the afternoon I got to share the gospel with seven volunteers from another group who were helping us bag lunches earlier in the day. I later learned that four of the girls where home schooled by the lady shown above and three others were not. At the end of the conversation three of the girls who where listening said that the they wanted to get right with God and I talked with them about what it means to repent and put faith in Christ. Two of them prayed to receive Christ! As we where leaving this mother caught up to me and said "thank you for sharing back there, that was so neat for our girls (that she home schooled and were Christians) to see. She went on to say, "three of the girls committed their lives to Christ and a young lady named Michelle said, 'this is the best day of my life." We do not always get to see or hear about the fruit of ministry very often and I was very encouraged and appreciative by this mom taking the time talk with me and celebrate the ministry that had taken place.

Orange County

Central Coast Crew

San Diego Ladies

LA guys

Orange County #2

San Diego Guys

Desert Crew

Orange County Gals

After the Academy ended I spent some time with my wife's family and her step brother Chance who lives in Orange County. The next day I headed down to San Diego for our first Egypt Team meeting...

Some High Lights

2009-04-08T14:29:00.001-07:00

Nipomo High

Around the time of my birth day in early April two athletes from Santa Barbara (Peter and Isaiah) came up and stayed at our house as they plan to play water polo for Cuesta next year...I showed them around, took them surfing, to Campus Crusade at Poly, to the Surf Bible study in Pismo and finally to the Nipomo FCA Huddle with me!

This was a fun meeting as they helped lead worship fro the group with Ruben. We had a drum and two guitars and since we don't usually have worship at the the lunch meetings I think it was a blessing for the kids. I taught of Romans 1 about how God has made him self know through creation...and led a discussion on why we as Christian feel we have really good reason to believe in God and I talked about the challenges and battle of worldviews the students will face in college.

Also at Nipomo we tried to teach the students how to write out and then share there testimony with the groups and with there peirs. Everyone was really hesitant at first but know it has kind off become "the thing to do" at Nipomo and the young lady above did a wonderful job sharing about God's comfot and presnece in her life after the death of her father. It was really moving to hear her share how she has drawn closer to the Lord through such a tragedy and was proud of her for her courage to be so real and open with her peers.

SLO High

Jenny Sparks played soccer for Cal Poly and is also a leader of AIA there. She came and spoke to the SLO high group and did a great job. She shared her testimony about how she became a Christian through AIA while at Cal Poly and then gave a message about what it means to live and compete and do all things for an "Audience of One".

She shared how she came to learn that she had to stop trying to find her worth and identity through friends or athletic performance or school but rather through her identity in Chrit as a child of God...and how when she began to understand that she began to see her sport as an opportunity for ministry and place where she could worship the Lord, even at times when she was injured or not being played as much as she would have liked. After she shared, she and I led a discussion with the students about what it means to live for an "Audience of One" and what some practical examples or challenges there are in there own lives...

Coast Union

These students broke into groups for there warm up at Coast Union high up in Cambria.

Lompoc High

Zach Powell and the Leaders at Lompoc high have been doing a great job leading there meetings. They are also trying to plan a road trip as a huddle to go watch a Dodger Game near the end of the school year...

Coaches Gathering

2009-03-14T23:00:00.003-07:00

This morning we hosted our first Central Coast Coaches Gathering at Cal Poly. It was a really neat time and we had 16 coaches from 11 schools present. Wrestling Coach John Azevedo gave a message sharing his testimony and talking about what it means to compete, coach, and live for Christ and the glory of God. After he shared we took a short break for some coffee and then had a discussion and everyone shared ideas and insights about there life and involvement in the ministry. It was really encouraging to have a coach from Dos Pueblos high school there, who made the drive up from Santa Barbara.

He just came to know the Lord recently and has a heart to minister to his athletes and other coaches but did not know here to start. I think he left really encouraged after hearing many of the other coaches share about what and how there are doing what he soon hopes to do...

After the coaches gathering I headed to the track to watch the Cal Poly dual meet.
My good buddy Kevin Jones won the pole vault and the 110 high huddles! Kevin is a awesome man of the Lord who came to Christ about two years ago while attending one of our track team Bible studies at Poly. I'll never forget the night when he broke down acknowledging his sin and received Christ into his life. It has also been great to watch him grow in his faith as he now leads outreaches a Cal Poly and serves in various ministries.

I think he cleard 16'7" on this jump! Way to go Kevin!

Cal Poly Dual Meet - 110 High Hurddles
Kevin is the one with his foot over he hurddle

FCA Realtime

2009-02-24T15:09:00.001-08:00

At the end of February I joined most of the FCA staff from across the country in Kansas City for a bi-annual conference that FCA calls Realtime. A highlight for me was listening to Chip Ingram teach through Romans ch. 12. He talked about how "God must work greatly in you before he can work greatly through you" and how one must "hear FROM God before they can speak FOR God." It was a lot about the importance of pursuing authentic faith and ministry and how it can be easy to substitute "religious activity for spiritual authenticity..." and the importance of true and deep surrender to Christ.

SoCal FCA Staff in Kansas City

It was pretty cold in KC but they have cool outdoor glass tunnels so you can walk from place to place "inside" but still see all around you (at least I thought it was cool...).

At Realtime I had the opportunity to meet Don McClanen who founded FCA in 1954.
I recently wrote a research paper for my Church History class and talk about him in he middle of it.

My paper was on the history of sports ministry in the West and I thought some of you may be interested in reading it so I included it here.

A Brief History of Spots Ministry - by Luke Llamas

A funny story is that as I was going to bed on my birthday (April 2nd) I realized that my 12-15 page research paper was due the next day (April 3rd), and I had not started it yet...! By God's grace I finished the paper in two days and definitely learned a lot! It was only one day late and I thought it turned out...well...OK. Let me know what you think?

AG High Outreach and some upcoming ministry...

2009-02-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

The last couple weeks have been really busy as there is a lot of daily ministry taking place a long with a lot of admin stuff to do getting ready for future ministry that is quickly approaching.

I leave for "Real Time" on Thursday heading to Kansas City with the rest of the FCA staff from across the country.

We have the central coast coaches gathering coming up March 14th.
The Leadership Academy Service outreach is April 24th-25th
Masters degree class in May...
UCLA sports camp is June 30-July 4th
and the Egypt sports camp is scheduled for July 25th-August 8th

The Bible tells us not to say "next year we'll go to this city and do such and such" so I'll just say if the Lord wills it then these ministry opportunities will come to fruition. He is in control. I recognize that my life is but a vapor and I just want to use it for His glory.

Today I did a second week of evangelism training at Arroyo Grande High. We talked about the questionnaire the students will be using on campus and reviewed the "more than winning" gospel tract.

After the huddle meeting I went to visit one of our board members, Dana Nafziger, who recently had knee replacment surgery. He has actually had four surgeries in the last eight weeks and has had a number of set backs in his recovery. It was moving to talk with him and hear him share about the breaking process that God has brought him through in life and how the Lord has been his strength through this trial.

Being a very active and driven man it is hard for Dana to be in bed resting and working to rehab his knee. I know the uncertainty of his recovery and the prospect of walking again is difficult for him but it was also neat to see his faith and how he is trusting the Lord. "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be His name."

We had an interesting conversation about suffering and it's role in the Christian life and the sanctification process. Then we got to pray together and I prayed for healing for Dana's knee.

Also my friend Chloe Murdoch has been helping me on a community ministry brochure that we hope to complete and get out soon.

Pioneer Valley High School - One Way 2 Play "Drug Free"

2009-02-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

After bringing Chase to share his testimony with the Pioneer Valley Wrestlers I got to return the next week to follow up and talk to these athletes as well about the challenges and temptations they face in high school and about FCA's "One Way 2 Play - Drug Free" program.

