Have you ever questioned why the God of the Bible, who is all-powerful and all-good, would allow evil and suffering into the world He created? You are certainly not alone in asking this question. In this episode of the Uncommon Podcast, Christian apologist and the Founder of Embrace the Truth Ministries, Abdu Murray, unpacks the Biblical response to this question and the deeper meaning behind human suffering. A new episode of the Uncommon Podcast is released every two weeks. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, right here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out this week's episode, and be sure to follow our podcast to get alerts when new episodes are released! Curious about Uncommon Sports Group and what our ministry has to offer? Contact us to learn more here! Do you want to join the largest community of future Christian leaders of the college and pro sport industry? Apply to join here!

Uncommon Sports Group (USG) had the pleasure of attending the 1st annual Professional Football Equipment Managers Society (PFEMS) Trade Show in West Palm Beach, Florida March 19th-20th. These meetings were held in advance of the annual NFL Owners’ Meetings. The weekend event kicked off with a Members & Vendors Reception at Copper Blues Pub & Kitchen on Saturday evening. This social event was sponsored by Xtech, Riddell, Dragon Seats, and USG’s longtime partner Texon. Sunday’s tradeshow included 40 football equipment vendors, and was attended by over 100 NFL Equipment Managers. USG is thankful to have nearly 90% of NFL teams supporting our Clean Out For A Cause® program that helps fund all of our programs and scholarships. Additionally, USG has had several NFL Equipment Managers participate in our USG Academy and/or Weekly Equipment Manager Book Studies hosted by USG’s Director of Donor Relations, Josh Meyer and University of Michigan Assistant Equipment Manager, Jalen Stone.

The post-modern era has brought about various challenges in the church, but none have been as pervasive and damaging as progressive Christianity. In this episode of the Uncommon Podcast, Christian apologist and author of the book Another Gospel, Alisa Childers, shares her experience with progressive Christianity, what it is, and the negative impacts it is having in churches across the world. A new episode of the Uncommon Podcast is released every two weeks. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, right here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out this week's episode, and be sure to follow our podcast to get alerts when new episodes are released! Curious about Uncommon Sports Group and what our ministry has to offer? Contact us to learn more here! Do you want to join the largest community of future Christian leaders of the college and pro sport industry? Apply to join here!

From the moment I first made a connection with USG, then Managers on a Mission at the time, I knew this was something special. The initial call I had with Seth was so rich, he was not only interested to learn more about me personally and professionally, but specifically about my spiritual journey and growth. He connected me with Mikey, who he thought would be able to better understand more closely my career aspirations as well as my background being an international student. I must admit I'm thankful for that. Mikey has been such a big help for me as a friend and brother in Christ. He has called, texted, emailed to check in, catch up, and just see how he could help, even if it was to just pray. For that, I am more than grateful. His genuineness is evident in all that he does in speech and deed. He goes above and beyond to make sure that I am good whenever we speak and almost always has a new resource or connection for me to tap into each time we talk. His commitment to being a servant of the kingdom shines through his personality and it often challenges me to be a better Christian. I remember specifically during my USG experience in Minnesota when we did our outreach mission. The passion in his prayers and his willingness to sacrifice and make time to "seek and save" was so profound.

