Every Athlete, Every Country

With Cesar Jimenez, at Agape conference

Dear prayer warriors,

Last week we had an incredible time during the Agape (CCC) Spain annual conference. We drove as a family from Malaga to Platja d’Aro, Girona, over 800 miles, stopping in Madrid to spend the night and say hello to the family.

The conference, under the theme: “Called”, gather not only staff at the different ministries with Agape including AIA, but associates and volunteers and friends from our movements. 

Abraham, Pablo & Noemi, Tony & Eli, Arnau, Gala, Cesar, Jessie, Michael... We had an owesome group of a new generation for Athletes in Action. It was neat to see them listen to speakers like Javier, Felix, Natan or Edi, all of them at national or area leadership roles with Agape, but former AIA leaders.

Jesus really ministered and touched our hearts and minds. You can celebrate and pray with us that some of them are confirming their call relating to serving the Lord with AIA different ways.

Today, Lidia, our children and my in laws left me at the airport in Madrid and hit then the road to Malaga. I travel to Orlando, to join 45 Athletes in Action leaders from around the world for our Global LIFE Summit and for the International Sports Coalition ACE Conference with 650 delegates from over 120 countries. 

I’m looking forward to our time together with our dear brothers and sisters.  In addition to our AIA leaders the first days, we will also have several ministry LIFE partners joining us as well.  These are men and women who God has led to join us by giving their Life, Influence, Finance & Expertise.  It will be a true joy to be with them.

• Please, pray for Lidia while I’m away:
• For strengh, wisdom and stamina to deal with our 3 little ones.
• For health and protection for all of them.

• Please pray for AIA corporately that God would lead us as we:
• Seek Him through extended times of prayer, sharing and time in His word
• Hear more about our global direction as a global family around our vision to see Christ-followers on every team, in every sport in every country
• Strategize around 3 key initiatives of country growth, our efforts surrounding the Olympics and how to effectively use our strategies such as sports teams to build local spiritual movements

• Please pray specifically for our ACE time too:
• God would give us a great time of being together during this awesome networking and strategic planning gathering.
• God would lead me as I lead and network with many others.
• Please pray for divine appointments and confirmation forward as relates to Road2London 2012 preparations.
• Pray for this time to be of great vision and encouragement to Chris Hughes from Oxford, Wouter and Jonathan from Holland and David & Ellen from Spain whom will be there as well from our area

Thanks so much for praying for us.  Lidia, Samuel, Josué, Lucia and I truly appreciate it. OneTeam with you in Jesus until the nets are full with Christ followers in every team, sport & nation,

Rubén, Lidia, Samuel, Josué & Lucía

On you Knees | October & Novenber 2011

Dear prayer warriors,

Thanks for your renewed care and support and for joining arms as one team. Let's stay toon and sharp "on our knees". Here's some "food" for your intercession. 

Please hold specially Lidia and the kids in your prayers. For Lidia's strength and safety for all of them, as I will be lots travelling until the end of November.

Knock hard on heaven's doors!

• Pray for our visit in Barcelona next October 13-15. Abraham and I will meet with Julio Pérez, Pastor at Betania Church, who's partnering with HBE as host in Barcelona and his leaders, and with Jonathan, Michael & Jouke (AIA Netherlands) & Eduardo Souto (Agape Spain), preparing the way for 2 stint girls from Holland coming to Barcelona (Francine & Jessie)

• Pray for our AIA Spain team meeting at Agape Spain annual conference next Oct 28-Nov1 in Girona.

• Pray for our AIA European and global delegates at International Sports Coalition ACE (Athletes, Cities and Events) Nov 9-15, and AIA Int'l meetings Nov 6-8, both at Orlando. Pray for safety, the sacrificed families, and productive strategic and partnership developments.

• Pray for significant outcomes for synergy and development as many AIA leaders will be representing their national leadership teams gathered at Agape Europe RT Forum, next November 15-19 in Girona as well.

• Pray for Abraham (2nd year) and Pablo, interns with AIA IN Malaga, their development and confirmation as potential staff.

• Pray for AIA consolidation in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, UK, Greece & Italy.

• Pray for the steering and design teams that have will be advancing AIA European and globL involvement at HeartBeat Tallinn and Road2London.

• Pray for the HBE projects in several European cities fully in motion already some of them. Pray for the Dutch stints that are in application for Barcelona, Rome and London.

To Seoul, Korea, tomorrow!

Dear prayer warriors,

Thanks so much for your prayers.  Lidia, me and West European family of Athletes in Action truly appreciate them.  Tomorrow, I will head to Korea, to meet with the Global Leadership Council of Athletes in Action.  This is the team that Lidia and I have the privilege of serving with as the group leads the strategic future of Athletes in Action.  We meet twice a year.