Below is a little bit of the material I shared with the guys:
After leading a discussion on the challenges and temptation high school students and athletes face and hearing stories from the guys I shared few personal experience from my own life...

When I was going into ninth grade I was at a party one summer and most of my friends where drinking beer and hanging out by a pool on a hot day. At the time I wasn't really that strong in my faith but still most of my friends knew about my faith in Christ and the convictions I had as a result of that faith. Anyway being hot and thirsty, and since there was nothing else around to drink I took a drink of a Zima, not really thinking much of it. As I set the beer down my friend Ryan, who was 20 yards away in the pool, yelled "see Luke you can't tell us not to get drunk, you drink too, I saw you." I don't really remember responding but I do remember the impact his comment had on me as I realized, wow my friends watch my life and they listen to what I say.

From that point on I made a simple commitment to myself that I wouldn't drink in high school because my friends watched what I did and I wanted to be a good example. I keep that commitment in High school and it protected me from many of the hurts and heartaches far too many of my close friends and teammates had to endure. I had three close friends in high school die from drinking related accidents. I watched other friends with incredible talent waist there athletic careers due to drinking and drugs. I watched my younger brother go through drug and alcohol rehab and during the time I spent as a chaplain at a local jail I have heard story after story after story of amazing and talented guys who had great dreams and aspirations who lost everything due to substance abuse.

I have also got to see my former teammate, Jamey Mora's, life completely transformed after he gave hs life to Christ in college and found freedom from his addictions to drugs and alcohol. What at change from our sophomore year not knowing if he was going to be able to stay on the cross country team because he was using so much and then to get to finish our college careers at Nationals in Indiana together our senior year in the same race and to get 14th in the country. Not only did Jesus free Jamey from addiction but he got a hunger for the word and new love for people. He is actually a volunteer youth pastor now. (and he has gone on to run a 2:24:00 marathon, we works as a engineer and I just found out tonight that he is engaged, way to go bro!)

Anyway the Purpose of One Way 2 Play is to give students and athletes the opportunity to make a commitment to God and heir piers to "play tough, play smart, and play clean." It gives them a chance to decide to honor God with their bodies and say no to drugs and alcohol. Sadly drug and alcohol abuse in high schools is on the rise and especially in athletics.

It is exciting to challenge young guys to be men who are honorable and above reproach and to see them respond positively!

We had 22 athletes respond this night and make the commitment to not use alcohol and drugs. Others chose not to make the commitment but I believe they where challenged by what they heard and the decisions of so many of their peers.

Here is the video that I showed during the meeting.

SLO High - A week of outreach

2009-02-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

With all the driving, meetings, and speaking it was nice to get in the water for a little bit Thursday morning with my good friend Dan. We got great waves at this secret spot and then I headed over to SLO high for the outreach we planned the week before.

The school scheduled a multicultural week and invited all the clubs to have booths out with a different cultural theme that represents your club. The FCA group and the Christian club partnered together to have four days of awesome outreach. The themes were; history, food, drama, and art.

For history the students had clip boards with bible trivia and got to teach biblical history to there peers. For food I think they had bread and gold fish and water and grape juice telling the story of some of Jesus' miracles. For drama they had public worship in the quad and told me they filled this entire grass area with people singing and praising the Lord. (I wish I could have been there for that one).

And for art they had a booth with gospel tracts and then used the images from the Evange Cubes to tell the story of the Christian faith. It was pretty encouraging to watch students share the gospel with there peers as various groups kept coming up to see what was going on. The got to hear about Christ's life, death, and resurrection explained using the pictures on the Cubes.

Berkley sharing the gospel using the Evange Cube on campus
www.evangecube.org

Kate and Julia giving out tracts

Emily at Nipomo - Chase with the wrestlers

2009-02-04T19:48:00.000-08:00

This Wednesday was a great day as Emily Buckle, a Cal Poly Lacrosse player came with me to Nipomo High to share with the athletes. Emily is really outgoing and has a great heart for high school students. She did a great job sharing about what God has been doing in her life along with a story of a teammate that came to the Lord in the last couple weeks after Emily had the opportunity to share with her.

After leaving Nipomo I headed back to SLO, had a cup a coffe with my beautiful wife at Pete's and then picked up Chase Pami from Cal Poly. He had just finished his wrestling workout and headed down to Santa Maria with me to speak the Pioneer Valley wrestlers. (ya, I drive a lot)

Chase with PVHS Wrestlers

Chase talked about how God has been teaching him to be content in all things, whether he is doing well in his sport or not, or whether life is goin well or he is in a season of trial. To trust the Lord and be content in all things.

After he shared for a while I shared as well, explainging the Gospel and reasonng with the guys about how they could be made right with God. When I asked how many of them thought they would go to heaven when they die only one athletes (Stevie, who came to Christ at the FCA camp this past summer) raised his hand. We gave the guys the opportunity to pray to receive Christ and in that hot, humid, and smelly wrestling room, many did. It was powerful and a number of them came up to talk with us after the meeting.

I snapped this shot of Chase praying for one of the guys who thanked us for coming and said "I learned a lot of things I never knew tonight."

Some times it is difficult to express in words what we get to see in the lives of students on campuses. I regularly find my self driving away from schools going "wow did that really just happen, thank you Lord for what you doing in the lives of young people."

And then to wake up and see it the next day again...it has been a neat season of ministry for sure.

Leadership Academy Highlight Video

2009-01-23T10:17:00.000-08:00

Thirty six students leaders from the nine counties in Southern California were nominated to attend the first Fieldstone Leadership Academy in San Clemente hosted by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Lead Like Jesus Encounter to equip a next generation of servant leaders.

I was able to bring five student leaders from the Central Coast and it was an amazing time to see God work in all of our lives!

The focus of the weekend was servant leadership and we took the students through the "Lead Like Jesus Encounter" material produced by Kent Blanchard and Phil Hodges.

We enjoyed various seminars, leadership exercises, videos, testimonies, devotions, bowling, basketball, dodge ball and a lot of great food!

The students learned about the "Heart, Head, Hands, and Habits" of Christ and how He came into the world not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many!

Athletes in Action

2009-01-21T08:57:00.000-08:00

I had the privalege of speaking at the Athletes in Action "Overtime" meeting this month.

I shared on Mathew 16:27 where Jesus talks about "he who wants to save his life will loose it but he who looses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it" and "what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and loses his own soul."

I challenged the students to really consider the gifts and passions God has given them and use those gifts to make a difference for the Kingdom of God. I asked the question I have been asking at a lot of the schools lately "If you had one week to live, what would you do with your time and why?"

I also showed this video of Tom Brady, a guy who has everything the word says we should live for and still feels empty saying "there's got to be more than this."

It was a great time to see some of my old friends and former teammates and it was nice to be around college students again for a while. They are a really fun group.

Eight of them also signed up to come as guest speakers for the high school!

Fieldstone Leadrship Academy

2009-01-19T22:08:00.001-08:00

First Huddle of the New Year

2009-01-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

It was fun to be back on campus for the first time in the new year. Ryan Pahler was our guest speaker at SLO high today and did a great job preaching the gospel and sharing God's word with the twenty or so students that came.

I led the warm up having students right down a highlight from break. They turned them in and we tried to guess who did what.

Bodie, one of the student leaders who attended FCA camp this past summer, introduced Ryan who was his huddle leader (counselor) at camp. It was neat to hear Bodie talk about the influence Ryan had in his life and his friends life at camp this summer. Joe Murell who play's football for Cal Poly also came to the meeting to see what it was like. He contacted me wanting to get involved as a volunteer and is planning to speak at Nipomo high next week.

