A Life Worth Following

A few days ago, most of the Ambassadors loaded up in five vehicles and set out on a 16 hour road trip to Phoenix Arizona for a little ministry, baseball and a lot of fun.  This week, the team is working with several churches in the Phoenix area.  Wednesday night, two opportunities opened up and the guys split up between two youth groups to share their story.  Both groups had a great experience and we continue to be amazed and grateful for all of the opportunities the Lord has been giving us to talk about Him and our journey of ministry.  

It is inspiring to see our boys minister to other people.  They have been teaching me what it means to look for opportunities to share with other people.  Their boldness with the gospel has motivated me to pay more attention to the Holy Spirit in my personal life.  For example, as the guys were traveling on the road, they stopped at one of those big truck stops to fill up with gas.  Most people, when they walk into a “Flying J” are more interested in going to the bathroom and taking in the sights, sounds and smells that all those truck stops offer.  Though I am sure the team experienced all the “Flying J” had to offer, they were also looking for opportunities to minister.  

As the boys pulled up, they noticed a couple of sweet, decked out tour buses gassing up.  From the look of these buses, they knew it was some band on a cross country tour.  (They wanted to know if the Ambassadors could use those tour busses to travel but our vans from Alamo have much more character.)  

Anyway, Nathan Brewer’s curiosity got the best of him and he could not resist this opportunity to find out what band was visiting the “Flying J”.  He courageously went over to talk to the bus driver.  During the course of the conversation, Nathan discovered that this was actually a band who is on tour with Toby Keith and they were traveling to their next show. 

Even though Nathan was hoping for a tour of the bus and an photo with the band, God began to open the door for Nathan to share our story with the driver.  During the course of the conversation, this bus driver started asking questions about all these athletic guys pouring out of all these vehicles.  Nathan took the opportunity to grab several gospel bracelet packets and began to use it to share the gospel with the driver.  The driver was so impacted by Justin’s story and Ambassadors journey, he ended up taking bracelet packets for the entire band.

I continue to be amazed and inspired at how our boys have become so much bolder in their faith as the summer has progressed.  Even though this is something our staff has prayed for from the beginning, it is still so amazing to see the Lord answer this prayer so clearly.  Though the baseball this summer has been incredible for the Ambassadors, the experiences with the Lord continue to be more than we could have ever asked for or imagined.     

Now to shift gears a minute, even though ministry happens along our journey, we are also playing some pretty good baseball.  Yesterday morning, the guys had to get up early to make to a 9:00am baseball game with the Arizona Clash.  The Clash is a good team from the Phoenix area with a reputation of producing a lot of great baseball players.  In spite of the fact that this is a very worthy opponent, The Ambassadors came away with a 10-2 victory.  It is so great to minister to people and share the love of Jesus with them.  At the same time, it is also really fun to beat the snot out of an opponent on the baseball field.  I know that winning is not everything but it is much more fun than losing.   

I better stop here because when my competitive juices start flowing, very quickly I start battling my sinful nature so moving on… After the thrashing of the Clash, the Ambassadors had a couple of special treats waiting for them.  Russ Ortiz, former Oklahoma Sooner and player for the San Francisco Giants and Brian Hommel, chaplain for the Arizona Diamondbacks came to spend some time with the team.  These two “Major Leaguers” heard about the Ambassadors and came to share their testimony with the team.  It is so good to see guys in the Major Leagues who live out their faith on a daily basis.  We are thankful that men like this will take the time to speak to our team.  It is a great example for us and we were grateful for the time we were able to spend with them.  

Also, yesterday one of the members of our host church, Discovery point, opened up his house for the team.  They got a home cooked meal and a little R&R.  Here are a few pics of the Ambassadors at play:  

As you can see, we are not all business on our trips.  

To wrap up this latest post, you can get more information on the baseball schedule in Phoenix on the schedule link at the top of the page.  This coming Sunday morning we will be at Discovery Point Church in Peoria Arizona.  Chris Wall will be preaching in both of their services on Sunday morning and several guys will share their testimony.  In addition to this, the team will get to spend time with the youth group Sunday morning before we head back to Oklahoma City.  

What an amazing summer it has been so far.  We continue to be amazed and thankful that the Lord has given us so many opportunities to share our story with churches around the country.  Every place we go for baseball, we try to connect with churches in the area.  We do this because we believe that God wants to use His church to change the world.  We have discovered that God is using a baseball and our abilities to help the Church connect with people who need to know Him.  Experiencing the Lord move in and through our lives is such an incredible adventure.  

You do realize that this adventure of serving the Lord is available to every one of us.  It is not limited to baseball players.  The reality is that God has equipped every one of His children and He desires to work through you.  For the rest of our lives, we pray that God will use all of our abilities to help people come to know Him.  

We pray that God might use our story to speak to your heart and challenge you to get on this road again.  It will be the greatest adventure of your life.