Athletes4Jesus; Just the Beginning
By Susan Wright
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My name
is Susan Wright and I live in Festus Missouri with my husband of 22 years,
Rex Wright. Our life is very full.
We’re raising four beautiful children and 
we
own our own business, Wright Financial, Inc.
I consider myself a child of God and pray for His guidance everyday
in carrying out whatever plan He has in store for me and my family. I never
know what to expect, I only ask that God accompany me on whatever journey
my heart seems to be directed on.
I have
been asked several times to put some of the events of my life down in writing
and share them with other people, mostly for inspiration. This time, I have
been asked to share the story of a project that was put upon our hearts by God.
One would think this should not be that difficult, but I never really know
where to begin. You see, when God uses you, things happen days, weeks, months
and sometimes years in advance that you don’t understand. God will show you
things and bring people into your life and you don’t realize at that moment why
or understand the meaning behind them.
Later on down the road, God, through the Holy Spirit helps you connect
the dots and sometimes will allow you to understand in hindsight what things
meant or why things might have happened. This kind of thing happens to most
everyone, but not everyone is paying attention or realizing that the Holy
Spirit is working in and around them.
Although
I feel like I’m starting in the middle of a story, a story which does not yet
have an ending, I’m going to try and tell the events that have happened that
lead up to founding of Athletes4Jesus and
how the project has developed. It would
seem that all the steps in my Christian walk till now have been purposely
guided to lead me and my husband Rex to this very place and this moment in
time, for this very project.
Obedience
The
word that comes to mind most often when I try and describe this project is
always “obedience.” If ever in my life
God gave me and my husband an exercise in obedience, it was this project. Now, this is not to say that we have not
faced and dealt with many difficult and stressful issues in our life, because
we certainly have had our fair share of trials and tribulations. My family and I
are very blessed and I believe it’s because we have accepted Jesus and we have chosen
to live according to His Word.
Although
God has given me things to do for Him in the past, He has never told me to do
something of this magnitude that would involve my husband and I stepping so far
out of our comfort zones and stepping so far out in total faith. This project
requires a lot of faith because it involves so many things we cannot control,
however, sometimes faith comes easier than obedience. Sometimes, it is easier to believe that something
is the right thing to do than it is to actually do it. There were a lot of valid reasons not move
forward with this project but my faith and my love for God is what drove my
need to be obedient.
The Beginning
One
morning back in March of this year, I was praising God for everything around me
from my house, my family to even my pillows.
Rex and I had been in Bible college for two years learning the Scriptures and were
taught to always praise God. We make it
a habit to have lots of praise and worship music playing and giving thanks to
the Lord throughout the day. We had been taught that “God speaks to His people
and His people shall know His voice, and He inhabits the praises of his people.”
While I was praising God this particular morning and getting ready to go on
vacation, God spoke to me and this is what He said; “I want to be represented
at the greatest event of the year, the Super Bowl and I want you to draw men
onto Me.” My
husband and I do not really follow sports, so I really didn’t know that much
about the Super Bowl. I immediately went to tell my husband. He was not
enthusiastic at all. He went on to say that at this time he didn’t know how we
could undertake a project of this size. We have four kids we are raising, a
business and that this would not be a good time for us to get involved with
something like this. I figured that I would wait until we were in Florida on
vacation and then Rex would be more relaxed and I could bring the subject up
again. I figured I would gather all my
information together and that way, when I spoke to Rex the next time I would
have some facts.
I made
a few calls and found out that ABC will be producing the 2006 Super Bowl. I
also learned about local spots [commercials] and found out that they were not
as expensive as I thought they would be.
The gentlemen I spoke with told me that there were four available but
that I should not wait too long because they would all be sold by April 15th
for the following year. In hearing this
news I arranged to meet with the gentleman upon our
return from Florida.
OK, Now What?
After
spending our first night in Florida, I waited until Rex and I were having
breakfast alone before I brought the subject up again. This time, I was armed with all my
information. I explained to him that ABC
would be producing the 2006 Super Bowl and that we could purchase 30 second
local spots which were a lot less expensive than national commercials for the
Super Bowl. I explained that the
gentleman told me that they would all be sold by April 15th and we needed to
act fast. Rex again scolded me. He told me that we had way too much on our
plates already and that he didn’t think that this was something we could handle
at this time. The conversation ended in an argument.
I was
of course very upset and went stomping off down the beach alone. I cried and then prayed. I told God that if this is really Him and
that He really wanted me to do this, He was going to
have to touch Rex’s heart because I could not go forward without him. That very
night, in our hotel room in Fort Lauderdale Florida, the Holy Spirit showed Rex
a vision of the commercial. Rex had been
falling in and out of sleep. He said
that he had been thinking of what we had talked about earlier that morning and
wondered what 30 second commercial could possibly have such an impact on the
world. All of a sudden Rex had a vision.