Three days with the Esteem/Pismo Groms

2008-12-30T13:39:00.001-08:00

Grom Sessions:
A few days ago my friend Dan Murdoch asked me to help our other buddy Dan do ministry with a group of young surfers who have been coming to the surf bible study at the Esteem shop in Pismo on Tuesday nights. We had a blast!

Spent the last three days with 7 teenagers from pismo beach, surfing, hiking, eating and skateboarding up and down the central coast - (mostly surfing).

Day 1

Cayucos

After the morning surf we got food and then hiked a small mountain and played capture the flag at the top.

Bible studies and Surf videos in the evenings.

Day 2

Got to have cereal!

John reading a couple verses from proverbs during our morning devo.

Guadalupe "aka Guad"

We got great waves at guad. It was about head high and great conditions.

Here's Katie on a sweet right.

I wore a hood, the water has been cold lately.

Micah

Dan & Max

Anthony was shredding!

Day 3

On Tuesday we drove around looking at different spots and ended up getting fun waves at sandspit.

Mikael & Jonah

For our final venture we took the boys to the Atascadero skate park.

Ezra & Anthony

Lucky board slide

In all we had a great time with the guys! Jen, Katie, Adam, and Dan we're great with everyone.
I got to enjoy good talks with the boys about building each other up and not tearing eathother down (being encouraging), the importance of respecting girls even when there friends don't, the gospel, how we know the Bible is true...

Dan led a Bible study Monday night and one of the boys asked if we could do a second one the next night as everyone was leaving. Great group of young men and I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for this little group of young surfers from Pismo...

December High Lights

2008-12-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

SLO High Huddle

SLO Huddle, worship on the grass

Mike Porter with some of the St. Joe's Guys

Emmy's Graduation frm Nursing School

Templeton Huddle

December Board Meeting

December was a very full month with lots of huddle meeting, Christmas parties, and campus outreaches. One of the main highlights was having Fred Hives speak to the St. Joe's football team the day after Cal Poly played Wisconsin. About twenty guys came to listen as fred shared his testimony and the goepel, leading a discussion with the guys. I heard that many of them were really impacted by what he said.

We are now planning to start a campu huddle now that the football season is over. Please pray for the ministry at St. Joe's.

Candy Cane Outreach at Nipomo High

2008-12-08T09:28:00.000-08:00

Nipomo High school planned a candy cane outreach this week. I gave a message while the students tied gospel messages to candy canes, telling the story of the candy cane to relate to Christ. They gave them all out the following week.

Our new sandwich board posters. Pat Cusack helped us get these made and they have been very helpful to get the word out better on campus. Most all the campuses with FCA in our area have one now.

Hannah and Madie led the warm up at the AG huddle and I gave the message. Robin and Stephanie Ventura are awesome and brought tacos for the kids this week.

Pioneer Valley and Lompoc

2008-11-15T20:27:00.000-08:00

This is a neat picture because it represent all the four C's of FCA ministry. Through "coaches ministry" I got to meet Coach Ramos (far left, black hat)and Coach Ilac and develop great relationship with them. Coach Ramos helps the student leaders run the huddle meetings and fifth quarter after home football games.

This group is the current huddle that meets on Thursdays. Coach Ilac (back right, red shirt) opened the door for a Cal Poly wrestler and I to start a team bible study with the wrestling team. Eight of those wrestlers came to FCA camp this past summer and UCSB and three of them gave them their lives to Christ.

FCA Club Picture for the Yearbook

One of those three is Stevie (front row, striped shirt) and five of the other wrestlers are also in the picture. And finally "community ministry". One of our wonderful Board members, Dana Cusack, has been brining drinks for this group every week, and Max (far left, green hat) comes every week to support the kids, bring pizzas, and pray. He even sent one of these athletes to camp on a scholarship last year.

It is neat to see how the body of Christ works together and how the various pillars of this ministry work together to reach students for Christ and train leaders for ministry.

Steve Jones, a good friend, and former Cal Poly Lacrosse player came with me to Lompoc High School this week. He was the guest speaker and did a great job sharing his testimony and then I shared from the word out of Hebrews 12:1-9.

Fred at Atascadero High and North County Chrisitan

2008-10-30T19:23:00.001-07:00

Chris Tomes was the main speaker a Atascadero High today and he did a great job talking about what it mean to "walk the talk" and put our faith into action. Fred Hives is a Cal Poly linebacker and he came with me to both huddles today and shared with the students as well.

Atascadero FCA Huddle

It was neat to see a group of girls from the meeting choose to pray together publicly on campus after the meeting was over.

After leaving the public school we headed to North County Christian to do an outreach for there guys football and girls volleyball teams.

We started the meeting playing a game of knock out in the gym and having lunch.

Mr. Halderman wanted to honor them for there seasons so far and Fred and I got to speak and challenge them to not take their faith for granted but to really live out their faith for Christ. Fred talked about integrity and the power of our words to build up or tear down.

I talked about how "to those who have been given much much is expected" and challenged them to really take advantage of the Christian training they have offered to them and prepare themselves for the spiritual attack they will face in college.

Doug Smith at the Nipomo Huddle

2008-10-29T18:53:00.000-07:00

It has been exciting to see the huddle at Nipomo high school grow significantly over the past few months.

Doug smith was the guest speaker at Nipomo today and he did a great job. He is the youth pastor at New Life Church in Pismo.

Doug is a excellent communicator and challenged the students to let Christ be their life rather than the various masks that we often wear acting different at school, home, with friends and at church.

He taught on the FCA core values of:
Integrity
Service
Teamwork
and Excellence.

We had 48 students come to the meeting today including a number of athletes from the girls volleyball team who were specifically invited as an outreach for this meeting.

Students led the welcome and warm up activity and then introduced Doug.

Exciting Thursday

2008-10-24T20:48:00.000-07:00

Today I was at Pioneer Valley High School for their FCA meeting.

I challenged a group of soccer players to a juggling contest. I said "if I can juggle the ball more times on my head than your guys best player you have to come with me to the FCA meeting, if not than you don't have to come but you can if you want to."

I told them to pick a number between 1 and 50. They picked 49. I juggled the ball 49 times on my head and then caught it on my neck and gave it to them. One student got 39 and since he was the closest they came with me to the meeting! Seven of them came and I hope they were glad they did.

We had about 45 students at the huddle today. Caroline shared a passage out of James about not showing favoritism and I shared how james says that if we break the law in just one place we're guilty of breaking the whole thing, and used that to lead into the gospel.

I also got to lead a bible study with the Varsity and then the JV football teams at SLO high today, after their practice and after/during their team pictures.

Varsity Team Picture

I gave a short message on the topic of surrender and led a discussion on what it means to surrender our will to Christ and be men who pursue hard after Him.

SLO High JV Team

Breakfast for Champions in Cambria

2008-10-09T18:48:00.001-07:00

This was the 12 annual Breakfast For Champions hosted at the Cambria Pines Lodge.
There were about 220 people present and a number of people (close to 30) responded to the gospel when the invitation was given!

These are two young men who benefited from the fruit of this breakfast last year receiving full scholarships to attend the FCA camp at UC Santa Barbara. It was good to catch up and see how they were doing.
The speaker did a excellent job. His message was very moving and I was blessed to be there.
He gave a simple but profound gospel message from John 3:16 and then a challenge for "fathers to turn their hearts back to their kids." Much of his message was about the problem of fatherless ness in our country today and the essential role that fathers have in the lives and development of their children.

Fields of Faith 2008!

2008-10-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

The event seemed to go really well. We had over 250 students, parents, teachers and coaches, gather on the field to worship the Lord and listen to student testimonies and messages about; living for Christ, reading the word, and being bold for our faith.

Fields of Faith followed the SLO high powder puff football game and we Bar-B-Q'd free burgers and hot dogs for everyone who came.

