Coach’s Conference

Today, the seven YLI coaches and six new in-training coaches will be descending upon us in Kumasi for the coach’s conference.  These are the key young men and women who lead our work of incarnational evangelism and mentoring discipleship throughout Ghana.  They are natural leaders (what Jim Moye called H.A.F.T.  Heart for God, Available, Faithful, Teachable).  They are also a lot of fun.  We are looking forward to our time with them – hearing their success stories as well as their struggles, and worshiping and praying together.  Saturday we all will be serving at a local orphanage.  And keeping with coach tradition, there will also be a few pounds of Peanut M&M’s consumed, heated games of Connect-4 played, and to keep things loose we will be popping in the Evan Almighty DVD on Friday night.

At the conference I will be leading a discussion on Matthew 3:17, “And a voice from heaven said, ‘this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”  The beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth was kicked off with a display of love among the Trinity.  The Father, in the presence of the Spirit, confirmed Jesus’ calling with words of love.  It was this love of the Father that was the power and motivation for Jesus’ entire ministry.  Likewise for us and the coaches, ministering out of a sense of responsibility, obligation or guilt is to ignore the way of Jesus.  As those indwelt by the life of Christ, our lives need to be founded in the deep knowledge of God’s love for us; and it is from an overflow of that love by which we minister to others in our world.  Please pray this week that at the coach’s conference our young men and women will experience the love of the Father in a personal and powerful way.