As I began speaking I saw one kid roll his eyes so far back I fully expected them to fall out of his head. As I scanned the audience my estimation was that there were about 5 or 6 guys wanting the experience …
But I welcomed the challenge and I felt the Holy Spirit strengthening me … these guys need this and THEY ARE GOING TO CHANGE TODAY.
This was a tough audience. I’ve had the impression in the past with some groups that this is going to be tough all day but I did not feel that way that day.
We went to our first small group discussion … public interview, which is where each player shares some personal information about themselves. I decided to accompany a group led by one of the captains …
The GRACE as I call it started slowly but you could see it was building. One of the Freshmen players still had his backpack on … still wasn’t surrendering … but then after the second guy shared his story, the captain paused and said, “You gonna take that off and stay awhile? We need you and we need you NOW. Open up!”
He still didn’t take the backpack off but another player then said, “I’ll go” and by the look in his eyes I knew everything was about to change. I glanced over at the Head Coach who was next to me and he was welling up … The GRACE was about to come. Apparently this kid about to speak had never opened up to the team before. He poured his heart out. All the backpacks came off, tears flowed freely and you knew the day had just changed.
I LOVE seeing God do that. I get to go along for the ride.
Needless to say when we returned as a whole team, the atmosphere and attitude was completely different.
They loved the experience so much they wanted the four captains to get up in front of the whole group and share. This was powerful.