As the band set up students played with footballs, soccer balls, Frisbee's and volleyballs out on the field. This was a nice time for students from different schools and different youth groups to have fun and get to know one another.

A few minutes before the evening began the stadium lights went out (on accident). We welcomed every one in the dark and the band began to play as I shared how Jesus is the light of the world and how those in darkness hate the light for fear their deeds would be exposed. The lights began to glow again and we all began to worship the Lord as they slowly turned back on. (We didn't plan it that way but it was pretty neat how it worked out!)

Julia and I were the MC's for the evening

The Mountainbrooke worship band did a great job!

Carrie shared a salvation testimony

Sam Bravo shared about the importance of reading and knowing God's word as our only offensive tool in the spiritual battle.

Fred Hives, a cal Poly linebacher, challenged the students in what it means to be bold for Christ and stand up for their faith.

Daniel Lehmkuhl Shared about what it means to live for Christ, and how our lives should model him day in and day out, not just on Sunday's or when where around believing friends.

In the end five high school students shared, two college students, Julia and I and Pastor Thom O'Leary.

We gave students the opportunity to receive Christ and are hopeful that many did. They were encouraged to share that decision with there peers as we all broke into groups for prayer at the end of the evening.

From the response cards we received back two students made clear first time decisions for Christ, five rededicated there lives to the Lord, and eight committed to begin reading God's word on a daily basis.

Many have expressed interest and enthusiasm with ideas for how we can make this outreach even more effective next year.

AG Huddle in Ms. Friel's Room - standing room only

2008-10-07T15:39:00.001-07:00

Today at AG High students led the welcome an warm-up helping students get to know each other better, and identify common ground.

I reviewed the past two weeks talking about our desire to know God, how just as discipline is important in our sport, it is even more important in our Christian faith.

We broke into groups and discussed:
What is sin?
How are we saved from sin and made right with God?
What is our motivation to serve?

At the last leaders meeting the students planned an activity for the group to serve the campus and next week during the second half of the meeting, everyone is going to get a trash bag and they plan to go out and pick up as much trash on campus as they can and then bring it back and see if as a group we can fill two black trash bags.

Just as Jesus cleans out the trash in our lives washing us clean they chose to serve the campus in this simple way.

Jesus said he did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many and when he washed the disciples feet at the last supper he said that he set us an example that we should follow.

Hopefully the athletes/students can be a blessing to the campus (and the custodians) next week.

Please pray for the ministry at Arroyo Grande High.

Fields of Faith - Wednesday October 8th!

2008-10-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we are looking for to students gathering at the SLO High football Stadium for the first "Fields of Faith" outreach on the Central Coast.

7:00pm Wednesday October 8th at the SLO High Football Stadium

Free Bar-B-Q, Live Worship Band, Student Testimonies.

This event is a partnership of many youth groups, churches, and ministries in the area and it has been neat to watch students get excited about it, an plan, and begin to invite their friends.

We are praying that the Lord would do a mighty work tomorrow night!

Santa Maria FCA Huddle

2008-10-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

Today I drove to Santa Maria for two huddle meetings around noon. First I went to Righetti High, their meeting is from 11:10-11:50, and then to Santa Maria High for their huddle which is from 12:30-1:30.

It's always nice when it works out to be at two huddles in the same day.

Santa Maria FCA Huddle

Today we had a discussion about some of the basics of the faith, prayer, the bible, who is Jesus, what is the Church, how can we live for Christ.

We are still forming a team of student leaders at this school so please pray for them and the groups impact on campus.

Pioneer Valley Huddle is taking off!

2008-10-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised to see what the Lord is doing at Pioneer Valley High as I stepped into coach Ilac's classroom today at lunch.

I hadn't been able to be at this school for about three weeks because I have been in Northern SLO County on Thursdays at Atacadero High.

The huddle has doubled since last time I was there and students are continuing to help lead.

Pioneer Valley FCA Huddle

At today's huddle some of the students who attended the all leaders meeting at Robin Ventura's house shared about the evening and the material we covered. A local youth pastor named Rocky Kim came with me and both said few words about servant leadership and what it means to put other before our self and how through serving them they will be motivated to follow the Lord's call in our lives.

Brian Umali sharing his testimony

The picture above is special to me. The student in the grey shirt is a wrestler who attended one of the team Bible studies we did for the wrestling team at Pioneer last year. He then went to FCA camp on scholarship this summer and started following Christ for the first time. He shared with the group how he went to camp to get better at wrestling but how he found Christ and how the entire way he sees the world has changed. He said "It's like my whole life was completely changed and now I want to tell others so their lives can be changed too." The group clapped for him and it was pretty moving.

With so many new students I took the opportunity to explain how FCA is a ministry that revolves around Christ and uses the medium of sports to communicate his message of redemption. I shared the gospel talking about how God created us to be in a relationship with him but how that relationship has been broken because of sin and can be restored through Christ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.

Coach Ramos read the passage out of Romans 8 how we are more than conquerers through Christ...and how nothing can separate us from the love of God.

We announced "Fields of Faith" and the students seemed really excited about it. Hopefully some of them will be able to make the drive next Wednesday.

Please pray for the student leaders and coaches at this school that the Lord would direct them to best minister to the students on campus and for the students who came today and heard about Christ but don't know him. Pray the Lord would begin to draw them to Himself.

Amen

AG High Shool First Huddle Meeting

2008-09-24T11:29:00.001-07:00

We had our first FCA huddle meeting at AG High yesturday and it seemed to go really well.
It was unusually well organized for a first meeting. (thanks to heather and and our new huddle team volunteers! go Julie)

We had about 27 or so students attend and many students shared their thoughts during the discussion portion.
Ms. Friel welcomed everyone and then Mike stood up to give a second welcome and express his enthusiasm for the club getting started. He introduced me and then prayed to start off the meeting.

I talked about "Desire" and led a discussion on what the world desires (I John 2:15-17) and what we should desire in the Kingdom of God, making a comparison between things that are temporary and things that are eternal.
We talked about what it might look like to start a club on campus and how it will only happen if the students make it happen and are willing to take on leadership responsibilities.

At one point I asked how many of them went to youth group. Most their hands went up. I challenged them that if all we do is start another youth group on campus we defeat the porpose of FCA and we talked about the importance of them using this as a platform to minister to friends and team mates who don't know the Lord.
I then asked how many of them have ever taught the word or shared their testimony infront of a group of people before. No one raised their hand. I said we hope to give some of you the opportunity to do that and to use your gifts and communicate your faith to your peers.

Another student closed in prayer at the end and we met some of the students who came. Please pray for this school and the other schools that strong leaders would arise and that over time the club would really begin to impact the campus as a whole.

See you at the Pole

2008-09-24T10:46:00.001-07:00

Today students, teachers and administrators getheres on campuses and around flag poles to pray for our county, their states, communityes, and campuses.

I had the privalege of joing the group that gathered at SLO High School.

The time of prayer and worship was led by two students and they did a great job. We first prayed for the word and what the Lord is doing through missionaries across many nations. Then for our country and the upcoming elections and it tells us Romans to pray for those in authority.

Finally we prayed for the state, county, and the campus and what the Lord is doing at SLO high. It was neat to see students from the Christian club, FCA, and numerous youth groups all gathered together praying for unity and Kingdom impact on their campus.

Colin, Luke, Dave, Ben, Josh, Ryan

With Fields of faith approaching it was good to chat with some of the youth pastors who are helping with the event. Then coach Kelley walked over and we got to all pray for him as he was about to go speak with the administration who had some concerns about the event.

As of now it looks like the youth groups from SLO Naz, Grace Church, Mountainbrooke, and Calvary SLO are all planning to come and invite friends to the Fields of Faith event at the SLO High Football stadium on October 8th at 7:00pm.

