Bringing the news to everyone

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Did you know that AIA ministers not only to athletes and coaches, but also to sports fans? Through AIA events like the Super Bowl Breakfast and the All-Star Breakfast, we share the gospel and testimonies of faith with hundreds of people. Last month, AIA welcomed 1600 guests to the NFL-sanctioned Super Bowl Breakfast in Las Vegas where the Bart Starr Award was presented to Pittsburgh Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, Jr. for exceptional character, service and leadership in his life.

Sixty people accepted Christ in response to the gospel, 200 others expressed interest in learning more about faith, and all of these were connected with local churches. More than 800 others watched the live stream of the event. 

Last month in Indianapolis, AIA presented two awards celebrating faith and character in the NBA. New Orleans Pelican Cody Zeller received the Bobby Jones Award and Jim Morris received the Jerry Colangelo award. The All-Star Breakfast takes place in the host city of the NBA All-Star Weekend. Many heard the gospel as a result of this gathering!

Athletes in Action’s “Keys to Life” Breakfast is held every year at the NCAA Men’s Final Four Tournament. This year’s event is on April 6 at the Phoenix Convention Center and will honor character, leadership and integrity on and off the court. The gospel and faith stories will also be shared.

Italy Team

AIA’s GO’24 campaign is a focus on mission trips, and March was a very busy month for spring break trips. Staff and students traveled to South Africa, Croatia, Albania, Costa Rica, Italy, South Asia, the Caribbean and some inner cities in the U.S. to share Christ cross-culturally. Several students who went are praying about serving in some of these locations for the next year. On these mission trips, there are opportunities for students to learn to share the gospel and their own stories of faith, to care for widows and orphans, to engage in athletic competition and to lead clinics for younger students and children. GO’24 will continue in the summer with many other short-term mission trip opportunities.

Croatia Team

Croatia Team

Finally, the Wooden Family Fieldhouse will be completed in the next several weeks. With indoor basketball and track, athletic training facilities and meeting space, it will enable us to serve thousands more people at our campus in Xenia, OH. The grand opening will be on June 15th.

Please review our prayer page  and support needs and lift up our ministry to the Lord.  Click the following:  April 2024 hard copy Newsletter.

Ready to help others …

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Kory is an AIA staff member I am currently coaching who serves at Ohio Dominican University (ODU).  He shares here about some of what God is doing on that campus:

“How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction and he meditates on it day and night.”

These words from Psalm 1:1-2 come to mind when I think of my interactions with my athletes. Kylen (football; gray hoody) and Manny (track & field; black coat) meet with me. We have been studying The Basics of the Christian Faith. Manny is ready to start sharing the Gospel with his teammates and will be joining me on some appointments. Kylen needs a little more time before he feels he is ready to share the Gospel. There are still some personal hurdles that he faces in taking his faith public, but he has come a long way. He has joined me in our work in the prisons and is even considering going on our spring break mission trip to Orlando to work with Cru Inner City. Both young men have decided they need a strong foundation in Christ for themselves and for their teammates.

I will be going on a sports-based mission trip with Athletes in Action to Albania. We will be ministering alongside in-country AIA staff to help accelerate the strategic ministry they have at key universities and villages in Albania. As we train and play sports with athletes, we will help them practice English and share what it means to begin a personal relationship with God.


For a long time, Albania was closed to the gospel, but believers grew from nearly zero to several thousand in a few years. Albania faces a long road to recovery from the destructive effects of atheism and Communism. The chaos and corruption of the 1990s and 2000s showed that to build a healthy and productive society, people must rebuild economically, but also morally and spiritually. Many people claim a religion, but do not practice their faith. The city where we’ll be staying is also home to 26 ethnic groups and some of the most spiritually unreached and unengaged people in the world. 

 I invited several of my athletes to join me. Cam (green shirt) and Alex (black hoody) both said yes and are excited to see how God might use them. Both are considering possibly joining staff with AIA and living in Albania for a year to do ministry.

Please review our prayer page  and support needs and lift up our ministry to the Lord.  Click the following:  February 2024 hard copy Newsletter.

Watching God at Work

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In my (Karen’s) role as a coach for new staff members, I get a front row seat into what God is doing in their lives. Most of the people I coach are recent college graduates who have experienced God at work in their lives through AIA’s ministry. They have said, “yes,” to God’s call on their lives to make disciples of Jesus through the vehicle of sports, and they have said, “yes,” to trusting God to provide for their personal and ministry needs as they invite people to be prayer and financial partners. This is usually the biggest step of faith they have taken in their lives, apart from trusting God for their salvation, and my job is to walk beside them providing training, prayer, Scripture, accountability and encouragement.

Each coachee is reaching out to people in the power of the Holy Spirit to invite them to be partners in growing God’s kingdom, and then they leave the results to God. It is a perfect training ground for their ministry on campus where they will reach out to athletes in the power of the Holy Spirit to invite them to be part of God’s family, and then they leave the results to God.

Donna is on the right.

Donna, one of my coachees says, “I’m learning that God’s provision for me is based on His faithfulness, not my effort. God’s provision was a concept before, but now I feel like a witness of this; now I’m living it. 

Holland is in the Braves T shirt

”Holland, another coachee says, “I’m learning that when I am working, but I don’t see results, God is still at work. And when I can’t work, God is still at work. Prayer has changed exponentially for me, and my perspective on it has changed. I’m expressing my dependence on God, and I’m praying more boldly and more expectantly. I’m sowing the habit of gratitude. God is obviously doing what He needs to do in me in this process.”

