In God's Grip

Introduction

Since the mid-1990s, my brother-in-law, Charles, and other friends, have encouraged me to write my story of how God used sports to pioneer ministry in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The idea for writing my story became a reality during the travel restrictions brought on by the pandemic. Unable to leave my home area near Seattle, I was asked to write the Foreword to a book by a longtime friend, Bill Shubin, who introduced me to a professional writing team. A couple months later, I did my first interview with the writers, answering questions and just talking about my life experiences.

It was quite a journey, walking back through the years, reliving the times of celebration and struggle, reflecting on what I have seen and felt, what I have learned, and what God has accomplished. Above all, working on the book has helped me to appreciate the amazing faithfulness of God who so caringly leads and provides, and who always fulfills His promise to open doors and to never leave nor forsake us.

You will read of my spiritual growth through “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” You will also read the history of how God used a handful of wrestlers, with our wives at our sides, to go behind the Iron Curtain and pioneer sports ministries that would join a global network of partnerships working on every continent to spread the Gospel.

When four of us from AIA moved to Austria, with our families in 1979, we had no playbook for how to build national sports ministries in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. God used our credentials as Olympic and world-class wrestlers to get us into those countries with access to athletes who for all of their lives had been told that faith in God was for fools and for people who are weak. God enabled us to help change their ideas about that! Coaches and sports leaders for the national teams in communist countries like Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and even Russia, opened doors for us to train with their teams, giving us the access we needed for sharing with athletes and others the Good News about a personal, saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want readers to find In God’s Grip interesting, and to gain inspiration and practical wisdom from the stories of God’s loving faithfulness. I am also excited about the encouraging stories, which will be available on our website, from others who have been with us over the many years.

Please join me on this missionary adventure, from the suburbs of Philadelphia to lands as far as Siberia, China, Central Asia and South Africa, and see the amazing faithfulness of God who provides, cares for, and leads, sometimes in the most surprising of ways.