Central Coast FCA Map of High Schools with Huddles

2008-09-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

Here is a map that has all the high schools in the area that have FCA.
Click on a school to find out information about the huddle.

All Leaders Meeting Went Well!

2008-09-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time tonight at the all leaders meeting at the Ventura's home in Arroyo Grande. We had about 40 people at the training, half coaches, parents and board members and the other half students.

We ate dinner and then watched a short video about FCA and began the training on servant leadership.

We had nine schools from across the central coast represented at the training.

Upcoming Events

2008-09-17T09:16:00.000-07:00

We have three upcoming events in the next couple of weeks.

First:

Central Coast FCA All Leaders Meeting
at Robin and Stephanie Ventura's House in Arroyo Grande.

what: Dinner, fellowship, and FCA Leadership Training - teaching, discussion, and workshops.

when: Saturday September 20th at 6:30-9:00pm

where: Robin and Stephanie Ventura's home in AG. (call or email me for directions if you haven't received them already)

Second:

See you at the Pole - National Event

what: Join students and teachers around the county who will also be meeting to pray for their schools, faculty, student body, community, and country.

when: Wednesday, September 24th at 7:00 am

where: At your schools flag pole.

Third:

Fields of Faith

what: "Fields of Faith is a student-to-student event. Peers invite their own classmates and teammates to meet on their school’s athletic field to hear fellow students share their faith testimonies, challenge them to read the Bible and to come to faith in Jesus Christ."
Bar-B-Q, Worship Band, and Student Speakers/Guest Speakers.

when: Wednesday, October 8th at 7:00pm

where: San Luis Obispo High School's Football Stadium

www.fieldsoffaith.com

Lompoc High School's First FCA Huddle Meeting!

2008-09-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

Today we held the first FCA meeting ever at Lompoc high school. Before I share what took place I want tell the story of how ministry on this campus came about.

At the end of last school year coach Tony Ramos from Pioneer valley high school suggested I try to meet baseball coach Jim Allen from Lompoc High who Tony believed would be interested in helping start an FCA huddle.

Then over summer one of our board members, Pat Cusack, suggested we announce the FCA camp in a few local newspapers and see if it generates any interest.

I got one call from those adds and it was a young man named Zack Powell who was finishing his freshman year at Lompoc. Zach went to camp this past summer along with 24 other student athletes from the central coast and had an incredible time. He came home pumped to start a sports ministry on his campus, and although Lompoc is a little over an hour drive for me I was excited to help him get it going.

Over time I got in touch with coach Allen and the head football coach, Robin Luken. Last week I meet with Coach Luken and Zack at the high school and began the training process to get the huddle started. Coach Luken seems like a great man and a great coach and has been really supportive of Zack.

This morning Richard Carrick (a former cross country team mate of mine from Cal Poly) and I got up really early and headed south to help facilitate the huddle meeting. We surfed at Jalama early and had a great time of fellowship. I had the privalege of leading Richard to the Lord about 2 1/2 years ago after a run and it is exciting to see the work the Lord is doing in his life today.

Jalama 9-11-08

The surf was great and ministry on campus was even better. We had about a dozen athletes come to the meeting. Zack started us off and then introduced me. I shared the vision of what is taking place through FCA accross the nation, on the central coast, and what could take place at Lompoc High school. We talked about the natural influence that athletes have and how that can be used for bad or for good. We talked about using our gifts for the glory of God and then Richard shared his testimony of how he came to know the Lord through sports ministry at Cal Poly.

Richard Carrick

The students seemed pretty enthusiastic and we began the process of establishing a leadership team. One of the teachers from the school, Mr. Dean, is a former youth pastor and he was very excited to see this club starting up. I think he is going to be a big help to the students as well.

Coach Luken and Zack Powell

I am excited to see what the Lord is going to do on this campus and although I won't be able to be present at this huddle as often as most, due to the long drive, I look forward to hearing the reports of how the ministry grows and matures over the coarse of this year.

Football Team Study at St. Joe's

2008-09-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today we held the first team Bible study for the St. Joe's football team.

We had about 12 guys stay behind to meet and we read and discussed Ephesians 6 about putting on the full armor of God.

St. Joe's football team praying after practice.

Starting a New Campus Huddle

2008-09-01T13:55:00.002-07:00

Central Coast FCA Campus Ministry

Starting A Campus Huddle For The 2008-2009 School Year

To do list:

1. Pray for your potential/current huddle coach, student leaders, and volunteers.
2. Start a formal club (school needs this) and certify your huddle (FCA needs this).
3. Identify your huddle coach (needs an MLA on file) and contact your local staff.
4. Pray for the athletes at your school and their openness to the Lord.
5. Decide on a place, time, and day of the week your huddle will meet.
6. Make flyer's to put up on campus, ex: FCA Huddle Thursday Room 305 at Lunch.
7. Pray for favor from your school’s administrators and involvement from parents.
8. Identify at least 2 or 3 student leaders to help start off the year.
9. Plan your first three meetings. - Time, Day, Location, Message.
10. Pray that God would use FCA to impact your campus for His glory.

local staff: Luke Llamas
email: lllamas@fca.org
mobile: (805) 215-4175
web: www.centralcoastfca.org

Wadi Sports Camp in Egypt

2008-08-01T20:43:00.001-07:00

On July 10 Steve Jones and I took off for San Diego to join a team of coaches to fly out the next morning on our journey to Cairo Egypt to conduct a sports camp for Muslim and Christian athletes. Below you will find pictures and some stories from our trip.

Although we were only in Egypt for just under two weeks I feel like I learned so much about Islam, the middle east and what the Lord is doing through sports ministry to reach people in countries where Christianity is oppressed and preaching the gospel is forbidden by law.

Let me start by saying we had a wonderful time and Egypt is a pretty incredible place. Yes Cairo is dirty, polluted and over populated but many of the people we met were absolutely wonderful and we experienced great joy and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ in this Islamic country. We had a blast coaching sports with the kids and seeing them improve during the coarse of the week.

It was exciting to see what the Lord is doing through Wadi and the facilities they have created. Thousands of young kids come through their camps every year and they are the only complex in Egypt that has the high ropes courses, zip lines and other facilities that they do. The neat thing is that it is all in one place too, high ropes, soccer fields, pool, basketball courts, tennis courts, volley ball courts, squash courts, dodge ball courts and skate board ramps. Plus housing for all the kids coaching and staff, and a dinning and meeting area as well.

Ragy and Jason

Most important is that the staff love Jesus and do all they can to love the campers that attend the camps as well.

Long flights - Long Conversations!

2008-07-29T09:02:00.001-07:00

It takes about 24 hours to travel from California to Cairo. Six hour flight to New York, and a 11 hour flight from New York to Cairo. One of the highlights of our travel for me were the two long flights. Not because of the cramp seats or fun flying food but because of two fascinating conversation I was able to have with two different Muslim guys, one on the way two Cairo and one on the flight back.

On the way way from New York to Cairo I sat with Steve next to a 27 year old Muslim guy from New York named Shariff who was traveling to Egypt to get married the following week.

By the time we got to Cairo we had spent over 5 hours talking discussing, learning, arguing, complimenting, and comparing our beliefs. It was a great time for me to freshen up on much of the Islam that I had learned yet forgot from classes a year and a half ago in school. I also learned a lot first hand from someone who is very devout in his pursuit of Islam and dedication to Allah.

The conversation started after I switched seats with Steve. I then began asking Shariff to teach me about Islam and sharing with him what I new and asking him to confirm if it was accurate or not. The response I found surprised me and created an open door that I was able to walk through again and again during our time in Egypt.

