I sat parked in front of Currito on the Xavier campus as one by one the student athletes piled into our rental van. The students were excited for a wide variety of reasons.  Some had never been to Chicago and seeing the big city was a major draw. No shame there, I felt it too.

This year’s retreat was definitely on point. While walking to lunch with our students after the morning outreach at Moody Bible College, Josh was excited to tell us that he and Paolo had just seen Luke put his faith in Jesus.  Luke is a high school basketball player and he was the first person that they had ever led to Christ.

One of our girls said it best, “We need to be ALL IN!”

This caused me to dream some dreams and wonder, what if every student athlete was…

devoted to read their Bible before picking up their cell phone in the morning.

devoted to be part of a Christian community.

devoted to reaching out with the Gospel to their classmates, friends and family.

devoted to moving away from living passively and was ALL IN.

Two of our students sent us texts to say “thank you” for taking them on the weekend.  Their words were really mature and encouraging and as we read them, I wanted to share them with you.

“Just wanted to reach out and let you guys know how grateful I am to have you both in my life! You both have had so much influence in my walk with Christ and before going on this retreat I felt like I was just coasting and not taking initiative to move forward through my walk. Thank you so much for this weekend. Without you guys we wouldn’t have had such a great opportunity.”

A freshman soccer player said, “I know I’ve become more passionate about Christ because of how well you serve us, continually dying to self. And it’s incredibly motivating for me to live like that as well. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for showing me specifically, but the whole group as well, a physical example of how Christ loves me.”

The reason I want to share these words of thanks with you is that you are a part of the BIGGER story that is being written in the hearts and lives of these young students. Your ministry partnership helps to make it possible for us to be on campus.

So from them, and us, thank you!