One of the first questions I usually get asked from students is “How do I get started in the sports industry?”. As I’ve worked with more and more students, I think I’ve come to understand why students have such a difficult time getting started. For many, the sports industry is limited to their local professional sports team or perhaps even to a very specific role like General Manager or Agent. If your idea of starting in sports is running the Phoenix Suns like your personal fantasy basketball team, you’re going to struggle. It’s here that I often share how I got started in sports. My undergraduate degree is in Finance. It may come as a surprise to you that I’ve never had a finance internship. The reason for this is that I chose Finance as a major when I was 17 and didn’t really know what Finance was. All I knew was that it had the highest paying graduate salaries. As I trudged through my junior year of classes, I realized I didn’t want to work in Finance. I didn’t want to sell insurance, cold-call prospective clients, or work 80 hours a week in New York, Chicago or San Francisco, the major financial hubs of the US. Fortunately, I was also a part of the Business School Council and we held monthly meetings with professionals on campus. At one of these meetings, the women’s basketball coach, Charli Turner-Thorne, gave the best 15-minute speech I’d ever heard on leadership and developing a team. I sent her a poorly phrased email early the next morning letting her know how much I enjoyed her talk and that if she needed any help, from cleaning lockers to mailing out letters, I’d be happy to help. To my surprise, I got a response within the hour inviting me down to come and meet one of the assistant coaches. And that’s how I got started working in sports. To my surprise, they needed tall guys to help their team improve. I became a women’s basketball men’s practice player. It wasn’t glamourous. It wasn’t GM of the Suns. But it was something I was super excited about and ended up doing for three years. It’s during those three years that I was able to separate myself from others that volunteered their time. I never missed a practice. I was always willing to help before or after practice with extra drills. I even volunteered to pass out t-shirts during a game when they were short staffed. And I managed to do it all with a huge smile on my face because I believed in the organization and the coaching staff. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely already decided that you want to work in sports. That’s great. In fact, you are one step further ahead than I was at your same age. What I’d ask for you to do next is think about why you want to work in sports. Many times, students want to work in sports because they love sports. Their favorite memories are watching the game with their dad, hitting the game winning home run or maybe even just the thrill of competing and camaraderie is what draws you to sports. Those are all great things, but they aren’t why you should work in sports. In fact, playing sports, loving sports and working in sports are very different things. The reasons I’ve given for working in sports aren’t much different than wanting to be a Finance major because it pays the most and I like spending money. In fact, if you go into a job interview and say you want job X because you love team Y, I’m going to guess you won’t get the position. You’ll get the position when you start to take the approach of, I love this organization, I love the vision you’ve sent, and I will do anything you need to help bring that vision to fruition. So how do you get started working in sports? Think about the teams, the leagues, the organizations that are most in need of help. Everyone wants to work for football or basketball but not many are willing to take an elbow to the face and come back the next day with a beaming smile. Think about what jobs you’d be fired up to go to each day. It’s those jobs that will get you started and more importantly keep you going in the world of sports. I end my story by talking about my next job in sports. I spent three years helping the women’s basketball team and not once did I ask them what they could do for me. In fact, about a month before graduation, Charli asked me what I was doing when I graduated. That’s, by the way, a really painful question when you have absolutely nothing lined up. To my surprise, Charli offered to call the Director of the Sports Business MBA program on my behalf and set up an interview for me the next day. In that interview, Ray Artigue, former CMO of the Suns and Director of the program said, “Charli says you are fantastic”. Sheepishly I said, “I’m sure she says that about everyone”. His reply has stuck with me to this day. “I’ve never heard her say that about anyone”. As you can imagine, that’s not the type of thing you typically hear in an interview. And that’s how you get where you want to go in sports and in life. It’s an incredibly small community built on recommendations and relationships. How do you get started in sports? Easy. Go do something with full and complete passion and let the next steps take care of themselves. If that means working for a small D2 team, fine. If that means long commutes or extra time making things work, ok. It requires faith and perseverance but if you are in the right spot and enjoying what you are doing, the difficult times, the elbows to the face, will fly by and you’ll love every minute of it.

When we hear the word ministry, our minds jump to thinking of pastors, missionaries, and other church leaders. The common misconception is that only these individuals are truly serving in ministry. In this episode of the Uncommon Podcast, the Assistant Director of Sports Ministry at Baylor University's George W. Truett Seminary, Paul Putz, challenges this narrative and encourages sport industry professionals that it is not only possible to do ministry in the sport industry, but necessary. A new episode of the Uncommon Podcast is released every two weeks. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, right here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out this week's episode, and be sure to follow our podcast to get alerts when new episodes are released! Curious about Uncommon Sports Group and what our ministry has to offer? Contact us to learn more here! Do you want to join the largest community of future Christian leaders of the college and pro sport industry? Apply to join here!