He was very surprised and excited to hear what I knew about Islam and was curious as two how and why I knew so much even though I was not Muslim. We discussed the Five Pillars, "Fitrah" the state of innocence and role of good works to impress Allah, and their doctrine of God with his 95 names, and how Islam means Surrender or submission and how a Muslim is a true submitter to Allah etc...

After sharing and learning more and more about Islam, eventually Shariff asked me "so have you always been religious" "If you are not Muslim what do you believe." This gave me the opportunity to begin sharing about my conversion to Christianity, the compelling evidence of the resurrection, the gospel and salvation by grace. The hope of righteousness that comes through faith in Christ and not good works that God sees as filthy wraggs, and obedience that comes from a motivation of love and gratitude and not a motivation of fear of cursing and desire for blessing. I obey because I am blessed, I am loved, I am saved. I don't obey to be saved, blessed, forgiven...

We discussed similarities and differences between the Qu'ran and the bible and then talked for a while about Jesus and our differing views of his life, death, and resurrection.

On the way home, I was sitting by the window with steve on my left and pretty confident "ministry" had come to an end for the trip and I was gonna sleep and read. About five minutes later Art (who has become a dear freind to me) came over and said "Luke you have got to go talk to this guy, his name if Fabio and he loves to talk and has tone of questions" He converted to Islam from Catholicism a few years back."

I looked across the isle and saw a young bearded guy getting ready for take off. Like most of us, when the Lord want us to share with someone doubts and excuses started to enter my mind. Then one of Kevin's (our speaker for the week of camp) talks about endurance and finishing well entered my mind. After another five minutes or so I stood up, having no Idea what I would say. Ed Garrett (Our Volleyball coach) was sitting in front of him so I went to say hi to Ed. Fabio was reading a book and at one point he looked up at me, I said hi and asked what he was reading. "Oh, It is about the oneness of God...." With in a couple minutes I was sitting with Fabio and we were deep in conversation about Islam. Fabio is a very passionate guy and was very excited to talk.

I don't know how long we talked but it seemed like over half the flight.

Fabio and I have continued to talk through email since I got home. He had been in Egypt for four months to learn Arabic better so he could read the Qu'ran. He is now moving to Dubai for realastate buisness but hopefully we will continue a healthy discussion about truth. It is my prayer that he will come to worship Jesus as Lord and find his righteousness in Christ and not himself.

Ministry in Egypt

2008-07-29T08:56:00.001-07:00

Once we arrived at the Wadi sports facility we had a warm welcome from the staff and counselors and enjoyed a brief service and time of prayer in the main hall. I will never forget that first night praying with brothers and sister from Egypt and hearing their passion and sincerity asking God to do a mighty work in their country. There was a humility and earnestness that was very encouraging to see.

Ministry with the kids:

Great talks at meals:

This is one of my favorite pictures from our trip because it is a reminder for me of the many wonderful conversations I was able to have with some of the athletes (specifically three Mulsim tennis players) during many of the meals. During one of the meals early in the week I bowed my head to pray for the food. When I was finished Nour (in yellow) asked if I was praying and if I was religious. I said "well from what I understand religious means devoted and I am devoted to pursuing and knowing Jesus Christ. I am a Christian. What about you?"

Nour shared that he was Muslim and I asked him to teach me about Islam and see if I understood it correctly. When I shared about the five pillars and fitrah (state of inocence) and fitnah (trials and tribulations) and how Muslim means a true submitter and the 95 names of Allah... he got really excited and said no Americans know about this and Christians don't usually know about this, how do yo know this?" I shared how I had studied Islam in school and on my own because I felt it was important to know the different worldviews, ideas, and religions that impact people in the world today. I added that you can't really know if something is true or not unless you have studied it.

This began a new found friendship between Nour and his two freinds, Nabil and Bebo and I.
From then on these boys would try to find me each day and ask me to sit with them at the next meal. Other (Christians and Muslims) would join the discussion day to day but these three would make sure they found me. At night they'd say, "ok Luke don't be late to breakfast tomorrow."
Nabil is a very bright young man and loved discussing Islam and Christianity and the differences and similarities. We talked about what the Qu'ran says about Jesus (born of a virgin, sinless, prophet, miracle worker, not the Son of God, never died, will come again to defeat the anti-Christ at the Judgment) and what the Bible says (born of a virgin, sinless, God the Son, miracle worker, Messiah, crucified and resurrected to save those who would believe (central to our faith), will return to defeat the Anti-Christ and receive His bride the Church...

One thing that I will never forget is at one point Nour said "yes we pray five times a day but if you pray more than that you get Extra Credit so you can impress Allah more." Hearing this broke my heart. There is a clear proclamation in Islam that the only hope of receiving mercy form Allah at the Day of Judgment is through vigorous good works and strict devotion to the Qu'ran. If you have done more good than bad he may over look your sin because he knows you are human and is merciful.

We talked about sin, the justice of God, and the Christian teaching about the grace of God, and the different motivations that Christians and Muslims have for why we do what is good.

Nour shared a lot with me about the history of Islam and the differences in Islam throughout the middle east.

Bebo, Nour, Nabil

At one point Nabil asked how many times I pray a day. I said "well I can pray all the time if I want. Some days I probably say 20 to 30 small prayers throughout the day, and other days less. I shared how I pray for my wife and family, I thank the Lord and ask for forgiveness and wisdom, and praise God for what he has made. "I also pray for other people, for example I prayed for you guys earlier." When I said that Nabils head went back and he got a big smile. Then he asked me why, and this led to a discusion about prayer in Islam and how they repeat prayers five times a day...

On the last morning I was sitting with Nour after everyone had gotten up and I asked him what he remembered from our discussions. He said "well I remember a lot and some I forgot, but the two things I remember are about the crucification and how Christians receive a white robe when they believe in Jesus so God doesn't see their sin at the judgment." I think if I could have wanted him to remember any two things that would be it.

One of our weaker players on the soccer field was a boy named Mahmud. He hadn't played as much as most the other kids in the past and was a little less coordinated. He also didn't have cleats and seemed a little discourage the first couple days. On the third day his group came to us at the high ropes course. It was not easy and many times he and some of the other athletes stopped trying saying they couldn't go on. Mahmud was one of the most adamant.

Although it took a while I was able to help him across the course and many of the other kids and coaches we're encouraging him along the way. You should have seen the smile on his face when he got on the ground! He had done something he never thought he could. At the following mornings practice I remembered I had brought an extra pair of cleats and got them for Mahmud. They fit him perfect and they were a gift for not giving up and competing the ropes course. He started to play better and the other athletes would joke with him saying "it must be the cleats." That evening, to everyone's surprise Mahmud scored five goals in the four on four tournament, more than any other player! Everyone encouraged him and his demeanor completely changed for the rest of the week. He got our award for most improved the last night.

The little guy below is Yasin and although you try not to have favorites as a coach he was one of my favorite. Yasin was the smallest player we had. He speaks four languages, Arabic, German, French, and English fluently. He is very kind and respectful. He is a very devout Muslim and the only kid who would bow for his prayers in public by himself. And even though he was the smallest he received the award for best player! He won almost every competition we had.

Coach Oliver and Yasin

Yasin also joined some of our talks during meals. On the last day I showed him the evange cube before I left. He said "wow that is pretty neat." He took it from me and explained it to Mahmud in Arabic!

Mahmud and Yasin looking at pictures of the gospel

Amir gave me a Nubian cap as a gift on the last day. He is a strong Christian and a very talented and kind young man. He got the award for best attitude. I'll never forget our conversation the last day as he thanked me for sharing Jesus with some of the Muslims. He exressed how it is often very difficult for the Christian in Egyt to do that and he was very encouraged watching me talk to them. I look forward to the day when the name of Jesus can be spoken freely on the streets in Egypt.

