They knew our names...

[Brad Fox]

 

There was an unusual high school football game played in Grapevine, Texas .
The game was between Grapevine Faith Academy and the Gainesville State
School .  Faith is a Christian school and Gainesville State School is
located within a maximum security correction facility.

Gainesville State School has 14 players. They play every game on the  road.
Their record was 0-8. They've only scored twice. Their 14 players  are
teenagers who have been convicted of crimes ranging from drugs to assault to
robbery. Most had families who had disowned them.  They wore  outdated, used
shoulder pads and helmets. Faith Academy was 7-2. They  had 70 players, 11
coaches, and the latest equipment.

Chris Hogan, the head coach at Faith Academy , knew the Gainesville team
would have no fans and it would be no contest, so he thought, "What if half
of our fans and half of our cheerleaders, for one night only,  cheered for
the other team?"  He sent out an email to the faithful asking them to do
just that. "Here's the message I want you to send,"  Hogan wrote. "You're
just as valuable as any other person on the   planet."

Some folks were confused and thought he was nuts. One player said,  "Coach,
why are we doing this?" Hogan said, "Imagine you don't have a home life, no
one to love you, no one pulling for you. Imagine that everyone pretty much
had given up on you. Now, imagine what it would  feel like and mean to you
for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

The idea took root. On the night of the game, imagine the surprise of  those
14 players when they took the field and there was a banner the  cheerleaders
had made for them to crash through. The visitors' stands were full. The
cheerleaders were leading cheers for them. The fans were  calling them by
their names. Isaiah, the quarterback-middle linebacker said, "I never in my
life thought I would hear parents cheering to  tackle and hit their kid.
Most of the time, when we come out, people are  afraid of us. You can see it
in their eyes, but these people are yelling  for us. They knew our names."

Faith won the game, and after the game the teams gathered at the 50-yard
line to pray. That's when Isaiah, the teenage convict-quarterback surprised
everybody and asked if he could pray.   he prayed, "Lord, I  don't know what
just happened so I don't know how or who to say thank  you to, but I never
knew there were so many people in the world who cared about us."  On the way
back to the bus, under guard, each one of  the players was handed a burger,
fries, a coke, candy, a Bible, and an  encouraging letter from the players
from Faith Academy ...

What an incredible act of Christian witness and kindness and goodness  that
was.  Proverbs 11:17 says, "Your own soul is nourished when you are  kind."
Proverbs 3:27 says, "Do not withhold good when it is in your  power to act."

 



 

Be kind to someone this week. Be kind to every person you meet. You might be
amazed at what God will do with a simple act of kindness.