Change is inevitable in life. The difference is some are planned and others are not. For six years, I was the Director of Equipment Services for the Houston Texans. I worked very hard to get to that position and life was good. In all, I was with the Texans for 13 years. I had become close with the owner and his family. Two years prior, I had been told that I was a model employee. I met with my Supervisor during the bye week of the 2020 season and he told me that me and my staff should be put on contracts and see salary increases because of how good of a job we were doing. However, I am a very self-aware person and I picked up on signals from my Supervisor that told me his actions weren't matching his words. I stayed up at nights thinking my dreams were about to be taken away. So, I started praying to God for guidance. He told me to eliminate any debt that I had so finances wouldn't be a burden. I was in the process of fulfilling a dream of purchasing my mom a house. He told me to continue. Eight days after closing on my mom's house, we were all informed that we were being let go and they were going in a different direction. A lot of emotions went through my head as I was being told this. But I looked the guy in his eyes and I said Good Luck and walked away from an organization that I poured so much into. I was hurt. I sacrificed so much for the organization for so long. Immediately, I was thinking about my next employment opportunity. Then God spoke to me. He said "Remember all the things you've wanted to do but you didn't have time?" Luckily, I was on contract and was given severance. So why rush into another opportunity? Let's take a year off and recalibrate. So I listened to God and for the last year, I have been doing just that and it's been the best thing to happen to me. Here are some things that have helped me during this unexpected transition: HAVE FAITH True faith is having no fear of the unknown. Faith is key to everything I do in my life. Being a life-long Christian, I put everything in God's hands and trust that HE has control. It doesn't hurt that my track record with God is pretty good as well. Everytime there has been a change in my life, God has elevated the next opportunity. We can be disobedient sometimes. So when an unplanned change happens, it is God forcing change. I'm a very loyal person. The truth is I was unhappy with my past situation and was contemplating moving on. Knowing me, I would have stayed there and endured the anguish because of my loyalty. God did me a favor and got me out of there with some financial cushion. Walk by faith and not by sight! Your mental health will be so much better when you live by those words. People say I'm always positive but the truth is I have faith. SUPPLEMENTAL INCOMES One thing that I learned over the years is that you don't have to make a lot of money to invest in the stock market or other endeavours. God blessed me financially enough where I was able to take a percentage of my monthly income and put it into the stock market. I met with a financial advisor and we set a plan for each month. Basically my money was working for me and required none of my time. However, I didn't just stop with that. I opened up two accounts with the firm that allowed me to manage one on my own - basically daytrading. During the pandemic, I capitalized on this with significant gains. My job didn't require as much of my time because we were on lockdown. So I spent most of my time studying pharmaceutical companies that I believe would be on the forefront of vaccines and it paid off. Now I have financial ammo if I ever need it. This also helps take a lot of stress off your shoulders because you are not worried about finances. FIND A HOBBY I always tell people to not let their job title or job define the person you are. Your job can be your passion but do not let it be your life. There is a huge difference. Passion is something you enjoy and love. If it is your life, you can't live without it and when it is taken away it could lead to some serious mental health issues. That is why I think it is important to find a hobby outside of your profession. Over the years, I picked up the game of golf. I love golf for many reasons. Some of my close friends were met on the golf course and we have traveled playing many different courses around the country. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to master the game of golf. It is very humbling. You think you have it figured it out and the next day you feel like you have never played it before. Golf has been important to me during this transition. I have been able to reach my goal of breaking 80. Something I thought I would never do because I was always busy. I play four rounds a week minimum if weather permits. It allows me to remain competitive and it takes my mind off negative things. For me, golf is a battle against myself. I have played 40 different golf courses throughout the country since I’ve been let go. I also enjoy live music. I was able to go to Red Rocks Amphitheatre and see a concert. I also attended Rolling Loud in Miami. All these events occur during times I wouldn't have been able to attend because of football. TRAVEL I love to travel. My job required a lot of travel. I never got to enjoy it because we were on a mission to win a ballgame. I had a lot of stress on me because road games are a lot of work for the Equipment Manager. You have to account for every scenario that pops up and you need a solution to it. "We didn't bring it" is not an acceptable answer. Being an Equipment Manager in the NFL, you miss out on a lot of