One coachee said she felt that trusting God to provide for her financial needs was an impossible task, but now she says, “It’s crazy how big a blessing this process has been. Even my family has grown through this. I want to give more; my parents want to give more. God’s not depending on me in order to move on my campus, but He invites me to be part of it, and I get to invite other people to be a part of it too.”

Your partnership with us is enabling us to mobilize the next generation of missionaries. In the last two years, 52 new AIA missionaries have been sent out for an average of one every two weeks.

Thank you for your part in reaching the world for Christ! We are grateful for you!

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

Greatly Helped and Deeply Loved

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Last week, 17 Albanians came to AIA’s headquarters in Xenia, Ohio: 11 Olympic athletes, the mayor of the capital city, the Albanian minister of sport, and the heads of the sports clubs from the two largest cities. They came for sports training, but they didn’t expect what else they would encounter while they were here.

In July 2022, AIA’s Global Team took a small group of staff and students to Tirana, Albania, where they held a sports camp for over 150 Albanian students. In November 2022 the Global Team went to Albania to meet with AIA national leaders from 18 Central and Eastern European countries to put on a launch event to help churches start sports ministries. Building on our existing ministry in Albania, we had the opportunity to invite this group to AIA’s campus to learn about competing as a Total Athlete: one committed to success physically, mentally and spiritually.

The consensus was that the group felt greatly helped and deeply loved. George, the head of sports for the capital city and a pro soccer player for 20 years, said, “I’ve traveled to a lot of places. I’ve never been treated like I was here, not anywhere.” Others said, “Here we’ve been treated as people; as human beings, rather than factories to get something done, accomplish a goal or make someone else happy.” The love of Christ compels us, and His love was evident!

AIA global director Bill who shared about the Total Athlete with a very engaged audience. “The Total Athlete concept created a space to help them begin to see the importance of their own souls,” Bill said. “There were great spiritual conversations, formally and informally, sometimes even into the wee hours of the night.” Four of our visitors went to church, some for the very first time. Tirana’s mayor posted on social media (to his almost 400,000 followers) multiple times during their visit, saying that AIA is a fantastic organization with great people with whom they want to partner.

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

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

Shaped for His Purpose

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

Hailey’s Family

When Hailey D. was in college, she found her identity in running. Sport became her idol, but it was not an easy taskmaster. She thought being in control of everything in her life would make her happy, so she became very hard on herself, even on easy runs and practices. That devolved into a negative body image and disordered eating. A fellow runner invited Hailey to Athletes in Action where she learned that putting her faith in Jesus would give her a new identity in Him and that running could become a way for her to thank Him and bring Him glory. This is the first of the AIA 5 Principles.

Hailey became a student leader on her campus, discipling some of her teammates and helping them take steps of faith and obedience to Jesus. Her senior year, she realized that introducing other people to Jesus and helping them grow in their faith was something she wanted to spend her life doing. So Hailey joined the staff of Athletes in Action, and I had the privilege of being her coach. She is working at Wright State University in Dayton, OH with cross country athletes and will be adding track and soccer teams this fall. She is very open with other athletes about the struggles she faced, and God opens doors for the gospel through her vulnerability. One of the girls Hailey discipled was Alicia, whom Hailey helped to begin a team Bible study. Alicia looked for someone she could mentor and began helping Kaitlyn, who became a believer two years ago, to grow in her faith. Now Alicia is encouraging Kaitlyn to step out in faith to lead someone else.

AIA exists to take the gospel where the gospel is not so we can pursue the vision of a Christ follower on every team, in every sport, in every nation. Your prayer and financial partnership is helping create spiritual movements everywhere through sports. Thank you!

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

Celebrations!

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In family news, on June 7, our new grandson Lincoln was born to our son Andrew and his wife, Laura. Lincoln is beginning to have some digestive problems, and their 20-month-old son Hudson continues to have many difficult health issues. I just returned from spending several weeks in Maryland helping their family, while Rick finished unpacking from our move. God answered a significant prayer during that time. Hudson has issues with motor planning, and could pull to a stand, but could not get down. After we practiced with him hundreds of times, Hudson is now able to get down safely from a standing position.

We also want to let you know WE HAVE MOVED. Our new address is: 1813 Messner Drive, Hilliard, OH 43026. We now have room for guests, so if you come to Columbus and need a place to stay, the Rogers BnB is open for business!

In ministry news, please join me in celebrating with Joel Greenfield and the Catalytic ministry team that God has provided for Joel’s financial support needs and he is officially reporting to his assignment! Joel hails from San Diego, California where he played water polo, basketball and volleyball in high school. In college at Grand Canyon University he played volleyball and majored in sports management.

Joel interned with AIA volleyball for two years before joining staff full time. During that time he was able to travel to Alaska and to South Asia to help put on basketball and volleyball camps. He will continue to serve with volleyball and with the residential academy at AIA. Joel also volunteers with men in addiction recovery and at a homeless shelter where he leads Bible studies.

During his process of finding a team of ministry partners, Joel participated in a 50-kilometer ultramarathon (31 miles) with his dad and proposed to his high school sweetheart, Alena. Through his season of coaching, Joel learned to trust God in new ways and to pray more confidently and expectantly. He frequently shared things he was meditating on from Scripture in our coaching calls because Joel loves God’s Word! He recently went to a couple of countries in South Asia where they hope to open doors for ministry. Joel and his team (including 6 believing college athletes from the US) reached out to local teens through a week-long beach volleyball camp and visited with children in an orphanage.

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

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

When you are a commodity…

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are grateful for you!

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