He saw pictures of a man’s life pass before his eyes going from childhood
through the milestones of his life and finally becoming a man. In the vision
you could hear in the background a heart monitor. All of a sudden, the man is
in the emergency room and the heart monitor flat lines. The man has died and a
voice says, “Suddenly your life can flash before your eyes; do you know where
your spirit will spend eternity?” The screen then went black and then John 3:16 comes up on the screen while
being read. The screen was then engulfed in bright white light and a voice said
“Come into His marvelous light, Choose Eternal Life Now.”
The
next morning, Rex reluctantly told me about his vision. He still was concerned how we could possible
undertake such a huge project, but he knew in his heart that God had confirmed
to him what had been told to me days before and Rex knew we had to be obedient.
When we
got home from our vacation, we immediately called our pastor. We were so
excited. We knew we had heard from God,
but we just thought, Ok, now what? Our
pastor gave us his blessing and allowed us to be listed as a subsidiary of our church
under the name of “Jesus for Super Bowl.”
Our
next step was to meet with ABC affiliate KDNL about the commercial. We signed the commitment for four local spots
during the 2006 Super Bowl. Each
commercial would cost $25,000 and if our local team the Rams went to the Super
Bowl, it would be an additional $5,000 per commercial. Talk about obedience! Rex and I realized that we would be
responsible to pay for these commercials whether we raised the money or not,
but we were compelled to make the commitment.
KDNL said
that we could bring them a finished 30 second spot or they could produce it
for us. They said that we would have
to give them $5,000 up front and 
they
would create our commercial. Of course we had not raised any money yet, so
we had to personally come up with $5,000 out of our own pockets up front,
just to get started. When we told them what we wanted the commercial to be
they told us that we would never get all of that in 30 seconds. When the creators
put it all together, it was exactly 30 seconds. They could not believe it.
Some of the staff we have worked with at KDNL made a point of telling us that
no one has ever tried to do this sort of thing. Also, they remarked that this
is very powerful and that some of them were very touched. KDNL even created
a special viewing region map for us to use in our materials. They have been
nothing but helpful and supportive.
Weeks
later, with a copy of the first draft of the commercial in hand on VHS, I was
now ready to begin. Although we do not follow sports, we knew of Kurt and Brenda
Warner from the 2000 Super Bowl when the St. Louis Rams beat the Tennessee
Titans. Rex and I remembered how Kurt Warner held up the trophy and thanked
Jesus. We have since been mindful of Kurt Warner and his strong and very public
profession of his faith. It was for this reason we thought how great it would
be to have someone so public and popular and so open about his faith, be the
voice behind our commercial. We made a copy of the tape and I typed up a quick
note telling Kurt of our project and how we wanted him to participate and
mailed it off to his foundation, First Things First. We mailed this in late
spring. I spoke with his assistant Jennifer by phone and she said that he would
not receive his box until the end of July. She said that they wait till the box
is full and then they mail it off and Kurt personally goes through
everything. Now all we could do was wait.
Athletes 4Jesus is Born
It was time to begin on how to raise money. One idea which came to mind was looking into
those band bracelets that everyone is wearing as a means to raise funds. Lance Armstrong the cyclist made them very
popular and has done very well with them.
We decided to go with a high quality bracelet because these bracelets
represent God and we want only the best for our God! I decided on purple and maroon (magenta)
because of the meaning behind the colors. Initially we wanted them to say “Jesus
for Super Bowl.” Thank God the man who sold them to us was wise and guided by
God. He suggested that we not limit
ourselves to that inscription in case at some point we decided to get involved
in raising money to air commercials during other sporting events. We were so
blessed that this man suggested we not use that name. As a result, we decided
to use “Athletes for Jesus” on the bracelets with John 3:16 instead. We placed an order for 30,000 which meant another
$6,000 out of our own pockets.
When
you’re working for the Lord, the devil has a way of putting you at the top of
his list. Every day Rex and I walk in
faith with this project and every day we seem to be plagued with thoughts of
doubt and fear about committing so much of our personal resources to this
project. We have to fight these thoughts
off and continue to believe that God knows what He is doing and will send us
the resources to carry out this mission.
With the
first cut of the commercials done and bracelets ordered, it was now time to
begin to get some help. We know we have a lot of money to raise
and a lot of people to contact. I know we cannot do this all by ourselves.
God began assembling a team that included talents and resources needed to
carry out this project. Before I even organized our first meeting, and officially
recruited any help, we had the first draft of the commercial out on a website.
This was the birth of 
Athletes4Jesus.