We drove to Alexandria before driving back to Cairo after the camp was over. After lunch we walked along the Mediterranean and got to experience a little more of the culture.

Sharing the gospel with a young boy on the streets in Alexandria using the evange cube that shows pictures explaining the gospel.

Three other Egyptians walked up to listen and George in the brown shirt helped translate for me.

Wadi Complex

2008-07-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

The Wadi Sports Facility is a great complex and has been really well designed. Our team coached five sports and had 61 kids, ages 13-17 involved in the Kids Games Plus camp.

Soccer

Tennis

Basketball

Volleyball

Swimming

and High Ropes

Zip Lines
Rock Climbing Wall

and Dodge Ball

All of these parts of the facility provided us with places to love on the kids, serve them, and help them improve in their sport while teaching them lessons about life and showing them the love of Christ.

Travel in Egypt

2008-07-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

After our six hour flight, four hour delay, and then 11 hour flight we arrived in Cairo and went through customs. That night we checked into a hotel, visited El Casa Debara which is the church we were doing ministry through, and then took a sail boat ride on the Nile and took time sharing our testimonies and getting to know our team better.

To get feeling of traffic in Egypt imagine LA at rush hour minus blinkers and the rule about staying in your lane. Add a mild experience riding bumper cars and you'll be pretty close.

Sail Boat on the Nile

The next morning we woke up and started our journey out to the Wadi Sports Facility which is about an hour outside of Cairo. On our way out we visited the Egyptian Museum and learned a lot of fascinating stuff abut Egyptian history and saw some pretty amazing artifacts.

King Tutankhamen Burial Face plate - It is solid gold

We also stopped to see the Pyramids. Let me just say I have never seen anything like it. I was in awe of these magnificent pieces of architecture and the theories for how they were created.

This is the Sphinx with the Great Pyramid of Cheops in the Background

This is a three foot high tunnel that is a passage way to the heart of the Pyramid where the Pharaohs burial chamber existed.

Camels are one of my new favorite animals. Mine could run really fast and I had to use the side pockets like stirrups. (I never saw them spit)

Some Egyptian guys got in a fight over something when we were leaving. They like to ask for tips a lot in Egypt. Especially if your white and remotely close to a tourist attraction : )

We partnered with a team from San Diego who were leaders for the 8-12 year olds camp called Kids Games.

We arrived at Wadi that afternoon to begin our orientation and preparation for the kids to arrive the following morning.

FCA Camp Update - Leaving for Egypt

2008-07-10T16:40:00.000-07:00

Last week was my first official camp with FCA and it was an incredible experience to say the least. As I reflect on this past week it is difficult to express in words all that took place. In a sentence I would describe the camp as a week of watching God do a mighty work to transform lives in the midst of tremendous adversity!

It was a very stretching week for our staff and yet a wonderful experience to grow our faith and teach us valuable lessons about life and ministry.

By way of a quick overview we had approximately 653 campers, 80 college huddle leaders, 25 FCA staff, and 30 clinicians join together at UC Santa Barbara for a week of “inspiration and perspiration” as athletes were trained in their sports and challenged to follow Christ.

We held a girls camp with 236 athletes and a boys camp with 417 athletes running 10 sports each with daily bible studies and evening programs revolving around this years theme “Get Focused: Pursue the Prize.” Phil 3:13-14 “Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”

We were blessed with an outstanding coaching staff who led two a day practices for the athletes sharing personal testimonies of God's work in their own lives and giving the students a vision for what it means to glorify God through athletics and worship Him through all that we do. We also had wonderful speakers for the evening programs and although blackouts due to the fires changed our picture of what those meetings would look like God was able to shine bright in the midst of darkness and receive all the glory for the lives that were changed.

Our Huddle leaders led four bible studies out of Philipians 3 teaching the athletes about:
The Desire to Know Christ
The Discipline to trust Him
The Dedication to follow Him and
The Destination to Join Him

Central Coast Impact:
We we’re fortunate enough to have 25 high school athletes from the Central Coast attend camp this summer and 21 of them were on a partial or full scholarship with money raised from the local community! We also had two clinicians, Coaches Dave Kelley and Kevin Ilac, along with six huddle leaders from our area to serve at camp this summer.

Camp Miracles:
1) One week before camp there were only 205 campers signed up total for boys and girls. It was miraculous to watch the Lord provide the Huddle Leaders for the additional 450 campers that signed up last minute and for Erin (our camp director) to be able to process and register all those athletes by the time camp began.
2) Fires burned over 8,000 acres in the hills of Santa Barbara during the week of camp and yet none of our athletes were injured and they all got to continue in their sport every day of camp as planned.
3) Following the first power outage Wed. night the decision was made that if power did not turn on by 9:00am the following morning we would have to cancel camp and begin the process of getting kids home early. At exactly 8:47am the power turned back on and we were able to run a full and fruitful camp! (see attachment)
4) Over 70 athletes passed from death to life making first time decisions to follow Christ.

We endured late registrations, fires, falling ash and smoke, and 3 blackouts that caused us to make continual changes in the schedule. What an adventure. The athletes had a blast and God transformed lives. On the guys side we had 70 young men make first time commitments to follow Christ and over 120 athletes re-dedicate their lives to the Lord.

Highlights:
One of the young men I had the joy of sharing with was named Chris. While walking with the football guys to the beach for their seven-on-seven tournament Chris told me he had come to camp for football and didn’t know much about God but thought it was all somewhat interesting. He shared that he came from a broken home and was homeless for the past two years. He now lives with a family of one of his friends and received a scholarship to come to camp. He told me he felt like he was a little behind because everyone else seemed to know who some Paul guy was and he didn’t. He had never read the Bible. I got to teach him an overview of the Bible and redemptive history and about Christ work on the cross. It was fun answering his many questions as we walked. At one point we got separated because I had to help one of our huddle leaders. Chris found me again later and asked me to pick up where I had left off…

Chris’s huddle leader was also named Chris and was one of our guys who agreed to come as a counselor the day before camp started after hearing that if we didn’t get more counselors some athletes would not have been able to come at all! After camp was over, Chris the huddle leader shared with me that Chris the camper had made a decision to receive Christ with him the last night of camp in the dorm.

Cody, Emerald’s younger brother, got to be a camper in soccer and was even awarded athlete of the week for his huddle group. Emerald served on the medical team for the week of camp and helped the camp doctor and sports trainers minister to the injured athletes.

It was a valuable learning experience for me to watch our staff, specifically Donnie Dee, Erin McGrath, Jarrett Meyers, Jen Shinn and Colin Sinclair, lead so well in the midst of the adversity we faced. It is also a privilege to know that our camp was only a part of what is taking place along with over 240 other FCA camps across the nation and world this summer.

With that said I would ask you to pray for the athletes who's lives were changed this past week and also for the lives of athletes we hope to see changed in the next couple weeks as well.

Egypt Sports Camp:

As some of you know tomorrow Steve Jones and I will leave for San Diego where we will join a team of coaches to fly to Egypt to conduct a sports camp for Muslim athletes outside of Cairo.

We are going with FCA and North Coast Calvary Chapel to run a sports camp at the Wadi Sports Facility which was created by an evangelical church in Egypt to reach youth. We are coming along side this ministry to help meet a need for Christian coaches that they currently can not, and to draw in more of the club athletes to have a wider impact in the community.

We are bringing a team of twelve coaches and plan to teach five sports including soccer, basketball, swimming, volleyball and tennis. We will also be sharing Christian messages in the evenings and developing relationships with the kids. Steve and I will be coaching soccer along with a coach from Germany who will be meeting us in Egypt.

