Meeting Pujols ESPY

I try not to make this an all about Joel site, but a site about Christian athletes, which is much more interesting anyway! J So, I’ll share this since it combines the two. I’m completely pumped up — Going to watch Albert Pujols play tonite at the new Busch Stadium. Went to his restaurant Wednesday and got to hold his ESPY, and yes, there will be a pix posted on Facebook by the end of the week. Once I get home and figure out how to download it. Here’s to Albert popping one, or two, out of the stadium again tonite pushing the Cards to another National League Central leading win. The Cards are 21-5 whenever he homers. Okay, enough of my babble, let’s find some links.

KU star
This Kansas University athlete is reaching out into his college community, with the help of a few teammates.

Boxing star
Scott Ledoux shared his faith at a recent event and used an interesting acronym, BOX, to share his faith.

Shaun Alexander
The former Seahawks running back is doing a revival-like tour where he shares his faith. He’s also hoping to be in an NFL training camp this summer.

 Always strive for openness and honesty. All links today are courtesy of www.FCA.org.

Lots of updates!

Boilermaker mission trip
Many days, I look at anywhere from 2 to 500 links. Just skimming through trying to find positive Christian stories that I can herald from the rooftops. It’s easier some days than others, however, when I see a story from Bleacher Report, which is a site that has thousands of amateur and aspiring sportswriters writing about any and everything, the stories get the automatic X (delete). This story changed my attitude about that somewhat. It’s one of the best stories I’ve seen this year about mission trips that teams make and it’s very well done. A line about the story: It covers members of the Purdue Boilermaker football team as they made a mission trip to Haiti this past summer and really gets into the why they do it. Great job by Tim Cary. 

Texas receiver
Longhorn wide receiver Jordan Shipley said it took two years of injuries to help him focus in on what life was all about.

To make you think…
This is my weekly, “There’s-nothing-sporting-about-this-but-I-found-it-interesting-link”. Here’s Russo’s MySpace page, check him out and think his philosophies through.  I didn’t post this just because this guy comes from my hometown. 

Christian influence
This is a GREAT story about the influence that Shaun Alexander had on these two 13-year-olds. One of the boys’ parents was in jail, but Alexander has literally taken them under his wing, developed a relationship and mentored them. 

UGA Chaplain
Kevin “Chappy” Hynes, University of Georgia’s chaplain finished his degree at Baptist College of Florida.

More Georgia news
Forsyth County, Georgia’s FCA is getting geared up for its summer, when it has more time with students.

British version of football
I took the liberty of clipping this quote right out of the story, since it’s a really long,  meandering piece that has several unrelated  points.  However, buried right in the middle, is this quote, from John Bostock:

He is a regular churchgoer and says he became serious about his Christianity 18 months ago. “My sister had found the faith and she seemed so happy with life that I thought there must be something in it. So I went to church with her one day and I have been going ever since. Now I think it is very important to have faith.”

Does it help his football? “Most definitely. This is a roller-coaster game. You have your ups and downs. Sometimes it can be the best game in the world but when you are down it is difficult and it helps to have that rock, that faith in God. It keeps me stable.

If you want to read the entire story, here’s the link but most of it is some silliness (to me) about England’s hopes for the Olympics in soccer.

Dwayne Wade
The Miami Heat guard’s name was pretty well drug through the mud this past year. However, he’s now saying it was slander.