When we tried to register the domain name of Athletes for Jesus.org, it was
already taken. That is when we decided to use the number four instead of the
word four. We were very blessed to have a group member that was so technically
savvy and knew right away how to register and build a website not to mention
work with recording and editing videos.
I began
telling people of our project and inviting people to join us. We had out first
meeting on June 14th with about 18 people from different denominations and
walks of life. We really have a great mixture of people with different talents.
This is definitely a team being assembled by God.
At that
first meeting, we reviewed the first draft of the commercial and tossed around
different ideas. Throughout the entire project one thing remained constant, the
content of the commercial. God, through the Holy Spirit had given the
commercial to Rex and we committed that we would not deviate from it. After a
few hours of everyone discussing ideas on raising money and how to promote our
cause, we decided to break and agreed to begin meeting every Tuesday night
throughout the project. I went to bed
excited but overwhelmed. I knew this was going to be a long road.
Moving Forward
It had
been several weeks and still no word from Kurt Warner. We needed a final cut of
the commercial to begin going to churches and businesses with our printed
material to try and raise money. A
member of our church agreed to come to the station with us and record the audio
for the commercial. We were
disappointed, but hoped that maybe Kurt would still want to participate in some
way at a later date.
After
making the changes to the commercial in the studio, they told us that we would
have the finished product in a week or so.
Now, we started to concentrate on print materials. We began going through many revisions of
brochures and our website. At every
meeting we would review something and make appropriate changes. And at each meeting
someone new would join us and bring a new idea or opinion.
At one
meeting, we decided that with each press packet we send out we would include a
DVD with the final cut of the commercial. Then, someone had the great idea of
recording Rex and I in a 5 minute or so introduction that would explain where
the idea for the commercial came from. We would add this on the DVD and on the
website. We wanted everyone to know that this is God’s project, not ours.
So, on
July 16th, Rex and I sat in our basements in front of a green screen, telling
our story, over and over while being recorded. A very talented member of our
group took all the footage of Rex and myself telling our story and edited it
down. He inserted a nice background and just like that, another piece of the
puzzle was in place.
Kurt Warner Joins the Team
Then,
just as we were ready to begin making copies of everything, I got a call from
Kurt Warner’s assistant. Kurt loved the idea and wanted to do the
commercial. I gathered up our group and held an emergency meeting. We did not
want to hurt the church member’s feelings who had already recorded the audio
and the commercial had already been cut so we were not sure what to do. We
quickly realized that God had called us to “draw men unto him” and that Kurt
Warner’s faith has been such an inspiration in the past, we needed to embrace
his willingness to participate and make the necessary changes.
Kurt’s
assistant let us know that as soon as Kurt completed pre-season training he
would go to a local studio in Arizona and re-record the audio for the
commercial. Kurt has also given us his permission and blessing to use him in
our promotion of this commercial. We are very blessed to have Kurt Warner
endorsing and promoting this project.
A Long Road to Victory
So far,
this project has brought many people in our path to help and share ideas and
talents. We’re inspired everyday by
someone that comes forward to tell us that God has laid it on their heart to
pray for us or donate. Right now, the members of Athletes4Jesus are people who
have given their time, talents and even personal finances. They have worked so
hard for this project, not for the notoriety or praise, but for the same
reasons that my husband Rex and I do, obedience. Each member of the group felt
that God laid this on their heart and they are involved out of love for the
Lord.
As we
go forward, we now have a finished website that allows for donations online. We’re
working on plans for the use of a call center on Super Bowl Sunday. We have
printed materials and DVDs that are being distributing. We have begun to meet
in person with churches and businesses around the viewing area. We also have
other professional athletes who are interested in finding out more about
Athletes4Jesus and becoming a public professor of their faith. We’re in the
process of working with all forms of media. We are working with schools and
youth groups, gathering athletes of all ages and all sports to be
representatives and we have scheduled public events in which we will take part
in community activities. The stone we tossed into the pond has created a ripple
that continues to spread and grow. Our goal is to lead people to Jesus.
As I
said in the beginning of this story, this is a story without an ending yet. We
are barely at the beginning, but I do know when we cross the finish line, it
will be a victory for God.
Publisher’s Note…
With the events happening around the world
and right here in our own country, it is now more important than ever
before to bring God’s message to those who do not know Jesus Christ as their
personal Savior. Athletes4Jesus is raising money to have God’s message about
eternal life aired four times during the 2006 Super Bowl on February 5th.
I know that any donation of any size will be welcomed. Donations to help in
this project can be made online at www.athletes4jesus.org or mailed to: Athletes4Jesus,
P.O. Box 275, Festus, MO 63028. You can also call 1-877-63-JESUS (53787)
to find out more about Athletes4Jesus or contact them via e-mail at
info@athletes4jesus.org.
Please, help Jesus
be represented on February 5, 2006 at the Super Bowl!