The focus of our time will be:

*   To seek God's face together for the future of our ministry.  We will be spending 2 days praying on the mountains of Korea, one of those days will be in the DMZ as we look into a closed country and seek God's face for what part He wants Athletes in Action to play in reaching closed countries.

   *   Please pray that we would seek God well together, we would hear His direction for us, and we would worship Him together in spirit and in truth.

*   Continue to refine our strategy to reach our vision of seeing, Christ-followers on every team, in every sport in every nation.  Our GLC has identified 30 countries that we will have an intentional focus on over the next 2 years.  We are hoping to come out of our time in Korea with a clearer sense of what we will need to do to reach these countries.

   *   Please pray for God's wisdom as His plans are beyond ours.  Pray that we would be willing to have our faith stretched and do the work of planning, preparing and implementing.

*   To be a blessing to the ministry in Korea, both AIA and CCC, and some of our leaders from other countries in the region.  We will have  a special time with the Taekwondo in Action team on Sunday, Seoul Campus team on Monday, and AIA leaders from East Asia, Mongolia and Singapore through out the week.

   *   Please pray for hearts to encourage and serve our dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.

In addition to these things I would ask that you would pray for Lidia and I personally.  As I leave tomorrow. Please pray for her as she takes care of the kids by herself while I am gone.  Please also pray for me that God would grant me wisdom as I seek the Lord and seek to implement His direction for us.

Lidia and I are so thankful that we can team up with you to serve this family in Europe and worldwide that we get to serve.  We are thankful for each of you that pray for us, encourage us and support us.  Thanks for praying.

Until the nets are full,

Rubén & Lidia

"The Coaching Workshop -How to Empower Others by Integrating Coaching Skills into Your Leadership Style-"

You may remember Ruben has taken some training to use Life Coaching with professional sports people as a way of serving them and engaging with their felt needs.

Life Coaching is a new concept for most people in general, but particularly in the world of sports and is working as a great means of what is our calling and longing as we seek to see transformation and Christ followers and spiritual movements everywhere.

Let me share a definition of Coaching from a Christian perspective by Keith E. Webb, that may help you understand more of what we mean and do with this: “Coaching is an on-going intentional conversation that empowers a person or group to fully live out God’s calling”.

Yesterday I led six hours of a seminar called "The Coaching Workshop -How to Empower Others by Integrating Coaching Skills into Your Leadership Style-" in Madrid in partnership with MEZZO music ministry with ten leaders from all over Spain who work with artists and musicians. Today we will finish with another six hours. Feedback yesterday night was excellent. Please join us on your knees for a journey of learning and praxis today that serves their needs and resources them ahead.

Lidia and the kids are doing great. Samuel and Josué are enjoying their new season at school and Lucia misses them every morning and searches for them climbing to every item at home you would or wouldn't imagine :-)!

Mission Vilnius 2011

http://www.athletesinaction.eu/totalathleteacademy/vilnius2011


Almost 50 AIA and Agape/CCC staff and volunteers, students, coaches, athletes and other sport influencers from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Rusia, Ukraine, Poland,  Czech Republic, Germany, Spain & Holland, gathered last week for Mission Vilnius.

(1) Doug Pollock, evangelist with almost 3 de decades of international experience with AIA (GodsGPS.com, author of God Space), (2) helping the local Agape Student ministry reach out their future leaders, (3) editing and producing a first ever Sports New Testament, Give me the Rock 2 DVD and Meet my Head Coach brochure in Lithuanian, (4) and the city hosting the second round of the FIBA EuroBasket (the largest sport event in Europe this year) where our key ingredients to this AIA Western Europe Total Athlete Academy project.

Many participants say this has been the best training experience they've ever had. Doug has challenged participants hearts and motives with the Word, and dynamically resources and empower everyone's toolbox for beyond methods, but a lifestyle of engagement and belonging with the Lost, as a Christ follower.

Everyday people have gone on small groups and pairs to university faculties, the main opened and populated sites of Vilnius to seek to engage on spiritual conversations, serve with humble acts of kindness, seeking to advance the kingdom God's speed and where he's at already.

Ruben Fernandez, our area coordinator who God has entrusted many relations to the Spanish Federation's players, coaches, officials... Got free tickets for many of the games and this helped the experienced AIA staff like Brook, Doug, Brad and others expose the rookies to apply what learnt with Doug to divine appointments, acts of kindness and serving the people of sports perspective.

Brad Bartz, working with Ruben at AIA west Europe coordination and the point leader for the Baltics is still in Lithuania, travelling with Renata, Agape National Leader to follow up key contacts that along with those who came to Mission Vilnius we'd like to keep serving and challenging together to steer movements that matter everywhere.

