I am Second® - Vitor Belfort

Vitor’s Story (from iamsecond.com)

Vitor Belfort is living a dream. He is a Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) hero from Brazil with a beautiful celebrity wife and millions of followers around the world. Life must be easy for him, right?

Yet Vitor’s road to his dream was marked by great challenges that brought pain into his life and the spiritual journey that accompanied. First was the challenge to train and be a champion fighter. The next was in seeing significance and balance to a life displayed to the public. Following that came significant grief and pain in a personal tragedy.

It is a road to God that was marked by pain at every step. But he has no pain now—only joy and peace through a relationship with Jesus that he knows can be shared by others.

Edison FCA Huddle

Last Thursday about 150 students showed up for FCA in RM 317. We were blessed with tons of pizza (even though we ran out of plates), a fun game and a message by our very own student leader Annie Koeller. It was also the birthday of Christine Nakagaki, one of the special abilities students who attend the huddle, the students surprised her by singing happy birthday to her. Annie spoke on the importance of living a life purposed by God, and how without Him everything is fleeting under the sun, like trying to grasp wind (Ecclesiastes). She did a wonderful job and really connected to her peers. THank you to everyone who came to volunteer and support the students at Edison FCA.

Happy Birthday Christine

Mission Viejo FCA

On a rainy Wednesday last week about 200 students showed up for the FCA huddle at Mission Viejo HS. Former USC Trojan and LA Ram Garrett Breeland came and shared his testimony with the students. After chowing down on some pizza and playing a fun game Garrett encouraged each one of us to live a life that is "pressing forward towards the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Huntington FCA

The week of NOC 2011 HBHS FCA met and played some fun games and heard about the impact NOC 2010 had made on one of there own leaders. After playing a fun game of Over/under FCA leader Steve Dang come up for an interview about how Night of Champions impacted his his walk with Jesus. He shared his experience interview style because that is how the testimonies are shared at NOC. He did great and HBHS had a great turnout of students at Night of Champions!

FCA 3 vs 3 Basketball Tournament

 SIGN UP HERE

 

OC FCA Basketball Tournament on April 2 @ Edison High School! Ages 14 and up (Yes there will be a Masters Division for you "advanced gentleman")! Bring your friends and help make this event huge! 

Contact me for additional information @ agoodman@fca.org

Night of Champions 2011 Pictures

Night of Champions Photo Booth

Break-dancing Competition

MC Jason Grifface and the band

Students Having Fun

USC QB Matt Barkley

Barry Martinez

Character and Influence Award Winner Clark Cashion & Nominees

Night of Champions 2011 Report

WOW! Night of Champions 2011 was an amazing night of fun, food, and worship! Over 1,000 students from all over Orange County joined together to honor and give glory to Jesus!

Held at the amazing Mariners Church facilities, the students were treated to free In-N-Out burger, 2 live DJ's, professional break-dancers. Also available to the students to use was a volleyball court, 2 basketball courts, ping pong, and video games!

Once program started inside everyone went nuts! The band was rocking, a beat boxer was doing his thing, and the comedy group O' Manna was hilarious. We were treated to 3 testimonies from a professional boxer, Jody Foster a former professional surfer, and USC QB Matt Barkley. The students were then treated to a moving message about God's love for us by FCA Director of Ministries Barry Martinez! He then gave everyone the opportunity to accept the Lord or rededicate their lives, which over 150 students did! Praise God, for He is good!

The night ended with all of the nominees for the FCA Character & Influence Award coming on stage to be recognized as great leaders on there campuses. The finalists for the award were then brought forward and Clark Cashion from Corona Del Mar High School was the 2011 winner. Congrats to Clark and all the other students who were recognized for the impact they are making on their campuses.

The night was a huge success and would not have been possible with out all the support and help of our wonderful volunteers and parents! Thank You!

FCA Impact Play - A Lesson from Big Ben

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!”
-Romans 8:38-39

Congratulations to Packers fans! You all certainly have reason to celebrate this morning after the great victory in last night’s Super Bowl. Wear the cheeseheads all day and enjoy the moment!

As I watched the post-game coverage on SportsCenter this morning, I saw tons of highlights from the winning team, but there was one thing in the bottom ticker that caught my attention. It was a comment from Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger who said, “I feel like I let the city of Pittsburgh down and the fans and my coaches and my teammates, and it’s not a good feeling.”

Man, I feel for Big Ben. That has to be a tough spot. But, honestly, I can’t think of an athlete or coach who hasn’t experienced this feeling.

Losing is part of sports, and we all go through it at some point or another. There are days when we don’t play well and we feel responsible for our team coming up short. And the same thing happens in life, too. We all make mistakes and the consequences of our actions affect others. When this happens, the burden we feel can seem absolutely oppressive.

When this feeling threatens to take us down a path of sorrow, guilt or dejection, we need to immediately turn to Christ. Yes, our actions may have had consequences, but they don’t have to ruin our lives. In fact, if we turn to the Lord in these moments and invite Him into the restoration process, we can actually experience great spiritual growth and healing.

By turning to Christ in our shortcomings, we find something we won’t get from the world: unconditional love. Even if everyone blames us for a negative outcome—and we agree with them—Christ loves us just the same as if we’d won the game or played perfectly, and He’s waiting to teach us more about this love by reaching us in our pain.

Today, whether you’re feeling like Ben Roethlisberger or like Aaron Rogers (the game’s MVP), know that, in God’s eyes—the ones that see you through the cross of Jesus Christ—you’re loved, valued, forgiven and victorious. Turn your pain and guilt over to Him and let Him remind you of His great love and faithfulness, regardless of the score.

Sowers FCA

About 30 students showed up to hang out, enjoy some pizza, have fun and listen to our speaker. We played a fun modified version of team tag and then had 5 students volunteer to take part in blindfolded musical chairs. The students all had a blast and then we were all blessed to have Edison FCA President Carlie Boyer come share her testimony with the students! She did a great job and really connected with the junior highers! Thank you to Barbara Osterkamp who is such a great support to the sowers huddle and to Edison High School Leaders; Carlie, Alexandra, Ashley, and Samantha who came to play with the students!

Edison FCA

About 200 students packed into Room 317 for Edison FCA on Thursday! After munching on some pizza, 5 students volunteered for what they though was a normal game of musical chairs, it had a twist though, they had to do it blindfolded. It was a hilarious version of the game that had the whole room laughing. After the game Pastor David Nehrig from Seaside church shared with the group about the power of one person who stands firm for God and the following that can create! HS student Scot Orel shared how he has seen that happen in his own life. Thanks to those two for sharing their hearts with us. A big thanks to all the parents and volunteers who showed up to serve and support the students.

Mission Viejo FCA

Wednesday was another great day for Mission FCA. About 175 students were blessed to have free del Taco, play an awesome game and got to hear a message from Mission Hills Youth Pastor Danny Bower. Danny shared about passion and how our relationship with Christ needs to be filled with passion. God's passion for us is so overwhelming and Danny truly related that to the kids. Thanks to all the parent volunteers and for Danny and Sean Aday (Grace Community Church) for coming and spending time with the students!

See you all at Night of Champions (feb. 11)

Marina FCA

Tuesday was a fun day over at Marina HS FCA. Pastor Eric Neslon from Calvary Chapel provided pizza for about 55 students that showed up to play a fun game and hear how much God cares about each one of us as individuals. We had an awesome day and we were very blessed to have Eric come share!