things. Holidays and important life events of loved ones are a few to name. So when I got let go, I made the decision to take a year off to travel and enjoy life. The very next day after I got fired I was hunting in south Texas. Five days later, I was in Miami on a plane to Brazil. I spent nine days in Brazil and absolutely loved the experience. When you travel, you get to experience other cultures and gain a greater appreciation of God's creations. Two weeks after I got back from there, I was in Scottsdale playing golf and in Lake Tahoe visiting friends. I spent a month in Miami golfing in the region. I also went to Myrtle Beach and did a lot of golfing. This helps to take your mind off of not having a job and allows you to enjoy the freedom of not being on someone else's schedule. RECONNECT WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS The greatest benefit of being off this football season has been being able to reconnect with my family and friends that I haven't seen in years. One disadvantage of working in the NFL is that you miss all the Fall holidays. I was able to be with my family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Something I haven't done in 20 years. I was able to be home for my Mom's 77th birthday in October. Truth is we don't know how many more of these we will get in life so I'm grateful that God gave me this opportunity. I have young nieces and nephews who didn't really get to see me as much except a couple of times a year. They actually know who I am! I was able to see my college roommates coach my high school football team to a win. I haven't been able to see my high school play a game in so long and it was even more special that my friends are the head coach and offensive coordinator. Trust me that you will find out who your real friends are when you are no longer in a position that can help them. There are perks to being "friends" with a person with a high profile job. I was able to attend my sister's wedding on New Year's Eve in Memphis. I grew up most of my life not knowing my father. In 2010, my brother found me on Facebook and we have connected since then. However, I had other siblings I have never met. I was able to meet them at the wedding. So when things happen to you in life that are perceived as "negative", always remember that God has a plan and always knows what is best for you. Truth is you might discover that you don't want to go back to that previous occupation and find something more conducive to your current new way of life. God bless!

“I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar, about which I tell you in advance - as I told you before - that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control.” Galatians 5:16-23a The more we abide in God’s word, the more we can sense the Spirit’s work in our lives. It’s easy to act in opposing ways to the Spirit and respond in our fleshly ways when we are not spending as much time reading the Bible, praying, or in fellowship with other Christians. These verses are convincing and encouraging. They paint a black and white picture of how life looks when we live full of the Holy Spirit vs when we live influenced by the world and our human desires. The desires of the flesh are all selfish and deserving of punishment under the law, thankfully our gracious Savior Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for all those sins and took on the penalty of the law for all humanity. This does not give us freedom to give in to these desires, it gives us grace when we do. As we grow deeper in our relationship with the Lord, the desires of our hearts change and we begin to look more like Christ and we take on His characteristics, or fruit of the Spirit, in verses 22-23a. “Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:23b I think this is the most powerful sentence in this passage. There are so many laws, regulations, and consequences for selfish actions and following the desires of the flesh. But there is no law, or in other words, there is freedom when we live in full fellowship with Jesus and bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as a witness to Him. When we experience the fullness of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, that’s when we experience the fullness of God, who He is, and who He created us to be. As sport industry professionals there are many unique challenges, temptations and fleshly traps that are easy to fall into. What fleshly things do you find yourself desiring and being tempted to follow - status, money, success, wins, etc.? What fruit of the Spirit seems most lacking in your life right now? As the Lord to give you strength to deny your fleshly desires and pray the fruit of the Spirit over yourself

When Hans Malebranche heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was in the midst of a sales meeting. Years later, Hans faithfully follows Jesus as he serves in college athletics as an administrator. In this episode of the Uncommon Podcast, Hans shares his powerful and unlikely testimony that forever changed the trajectory of his life. A new episode of the Uncommon Podcast is released every two weeks. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, right here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. Check out this week's episode, and be sure to follow our podcast to get alerts when new episodes are released! Curious about Uncommon Sports Group and what our ministry has to offer? Contact us to learn more here! Do you want to join the largest community of future Christian leaders of the college and pro sport industry? Apply to join here!

