Spring Arbour

This week with Spring Arbour set the tone for what this summer holds at Two Moose. From day 1 every athlete and coach was 100% bought in to growing individually, and with each other. The first night of chapel was phenomenal with the speaker being extremely vulnerable about her own life and struggles, and what God did in her life through that. This was a clear pace setter for vulnerability among all the athletes, and a challenge to be introspective and real with themselves about where they could grow in their walk with Christ. A theme this week was dying to oneself, and I saw that first hand from the top down. This was not simply a mantra for the coaches and leaders this was a lifestyle. This was a way of life learned in the valleys of life’s hardship in their own personal journeys with God. And the athletes saw that. This was not a simple feel good Bible teaching, this was one of the most important lessons they could ever learn.

Every morning Spring Arbour started with something called the 4H’s. The 4H’s is essentially a very practical and condensed way to tell a piece of your testimony. Hero, Hardship, Highlight and Hope. Who is your hero, what is a hardship you have been through/what did you learn in that, what is a highlight in your life and what is a hope you have going forward. The first morning all of the coaches and staff went, and the following mornings 6 athletes went each morning. What an awesome picture of leadership. The coaches were all very vulnerable with the athletes first and the athletes responded in turn. I think doing the 4H’s was the backbone of the life change that happened this week. Vulnerability fosters vulnerability. Athletes saw they were not alone in hardship and that the people around them had been through similar things. This prompted athletes to have soft hearts when listening to the messages knowing that it was coming from someone who been through hard things as well.

Over the course of the week I got to have many conversations with different athletes about hardships they had gone through, questions about their faith, questions about baptism and just fun bonding conversations. It was awesome to see the athletes having these conversations with one another as well. It would be so easy to take what they were learning and compartmentalize it and not dig or think any deeper, but that is not what they did. This act of vulnerability with one another built a bond within the group that was beautiful to see. A picture of what life following Jesus is supposed to look like.  Acts 2:46-47 “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” This picture of the early church is in a lot of ways exactly what this week looked like, and it was a joy to see what God did.

I think one of the biggest takeaways for me personally this week is that pride is one of the biggest enemies of life change. Pride is the enemy of vulnerability, and vulnerability is the catalyst for the truly life changing work that Jesus will do in your heart if you offer it to Him. This week we saw pride fall aside and we saw 11 lives publicly dedicated to Jesus Christ. 11 college athletes were baptised this week. I have goose bumps writing this because so often we think that a week is not enough time to change anything in our lives. But in reality a week of vulnerability changed at least 11 lives eternally this week.