The Bible, The Gospel & Jesus are not Quarantined!

We are certainly living in unusual times.  What’s normal?  As we all know well, the COVID-19 Pandemic has impacted some more drastically than others.  The world of sports has been brought to a grinding halt.  Like many others, our AIA staff have resorted and relied on the various digital platforms.  It’s incredible to see how this adaption has opened doors.  Praise the Lord!  Because of availability we are building deeper relationships with others we have already been working with and the busy schedules aren’t as much of a barrier prior to COVID-19.  

As we continue to persevere through the COVID-19 pandemic, I have been so inspired the last several months as we watched how our AIA co-workers quickly adapted to these unparalleled times and have been thinking of innovative ways to keep our mission moving forward.

One of these initiatives is UTC EVERY -- a unique virtual experience hosted by the AIA Ultimate Training Camp for EVERY athlete, EVERY sport, in EVERY location. It is designed to challenge the participant on their view of how God, life, and sport are connected using five Biblical Principles, interactive activities, and guided small group communities. 

Typically we host Ultimate Training camps in four locations each summer around the country for college athletes, but because of the current circumstances we had to cancel these events. This new initiative is allowing us to expose more athletes around the world to this curriculum. We had 714 campers/athletes registered and 27 different countries represented!

PRAISE: The technology worked for the mass amounts of participants.

PRAISE God used the event to draw the participants to Himself despite it being a virtual event.

PRAISE The creativity of the small group leaders as they connected with the athletes in their groups.

Coaches Guard Goes Down

Over the years, our Men’s Basketball staff have crisscrossed the country attending games, practices, and often having superficial conversations with high level coaches with the hope that one day the door would be open to go deeper into their lives. Well that day has come! Since their season abruptly ended and they are unable to work with their teams, many of these basketball coaches are open to having in-depth conversations about their personal and spiritual growth. Several of our staff are hosting small group video calls and are experiencing a vulnerability of these coaches they haven’t experienced before!