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Celebrations and Mourning
Titus Scott • September 7, 2019
Celebrations and Mourning
This month has been absolutely packed with incredible opportunities, reasons to celebrate, and a time of mourning. As the school year got off to a good start, we have also been able to re-start and launch several new Huddles! Our new FCA Ambassador, Kayla Norman, was able to start a Huddle at Westside Christian Academy in Detroit, begin discipleship with the lady athletes at Wayne State University, and help with the Huddle at King High School!
Early this month, a local ministry (Eagle Sports) and Angel Tree Ministries invited me to participate with their first ever youth football camp in Detroit! The ministry serves children who have a parent who is incarcerated or lives in an at risk community. What an incredible opportunity to see former/current professional football players and former collegiate athletes/coaches come serve the young men and women who attended the camp.
One of the blessings of having so many new ministries, is that we get to distribute so many new Bibles to coaches and athletes, many of whom have never owned a Bible! Thanks to several individuals and a couple churches (special thanks to Mt. Calvary in Belleville), we have been able to order and already receive over 130 Bibles and a number of other resources!
Another awesome experience is that now that our ministry has expanded, we are beginning to have games where we are involved with ministry for both teams! As I was joking with a couple of the coaches the other day, we cheer for all the players to finish the game in good health! If you could pray with me that as we continue to grow that we would be able to have edifying conversations that help the athletes learn that the opposing teams are not an enemy to hate, but that they can compete effectively while still respecting their opponents.
This month has been full of things to celebrate... new Huddles, new Bibles, testimonies from kids who have expressed that they have begun reading their Bibles every day after being challenged in their Huddle to do that, a young lady from the Wayne State Volleyball team who accepted Christ, and many other incredible opportunities to see lives transformed by Christ. However, there was also a time of mourning. One of the coaches that I have had a chance to get to know while hanging out at football games, unexpectedly passed away a couple weeks ago. Please pray for the young men and the other coaches who have been dramatically impacted by the loss. Thank you so much for all the prayer and financial support that so many of you provide for us! You truly are part of a team that God is using in an incredible way here in Detroit/Wayne County!
-- Titus Scott (Wayne County FCA Metro Director)
Detroit FCA Blog
"My football coach sits in a semi-comfortable chair as he recites a Bible verse to the circle of interested high-schoolers around him. Members of FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) meet every Friday at 6:30, and today is my first meeting with the group. For years, I had been a part of that family who only goes to church on Christmas and Easter. A family that claims to be Christian but rarely takes action to support it. So why am I getting up early before school to participate in a so-called “Bible group”? The main reason: my football coach - Coach Adams. This was a man of great passion, positivity, enthusiasm, and leadership. A man that has inspired me for so many years. So when he asked me to come to this club that he was leading at school, I undoubtedly agreed to come.
God has been performing miracles and doing some incredible things since our last update! This Fall, we joined with Tim Morton and our teammates up in Oakland County to put on the first Fields of Faith here in the Metro Detroit area. What an awesome evening of worship through song and testimony, followed by a challenge for the young people to give their lives to Christ or rededicate their lives to following Christ through discipleship and local church community. So awesome to see four young men from Detroit respond to the invitation and commit to following Christ!
A rally cry on the sports field and a command by Jesus from Matthew 28. What an incredible summer we experienced. Athletes, coaches, and many others were challenged to live out this command during the Michigan FCA Sports Camp.
On May 31, FCA hosted their annual Night of Champions at Little Caesars Arena! Several hundred people joined us for an incredible evening of testimonies, updates, and vision casting for future ministry! This annual celebration and fundraiser was incredibly encouraging to those who attended as they were blessed to hear from several former and current professional athletes.
"When I look back on my life, I can see how the Lord has put certain people, churches, mentors and organizations in my life at the exact right moment to protect, help me grow as a man of God, and guide me to my purpose of spreading the Gospel through sports. I was blessed with the opportunity to play college football at The University of Alabama at Birmingham and by the grace of God I was able to become the starting defensing back my freshman year and earn a scholarship my junior year. I say it was by the grace of God, because if you know anything about football in the south, and especially Alabama, it is very competitive and playing football is a way of life for most young men that live in the south. There was no way a skinny, 140lb boy from Detroit, MI that was cut from his JV team at Cass Tech and never played organized football until college, was supposed to beat these top athletes out of a position. I believed at the time, that was the biggest prayer that God had answered for me and I could not believe my dreams were coming true like it was.
What do you really do? Are you trying to do the job of the church? What is your primary focus? These are just a few of the questions I’ve been asked over the last two years. They are all great questions and very important to consider for anyone interested in participating in and with our ministry. I want to take a few minutes to answer those questions and more thoroughly explain the ministry of FCA. Vision: To see the world (Wayne County/Detroit) transformed BY Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes. Mission: to lead EVERY coach and athlete into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and His Church.
"Can we do more FCA stuff?" -- Detroit Osborn student This was just one quote overheard following the night we spent celebrating FCA with the Detroit Pistons! Over 400 people got to hear Pistons players Ish Smith, Langston Galloway, and Jon Leuer share their faith and answer questions following the game. What an incredible night celebrating FCA along with hundreds of friends. The event started with 28 volunteers from our Huddles at Wayne State University, Lawrence Tech University, and several additional supporters. They arrived over 2 hours before the game and sold 50/50 Raffle tickets through the 3rd Quarter of the game! We are so thankful for their time and help as we were able to raise funds for the ministry!
“And the King will answer them, Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me”- Matthew 25:40
It has been an exciting and rewarding 60 days here in Detroit! I have been serving at Westside Christian Academy, Dr. Martin Luther King HS, and Wayne State University and I’m so excited to share what God has been doing!
Player #1 sprints to the sideline and is mobbed by teammates, I wait for him to make it through and I give him a hug and congratulate him. He's just intercepted a pass and, with a huge return, has set his team up to score the winning touchdown with just a couple minutes left in the game! Player #2 sits on the bench. He just made a mistake that led to a critical fumble in the red zone and costs his team an important scoring chance. After a conversation with his coach, he throws his helmet and proceeds to blame his teammates and complain that it's not fair that he always gets blamed for everything, no matter whose fault it is. I sit down next to him and challenge him to put it behind him, and to move on and focus on building the unity their team needed. At half time I see him talking to the team and watch as they work together to come from behind for a last minute win!
Contact Info
PO Box 14594
Detroit, MI 48214
(248) 574-4197
tscott@fca.org