Thanks for teaming up with us. Press "on your knees" until the European nets are full.

[OYK] for the upcoming months...

• Appointments for project preparation and summer camps in April and May

• AIA Track & Field Tour to the Canary Islands. May 1-10

• NCAA Volleyball team I Tour to Riga, Latvia from June 16 to 30 (still to be confirmed)
• Basketball Campus Sport + Daniel Santiago in Madrid, June 24 to 30
• Basketball Sport + Campus Villa de Frigiliana Malaga, July 2 to 10
• U20 Men's European Basketball Championship in Bilbao, July 14 to 16
• Agape Europe Leadership Training (AESTC) in Ligondé, July 14-August 13
• AIA European Academy Basketball - Big Men Camp. Klaipeda, Lithuania, August 8 to 11
• AIA European Academy Basketball - Big Men Camp. Zwol, Netherlands, August 8 to 11
• Council Meeting ECSU. Altenkirchen, Germany. August 25
• Training Leaders of European Sports Ministers (ESLT). Altenkirchen, Germany. August 22 to 26
• Total European Athlete AIA Academy - EuroBasket HeartBeat Forum. Vilnius, Lithuania. September 7 to 12

On Your Knees [OYK] March 2011

Beloved friends and partners,

I´m writing you from Colorado Springs, where spring has come with great variety of temperature. Yesterday, sunny and hail. Today a dusting of snow then a bit of sun to send it away, much to the earth's enjoyment.

Lidia, Samuel, Josué and Lucía send their love. Lidia is exhausted after each day but is a happy and radient wife and mother. Samuel is finishing up his last year of preschool. He turns 5 in December. He discovered a passion for basketball like his parents in Basketball School (Escuela de Baloncesto) that we've restarted in church. Josué really enjoys kindergarten and is already a young man. He turns three in August. Lucía is constantly learning and soaking up things from her brothers. She chases them and tries to emulate them during play time. She crawls around and loves to be on her feet; whether with a guiding hand or all by herself. Her strength and long dark hair makes it hard to believe that she just turned 9 months.


I enjoy this precious family that God has entrusted to me and I keep seeking to depend on Him every day to honor Him in everything. It's not always easy, is it?

The Lord has blessed us these past few months with what appears to be the beginning of a team effort for the work of AIA in Málaga and for Spain as a whole, with the calling of "men and women of Macedonia" from all of Europe. 

Between January and February, I was able to visit Giannis Anastasiou and family in Thesolanica, as well as James and Alexandra and family in London. I was also able to meet up with Jacques Iyizire of Oslo, Javier García of Barcelona and have been in communication with Ross Stowers of Agape Italy. All have been making deliberate moves to join with AIA/Agape and lay the foundation for the development of ministry in their countries. Thanks for praying for them and for God's protection and direction for their lives and faith projects. Include Gunita and Arturs an Riga, Renata in Vilnius and Riina in Tallinn in your prayers as well.

From Feb. 7-10 I was able to set up a training for trainers of CRM, to be able to officially give a coaching seminar directed toward those that want to use tools and skills of coaching. Up until now I continue coaching with various people, some of whom are from the sports world. Pray that I might be able to grow my skills and experiences as well as serve as a means to help people open doors to the sports world.

From February 20 through March 5 we've did a pioneer project that we're just thrilled about. We believe that is a window to the future so we press on with faith and hope. As a result of their positive experience with the European Campus of high performers last year in Barcelona, the Dutch federation has requested that help their young female talent program to come on tour to Spain. We, as well as CTO Amsterdam, the federation and the distinct individuals that have received them are all very grateful. We've had many wonderful opportunities to sow seeds and share. 

From March 5-11 I was in Yaoundé, Camaroon with the global leadership of Athletes in Action (AIA GLC), of which I form a part as the Western Europe Coordinator. I was a wonderful time not of prayer, sharing and continuing to define the vision and future of AIA, but also of sharing with young leaders of the area (Mali, Togo, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Liberia, Chad, Ethiopia and Camaroon) to encourage and support them.

We were able to accompany Silas and the AIA Camaroon team with the introduction of projects in collaboration with the National Institute of Teachers and Coaches Training and the Ministry of Sports in that country. Larry Amundson was able to give a talk on sports and character to more than 1200 students in which he shared the gospel in a relevant way. His message was well-received. Among other things, I was able to give a basketball clinic to 60 of some of the best coaches and students of physical education and basketball in Camaroon. This clinic has opened door to do much more with them. Thanks to Raúl and Eduardo de Pablo we were able to take along Lining gear from the Spanish Olympic Committee that we left with certain clubs and institutions.