Egypt is approximately 76% Muslim with a population of over 75 million people. This nation rest in the heart of the 1040 window and the primary language is Arabic (many of the kids we will be working with speak English as well). Although it is against the law to "proselytize" we do have the freedom to share our testimonies and talk about our faith in Christ when approached by the people there. We anticipate many opportunities to share about Christ and to love on the kids in His name. We cherish your prayers for our travel, safety, unity, and effectiveness as we journey to this Muslim country for the cause of Christ. I may be able to relay updates while in Egypt and definitely look forward to sharing what took place upon our return.

Thank you for your prayers!

I seperated the AC Joint in my shoulder at the beach

2008-06-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

So on Sunday we loaded up the FCA car and Steve Jones, Emmy, Cody, Cody's freind Will and I started out on a road trip to SanDiego for a Meeting Steve and I had for our trip to Egypt. It was also a time to stop and see my family in Santa Clarita and Emmy's family in Dana Hills.

We went to the beach during the day with Emmy's brother Chance and our gang and had a blast skim boarding, body surfing, and body boarding... write up until we were about to leave and went over the falls on a large shore break and hit my shoulder on the sand. I came up after hearing/feeling a pop and my shoulder looked deformed. I thought I had dislocated my shoulder and prcedded to have Steve try to re-set it for me so we could hurry up and get to San Diego by 4:20. It was 2:10!

After talking to some lifeguards they convinced me to go to the ER. X-rays revealed that I had separated my AC joint.

After some time in the ER we rushed to San Diego and even made the end of our Egypt meeting before the commissioning service and North Coast Calvary Chapel.

Unfortunately I will not be able to participate as much at the FCA camp next week and cherish your prayers for a safe and thorough recovery.

FCA Camp at UCSB

2008-06-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

There are only a few more days to sign up for camp! Don't miss out this summer.

July 1st-5th at UCSB SoCal FCA is hosting our 12th annual sports camp.

visit www.socalfcacampoffice.org for more info or to sign up.

Contact me at (805) 215-4175 or lllamas@fca.org to request a scholarship.

Fred Hives at Righetti High School

2008-05-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today Fred Hives came with me as the guest speaker at Righetti high School in Santa Maria. Fred is a middle linebacker for Cal Poly and a strong Christian. For two years now he has led the AIA football bible study for the team and has one more season left for collegiate football.

To start the meeting I led a quick game to get us going and then Justin Level, a junior at Righetti started the meeting and introduced Fred.

After sharing some of his personal testimony and experiences as a college Christian athlete Fred challenged the students about the importance of consistency in their sport, their relationships, and their faith.

He shared out of John 16

As much as our freinds may come and go, and our abilities come and go God is ultimately the only one who is truly consistent in every way all the time. He will never leave through the hard times and the times of joy. He is immutable, unchanging. As it says in Hebrews he is the same yesterday today and forever. As we strive to be like Christ, consistency, to stay the course over the long term, to be dependable as a man or woman of our word is of great value.

After Fred shared we showed a video about Tom Brady the quarter back for the Patriots.
This is a guy who "has everything" from a worldly stand point yet finds is doesn't satisfy and from his own words said "there has got to be more than this!"

I then talked briefly about why Jesus asks "what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul?" Living for the fame, money, titles and material things of this world is empty and meaningless. Those who have achieved it seem to realize it most clearly when what they thought would satisfy leaves them even more empty, now stuck with all the "baggage" and trappings of this world.

I then shared how Christs teaches us to seek the truth and the truth will set you free. And how he came for our salvation unto the glory of God, that we might have life to the full, in Him. For me the life lived to full is having a deep and intimate relationship with the living God. Walking in obedience to Him and using all he has given to the fullest for His glory.

Students asking Fred questions about Faith and Football

Chad Pruet at SLO High

2008-05-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today Chad Pruett came with me to SLO High as the guest speaker. He did a great job as he usually does. The students seemed pretty focused as he shared about his own testimony and challenged the students to have persistence in their pursuit of God. Chad played baseball for Cal Poly and recently got a job with an engineering firm in Atascadero.

Chad started volunteering at the Mountain brook youth group recently and seems to have develop some great relationship with some of the students. Although he will be graduating soon I was glad to hear hi say he looks forward to speaking at FCA meetings more next year.

A group of the students from the huddle came up to talk with him after and ask questions.

Week in Review - Highights May 12th-16th

2008-05-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

Monday - Chad Pruett Shared at Coast Union High School. Chad is a good freind and has been the leader of Athletes in Action at Cal Poly for the past two years. He played baseball at Poly but often shares how being involved in sports ministry in college was the most meaningful and exciting experiences he had there. Chad shared his testimony and from the word challenge the students to be persistent in their pursuit of Christ and their commitment to make him know through loving their freinds, sharing their faith, and inviting people to be involved in FCA. He shared how he was asked over six times before he actually came to an AIA meeting and how he is so grateful for the persistence of his freinds.

Tuesday - Rachel Vallier (another good freind and former Cal Poly / Liberty University runner) is back in town and came with me to Nipomo High School. Rachel is great and is well known for all her great games and ice breakers. We started the meeting trying to untangle the "Human knot" and then talked about how teamwork and unity are so important in the body of Christ, ad God always provides a way out...

Wednesday we had our final coaches breakfast (for this school year ) in Santa Maria at Perko's Cafe.

The students asked Jeff Lehmkul shared at the SLO High Huddle. He did a great job and taught out of Pauls letter to Timothy talking about what it means to flee youthful lust and pursue righteousness, faith and love...

Mr. Lehmkhul at SLO High

He talked about what it means to finish well and he shared an amazing story about the SLO High Auto Team.

That week his team went to the state meet. The had to fix all the problems on a car, and the first team finish and park their car with the most or all the problems fixed wins. Well they have 90 minuted to finish and it usually taked around a half hour for the winning team. Well his team was the last team done! They were practically dead last and it took them 86 minutes to finish, but they didn't top until they knew they had fixed everything. Long story short they park there car somewhat humiliated. After the juges reviewed the all the cars they were the only group to fix everything and they got first place! Their going to Nationals. Way to go SLO high Auto!

Thursday - I visited the Pioneer Valley High School Huddle and taught out of John 15 about what it means to abide in Christ. It has been great to see the deep friendships that have been developed among this group.

Coach Ramos announced that on of the Leaders, Cassidy, would be getting a college scholarship from the FCA huddle because of her commitment to serving the Lord through thus ministry and the role model and servant she was to others. She was shocked and everyone was really happy for her.

I also stopped by Righetti and talked with Coach Wilson and some of his athletes for awhile. I also got to talk to Dave Ashor about Fields of Faith coming up later in October and he is always really encouraging to me in the ministry.

The students at Atascadero High School asked Chris Ferree, a Christian Wrestling Coach, to share at their huddle meeting and from what I hear he did a great job. Thanks coach Ferree!

Friday - I worked in the office and I tried to get caught up on admin stuff that I sometimes neglect being on campuses so much. I also surfed Friday evening at Hazards with Dan Murdoch and the conditions were practically perfect! Sunny, glassy and over head waves. It was really nice to get in the water and enjoy the Lord's creation and fellowship with a close brother.

Memorial Day at the Beach! - Volleyball Tournament

2008-05-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

What are you doing on memorial day! Join us for a volley ball tournament at the Pismo Pier Volley ball courts. The tournament is two on two and there are prizes for the winning teams. The cost to enter the tournament is $15 and the event is fund raiser to help Amy who is battling cancer.

Date: Monday, May 26th (Memorial Day)
Time: Sign Ups at 8:00 am (tournament begins at 8:30)
Cost: $15

What: Beach Volley Ball Tournament / Day at the Beach
Why: Help Amy battle cancer and have a blast in Pismo hanging out with freinds on your day off!