Jesus is the worst salesman in history. Salesmen are naturally a little sneaky, and tell a lie or two to get you hooked on what they’re trying to sell. Jesus, on the other hand, didn’t refrain from being brutally honest- sharing the full truth, and nothing but the truth. The truth of the matter is that Jesus wasn’t trying to sell anything. He was letting us know what it would cost to follow Him, and it would be up to us if we wanted to get on the bandwagon. This is what I love about Jesus. He’s honest. He admits that it won’t be easy. He admits that we will face trouble in this world. He admits that we need Him. In this blog, I want to share why Jesus’ price of admission isn’t cheap, but it costs us everything. Jesus’ Cost The gift of salvation is exactly that, a gift. It is one hundred percent free. We are saved by grace, through faith (Ephesians 2:8). However, the price of following Jesus is much more costly. Don’t believe me? Jesus said it himself. In Luke 18, Jesus is approached by a certain ruler who asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him the basic commandments of the law, and the ruler replies by saying “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus replies again by saying, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The ruler heard this and became sad, because he was wealthy. We read this story and are baffled as to why this ruler wasn’t willing to lay it all down to follow the King of Kings. But, we are forgetting that humans desire comfort more than we would like to admit. We strive and seek comfort and ease in our lives. This ruler had it all. He was comfortable and wealthy and giving up his wealth meant forfeiting that comfort. Following Jesus isn’t comfortable, and we can’t expect comfortable lives when we choose to follow Christ. Jesus elaborates further on the cost of choosing to follow Him earlier in Luke’s gospel: “Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters- yes, even their own life- such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”- Luke 14:25-27 The first thing to note about this passage is that Jesus is not, and I repeat is not, commanding us to hate our families. Jesus often used hyperbole to get his point across. Remember when he advised that we should gouge our eyes out if they cause us to stumble (Matthew 5:29)? We can’t always take what Jesus is saying literally. Instead, Jesus uses the word “hate” in this context to emphasize the fact that if we are to commit our lives to Him, we must be ready and able to leave behind family and comfortable living. Many Muslim families take their religion very seriously, and if a Muslim decided that he/she was going to follow Jesus and deny the pillars of Islam, that person would possibly be cut off from their family. That is quite the price to pay in order to follow Jesus, but what is so amazing about Jesus is that He tells us the cost upfront, no gimmicks. The second part of this passage is when Jesus gets real. He commands us to carry our own cross and follow Him. Notice that He doesn’t say “carry your duffle bag full of one hundred dollar bills”. A cross is a torture device, the same one that Jesus hung on. What Jesus is saying by commanding us to carry our cross is that we need to be ready to face hardship, and even death, for choosing to walk faithfully with Him. The question we need to ask ourselves is are we ready to face such suffering? Jesus’ Followers One of the more interesting passages of Scripture is Acts 9:16, in which Jesus says this to Ananias: “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” Jesus is talking about Paul, formerly Saul, whom He had just appeared to on the Damascus road. Jesus wasn’t going to shower Paul with blessings, but rather was going to show Him the suffering he would endure for following Him. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul says this: “...I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have gone without food; I have been cold and naked.”