Last year I shared some of the ideas the Girl’s Soccer coaches wanted to have their players consider during times of devotions. The key idea was to be about CHOICES. These thoughts about making choices, plus some reading I’ve been doing about a missionary couple who worked for years in the jungles of Ecuador, has prompted me to write about a topic I’d like coaches (any Christian, really) to think about in relation to their “job”. I need to say here at the beginning that I’m not giving my story as the “right” or “Christian” way to deal with this issue. I’m giving an example of a choice I’ve made, in order to get you to consider what I think is an important issue, especially for younger Christians starting their career, marriage, or family.

I wanted to teach and coach since I was in high school. I didn’t have to make decisions about what I would major in when I went to college. I knew I would teach in high school and coach - especially football. I’d prayed about this and committed this decision to the Lord. During the summer between my Junior and Senior years in college, Arlene and I became engaged. We’d prayed about our marriage and committed this decision to the Lord. We were married when I got my credential and I began my first teaching and coaching job at Willow Glen High School. Based on what I’d seen, heard, and experienced related to the time coaching required, I knew I had a decision to make about this also. I talked to Arlene and we prayed. The choice, as I saw it, should be based solely on my really trusting God to give me wisdom. What was the decision going to be that would be best for me and my relationship to my wife, future family, and to God? I decided that I would not seek, or even desire, a head varsity coaching job due to the time commitment I knew would be required to do that job well. I would be content to coach the frosh, Frosh/Soph or JV teams. As a result, my family and I spent all or part of every summer on the staff at Mt. Hermon until our kids were in their mid-teens. When our two children were grown, Arlene and I decided to take time to travel in the summer. Choices.

I believe we each make really key decisions early in our Christian walk that, in turn, impact our time, our families, our relationship with others and God - lots of things. What about the book I’m reading? It is that the choice about coaching and the time commitment allowed Arlene and me to go to Ecuador in 1987 and again in 2001. On both of those trips we were able to go to Shell Mera in the high jungle and see where Nate Saint and four other young missionaries flew off to attempt to reach the Auca Indians with the gospel - only to lose their lives. We saw the Saint’s home and the airfield where MAF still flies into remote mission stations. On the first trip we met Nate’s sister, Rachael, and heard first-hand how she and Elizabeth Elliott, themselves, went in to the Aucas and that now most of that tribe follows the Lord Jesus. On this last trip I was able to handle one of the baskets that Nate was able to drop from his plane on a wire to give to and receive gifts from the Aucas. The book, “Mission to the Headhunters”, is about Frank and Marie Drown and their ministry in Ecuador. Frank led the expedition to the Curaray River to discover the bodies of the martyred young men and to bury them there on “Palm Beach”. My point? I guess that I just want to encourage you - especially those of you who are young - to weigh carefully the decisions you make about your time and talents and to consider how far-reaching those choices will be. Maybe a quote from the writings of Jim Elliott (one of the five men who died) will help. “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” A hundred years into eternity nobody will care what my won-loss record was - but I pray some young guys will be “there in heaven” so we can share some good coach/player stories.

Coach Hitch