January 2025 Update
Move-in
On January 4th, 2025 I moved in to my apartment in Wheaton. I am sharing my apartment with Trey McBride, another resident with the Chicago Eagles who started in August. On January 6th I began my residency with the Chicago Eagles.
MAI Retreat
Less than a week into my residency, MAI held a mission-wide retreat in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. MAI is the umbrella organization over all the Eagles offices around the country and around the world. At this retreat I got to meet missionaries working with the Eagles in Orlando, Southern California, Charlotte, Phoenix, Delaware Valley, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. This was a time to rest and connect with all these different people to hear about the general health of our mission organization, but also to see how different offices are using soccer to spread the gospel. As someone who is new to being on staff with the Chicago Eagles the event was a bit overwhelming but really encouraging to see how healthy this ministry truly is.
Winter Season
In Chicago our winter season is in full swing, meaning we have programs for all age groups, which are thankfully indoors.
Mondays we have our Micro League program for boys and girl ages 5-9 at two locations, one in Wheaton and one in West Chicago. I am serving at the West Chicago Micro League which means we have two one-hour programs, one for the 5 & 6 year-olds and one for ages 8 to 9. Each program is just an hour long where we play soccer, but also some fun games to help the kids improve their individual skills. Halfway through the hour we stop and share a Bible story with the kids. This winter we are telling the kids about our Four Eagles Virtues which are Joy, Faithfulness, Integrity, and Courage. The most important thing is that the kids have fun and see that we are modeling Christ as their coaches.
Wednesdays and Fridays we have our youth club practices. I am an assistant coach for our U11 boys club team and our U15 boys club team. So far coaching both teams has been a joy but also stretching. Both the teams are full of energy and willing to learn and to work hard. It has been stretching because I’ve always seen myself as someone who was more oriented around building team culture, but for both teams I am being used for my soccer and tactical knowledge.
Residency
My day-to-day consists of being at the office from 9-12 in the mornings then practices in the evenings and games on the weekends. My mornings at the office consist of meetings and time to work on support raising or writing this Update! As a resident we are working through a curriculum where we read a book and meet on Wednesday mornings to discuss. Throughout January we have read through The Master Plan of Evangelism by Dr. Robert E. Coleman. The biggest take-aways for me has been how Jesus really focused on discipling only a few people over the course of three years and how he lead his disciples to become the leaders of the church. Because of our interest in creating disciples and leaders here in Chicago, the other coaches and I decided to implement this with our three U15 captains. We meet with our captains once a week over dinner and are reading through Habitudes, which are a series of books for high schoolers about developing leadership that models Christ.
Transition
I am very thankful to be done with college, but the transition to working life has not been 100% smooth. Thankfully, I already have good community here in Chicago due to the two summers that I spent here in 2022 and 2023 which has made things a lot easier. I have also found a church to regularly attend! This year I will be going to Community Fellowship Church in West Chicago, which is where our West Chicago Micro League is located. Several of my coworkers also attend this church including the two staff members who will be discipling me. There are also lots of ways to get involved and serve the Church at Community Fellowship.
The most difficult part of my transition has been calculating how much food I really eat. In truth, this is quite a comical issue that I’m having because I have enough food to survive, but on a meal-to-meal basis I struggle to gauge the proper amount for myself. It also doesn’t help that I still eat like a horse. The other difficult part of my transition has been the cold. A few weeks ago it was -9 degrees Fahrenheit. I think that’s all I’ll say about that.
This month I have spent most of my free time playing soccer at pickup and for an adult indoor league, but also I have been playing Semi-Pro volleyball for the 630 Breeze which has been super fun. It has also been a big learning curve because the level of play is higher than what I’m used to.
I have been listening to an album called Into the Lantern Waste by Sarah Sparks which is an album about Narnia. It has been a big source of encouragement especially the titular song and Eustace Scrubb which I encourage anyone to listen to. I have also been reading Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis, which is his autobiography.
Support Update
I am currently 77% funded for the year! I am super thankful for you who have been generous and gracious enough to support me financially and through prayer. This website is the central hub for my connection with ministry partners. Here you will have access to my monthly updates, my prayer requests and sign-up sheet, and my giving link if you feel the Lord calling you to contribute financially.
Please feel free to reach out via email and we can set up a time to call and catch up! If you hit the “reply” button it will send to my Chicago Eagles email address