- 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 It is true that Paul suffered greatly in the name of Jesus. During his second imprisonment, Roman emperor Nero ordered that Paul be beheaded. Paul lived a life of suffering, but for a purpose far greater than the temporal pleasures of comfort and riches. The Lord Jesus used Paul’s miraculous conversion from persecutor to believer and His ministry efforts to influence thousands, if not millions of Christians, to pursue a relationship with Christ. That is worth dying for. Paul was not the only first century follower of Christ to face intense suffering and persecution for his faith in Christ. In AD 66, the Apostle Peter was crucified upside down on a cross, at his own request because he did not feel worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord. Andrew, Peter’s brother, preached the gospel in present day Russia, Asia Minor, modern day Turkey, and Greece, where he was crucified. The disciple Thomas was killed when he was pierced by the spears of four soldiers in Syria. Philip preached the gospel in North Africa and Asia Minor, where he converted a Roman proconsul's wife to faith. He was killed by the proconsul. Jesus wasn’t kidding when He stated that His followers must carry their cross, and we are not exempt from that reality. Why Pay the Price? There are a lot of “fans” of Jesus, but a whole lot less are actually His followers. Fans enjoy Jesus and respect Him, but they aren’t quite ready to give up the comfort and ease of life to follow Him. Fans are a lot like the rich ruler from Luke 18. He was a fan of Jesus and was curious of how he could have eternal life, but when the rubber met the road, he wasn’t willing to lay it all on the line. Jesus’ earliest followers, on the other hand, were more than ready to lay it on the line. They left comfort, ease, riches, family, and friends behind to preach the gospel of their Lord Jesus Christ and ended up paying a high price for that choice. But, what benefit is there to laying everything down to follow Jesus? This is the question that we must understand and we must hold fast to the answer. The reality of life is this: Christian or not, you will face hardship, challenges, and eventually, death. Why not have Jesus on your side? Yes, you may have to give up the temporary comforts of this world or your fleshly desires, but a relationship with Christ is far more valuable. Jesus answers the fundamental questions of life, the ones that matter. Who am I? I am a Child of God (John 1:12). Why am I here? Because we have a commission to share the good news of God’s grace to all through Christ Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20). What is life all about? Bringing glory and honor to God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Do I have value? Through Christ Jesus, we have immense value (Romans 5:8). These questions provide hope that life is not merely limited to pleasure and experience, but that it finds its ultimate purpose and fulfillment in our Creator God. This is why we have joy, the same joy that Jesus said would be given unto His disciples (John 15:11). Let’s talk about your value. The truth of the matter is, if God doesn't exist, then you are just as valuable as a rock. You are nothing more than an accident of nature. But, what value do we have in Jesus? You know how valuable something is by what you are willing to pay for it. Jesus paid an immeasurable price at the cross, to bring you and I back to the Father. We can know that we have an immeasurable value because of the price that God was willing to pay to bring us back to Him. Jesus said it Himself in Matthew 10:31, “So don’t be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.” Conclusion I will never forget Saturday afternoons in the fall at Notre Dame stadium as a kid. Nothing, and I mean nothing, beat sitting on the cold bench with my Dad to watch the Irish. Despite the steep cost of admission, my Dad would always take my brother and I to a game. Similar to overpriced football tickets, Jesus asks His followers to pay a costly price. The disciples lost their families, their friends, and often their lives. The Christian life isn’t about “blessings”. God’s greatest blessing is inviting us to follow Him, to serve Him, to love Him, to glorify Him. It will cost us, but through Jesus’ death on the cross, we find our purpose for being alive and our value, which is immeasurable. Is Jesus worth the price of admission? Without question.