After a long trip and several adventures, and after just a few hours sleep, I was able to officiate the wedding of Fran and María. Fran is the younger brother of Lydia, who has collaborated and participated in several projects of AIA. María has helped many years in youth work of Agape as well. You can see how gorgeous Lydia and the kids are. It was a joy to be with the couple, and the whole family.

A few days ago at the airport in Malaga we were saying goodbye to a group of college athletes at Ohio University. Accompanied by Mark Heflin, AIA coordinator at the college, they had spent their spring break helping to serve and share Christ in schools, institutes and the University of Malaga. They had also been of great assistance to the projects of our Church Multipurpose Center in La Cala del Moral (mainly Basketball School, Fitness Center and Academy of English). Abraham (our intern from Barcelona in Malaga with us this year) and Lindsey (also with us from the USA for a year) also accompanied them and experienced their first challenge of running a project like this together in a team.

I commented that I'm writing from Colorado. From March 27 until April 13, will be here to visit various partners and present our ministry to different people.

Then off to Houston for various events in the College Basketball scene (NCAA I Men's Final 4). More than 5,000 coaches will meet there, many of whom collaborate with AIA projects in Europe and many others that we will encourage to do so. Two Spanish  coaches, three Dutch (Director of Talent programs, Entrepreneur and Director of Landstede in Zwolle) and three coaches from Poland, Croatia will be with Mike and I in one of the evangelistic events that AIA prepares here (Legends of the Hardwood Award Breakfast). It has become one of the biggest attractions of the Final 4.

Afterwards I'll be traveling to Puerto Rico and Michigan before returning home to visit friends and colleagues and to continue sharing with more people about the challenges and needs of our ministry in Spain and Europe.

Athletes in Action Global Leadership Council (GLC) . Yaounde (Cameroon) . March 5-12, 2011

I went to change Africa, but Africa changed me

Last year AIA's Global Leadership Council (GLC) decided that in order to better serve our country leaders and field staff, we would hold our regular leadership meetings on the front lines of movement building. Last year it was Guatemala and later this fall it will be South Korea. Here with the Global Leadership Council (GLC) are some of our African AIA leaders from Mali (Jean Pierre), Togo (Magloire), Chad (Marc), Ivory Coast (Assouman), Ethiopia (Tsegaye), Liberia (George) and our host country Cameroon (Silas).

Our purpose for gathering as the GLC is to seek God's direction for our future globally as an organization, to build leaders with accountability, to forge our operational principles, and to cast vision for AIA's global future. We have worked further to clarify Athletes in Action's part in the Great Commission, by seeing Christ-followers on every team in every sport in every nation. Thanks for your part in trusting the Lord with us to see this vision become a reality.

When we think about our vision and our mission of launching spiritual movements everywhere in the sport world so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Christ, we have had opportunities to see that in action this past week. Silas Ngong, the leader for AIA Cameroon, set up two strategic appointments that can lead to the AIA movement in Cameroon reaching the highest levels of sport in his country.

First, we met with the leaders of the Higher Institute of Youth and Sports, the premier institution that trains the future coaches and sport teachers in the country. Silas is formalizing a partnership with them and AIA that will allow us to minister to these men and women. After meeting with the directors, we had the opportunity to address the 1,200 students who are part of this institution, the future leaders of the world of sport in Cameroon. Then, we met the Cameroon Minister of Sports to present the first draft of a partnership at the national level.

Another day we visited a national youth development soccer team served by our staff here in Cameroon. Several of us had a chance to affirm Silas's work and tell these young men that there are others like them in many other countries seeking to honor God with their lives. And then typical to Africa, dancing broke out! (Notice the enjoyment of all!).

I had the chance of giving a clinic to 60 coaches and basketball students at the mentioned Institute. The best women's basketball team in Cameroon, the national head coach and the President of the Basketball Coaches Association were there as well. I addressed several of their questions on basketball tactical plan development and physical conditioning in-court, and encouraged them on topics relating to Character.

Thanks to the generosity of Eduardo de Pablo and Austral, we where able to distribute a full bag of sports equipment from the Spanish Olympic Team to teams. AIA Spain donated several high quality leader basketballs, and EMSI-Mision in Barcelona gave us toys and lollypops for an orphanage in Yaoundé as well.

Please join us in praying for Silas and their AIA team as they trust God for life-change throughout Cameroon. As we pray for them, let this be our prayer for each of the country leaders we serve in Western Europe as well, that God would use us to change our countries and the world through the sport world and the power of Jesus Christ.

Yours in Christ,

Rubén, Lidia, Samuel, Josué & Lucía