Dear Coach,

On April 16 I attended the Tabor College Invitational Track Meet in Hillsboro, Kansas. My daughter is a senior at Tabor and is a member of their track team.

She ran on the 4 x 800 relay team and then ran the 5000 meter race. She developed a side ache during the race and did not run well. After the race she was crying because she was so disappointed. I was talking to her, trying to console her. A young man from the RHEMA team came up and knelt down beside her and told her she did a good job because she finished the race.

Please share this letter with him and tell him how much we both appreciated the extra kindness he showed my daughter. I told her that is the difference between Christians and the rest of the world. She said all the members of the RHEMA team were really friendly.

May God bless all the members of your team. They are making a difference.

Although this letter was written in 2003, it sums up what RHEMA Athletics is all about: sharing the love of Christ. Whether it’s on the basketball court, on the golf course, or in a restaurant after a game or match, the athletes use their platform as an opportunity to share the Gospel with those around them.

At the conclusion of one season, Coach Shockley took his team to an amusement park as a reward for the effort his team had put forth that season. While his team was there enjoying the rides, one player led 12 people to the Lord. Other testimonies have come as athletes led their waiters and waitresses to the Lord, and golfers shared their faith with their playing competitors on the golf course. The athletes also minister in a juvenile detention center and a children’s hospital.

A former dean of RBTC once said,

“We have always believed in giving our students the opportunity to develop the whole person. Athletics is one avenue that provides our students with that possibility. The athletics program does not compete with the spiritual training they receive at RHEMA; rather, it provides them with opportunities to learn the discipline and commitment necessary to be successful in life and ministry.”