Welcome, once again, to our Managers on a Mission Throwback Blog series! Uncommon Sports Group was once known as Managers on a Mission and provided student managers the opportunity to participate in domestic service projects and international mission trips. Adam Short attended our 2017 Mission Trip to Rafiki Villiage outside Jos, Nigeria. He shared what he learned about the Lord's forgiveness. Read more to learn more about how the Lord worked in Adam's life and the lives of the rest of the team. As I nervously prepared for my first day of teaching Principle #3, “Holy Sweat/Wholly Surrender”, at the Rafiki Village outside of Jos, Nigeria, I came to a stark realization. The reason I was nervous had nothing to do with bringing glory to God or positively impacting the children and teenagers at Rafiki. It had everything to do with my own ego and insecurities. Here I was preparing to discuss the differences between walking in the spirit and walking in the flesh, and I was totally consumed with my own flesh. I was nervous because I wanted the kids, who at this point we had already grown quite close with, to think I was intelligent and cool and even, at some level, to think I was the best teacher out of our group. It was at this point that I kneeled on the floor, literally put my face on the concrete floor of my bedroom in our guest house, and, with tears in my eyes, prayed to the Father, asking for forgiveness for the sin in my heart and the insecurity that was dwelling inside me. The message of “Holy Sweat/Wholly Surrender was an incredible lesson, but it would fall totally flat if coming from me. It would mean absolutely nothing if it came from the sinful heart of this man. It could only hold value if it came from the Holy Spirit, who is living inside any follower of Christ. The Holy Spirit was with me as I led our principal that day and the lessons of Holy Sweat/Wholly Surrender seemed to have a lasting effect on the students as God used this sinful man to teach about disciplining ourselves in the relentless pursuit to walk with Christ. That lesson, this realization that Christ put in my life that morning, changed my entire experience in Nigeria and has stuck with me as I’ve come back to my life in Ohio. I wish I could write about every experience I had at Rafiki over the two weeks I was blessed to be there, but, like all my brothers and sisters from MOAM, that would take an endless amount of words. I will forget many of these things as time takes me away from those two weeks. The mindset, though, will never leave me. That mindset was that every conversation, every prayer, every lesson, every second that Ashton, Marea, Drew, and myself had with those incredible kids was to bring glory to our Father and be a reflection of Christ’s love. “I love you” in Hausa is “Ina son ka” (ka/ki/ku depending on the context). After about nine days at the village, it was something we started hearing all the time and that we started to say back. It was in every letter that the kids gave me when I left. And it wasn’t just words to be cute or friendly. I absolutely love those Rafiki kids in Nigeria and will always have a very special place in my heart for them. God Bless Rafiki, God Bless MOAM, and God Bless my brothers and sisters in Nigeria. Adam Short To God be the Glory! Thanks, Adam! We're grateful for your thoughts and experiences. If you'd like to know more about USG or would like to get in touch, please contact us. We'd love to hear from you. If you'd like to be involved in USG's programs, join today! We'd love to talk with you about your goals, faith, and aspirations. Thank you for your time, and God bless!

Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season, an often misunderstood and abused seasonal gift, in our walks as followers of Christ, that in many cases has become a legalistic norm. Having not grown up in a Christian home, and having a misconstrued comprehension of the Lenten season as a whole, I sought to find out more from authors and pastors about the vitality of the Lenten season, its purpose for us as Christians and how it can be transformational in our personal walks with Christ. The Lenten season has been observed by God’s people for thousands of years, to reorient Christians with a vantage point of understanding Jesus’ suffering, and sacrificial death on the cross. Lent consists of forty days plus an additional six Sundays, that later culminates in Easter with a focus on Jesus’ resurrection and the ensuing celebration of Jesus being risen and the gift of salvation that we as Christians have through Jesus’ finished work on the cross! There is often a component to giving up something for the Lenten season, that in many cases is something that distracts or distorts us from our awareness of the Lord’s presence. When we desire to embrace what we have given up during this season, the hope would be that we would press into Jesus’ suffering for our sins, and be drawn into the transformational power of the good news, and not embrace what we have given up. It is not about giving up something in particular, for our own selfish ambition or self glory, but in this season of giving something up, we are to abide in Christ, grow in Him, and let Him transform our hearts. Ask yourself a question like this in the coming weeks: How will you reorient your heart during this Lenten season, to remember the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins? My hope is that as we move towards Easter, that God would transform our hearts where you and I would rejoice in Jesus’ resurrection, in our personal relationship with Him and in the gift of salvation! Lent is a gift for all Christians that prepares our hearts for Jesus' resurrection and if you have not embraced the Lenten season previously, I want to encourage you to give it a try. I am excited to see how the Lord works in you, and what He does through you as we make our way towards Easter or “Holy Sunday”, April 17th, 2022.