Kurt Warner Can Appear for Christ
at the Super Bowl…With Your Help!

By Jim Day

For those who missed our October issue containing the Athletes4Jesus article (which can be read on our web site at www.metrovoice.net) Athletes4Jesus is the vision of Susan and Rex Wright who live in Festus, MO and are the owners of Wright Financial, Inc. Susan and Rex were (and I firmly believe) given a task by our Lord to air a commercial during the up coming 2006 Super Bowl on February 5th. The 30-second spot is an awesome, powerful, visual message designed to touch the hearts and minds of people in an effort to bring them to Christ. If you haven’t seen the commercial, please click here or go directly to the Athletes4Jesus web site www.athletes4jesus.org and view it there. It will knock your socks off!

It’s estimated that some 1.2 million network viewers will be watching the Super Bowl in our region and that doesn’t count the 158 cable network channels in Missouri and Illinois which will also be airing the Super Bowl. That represents a lot of potential souls for Christ!

Obviously commercials during the Super Bowl aren’t free. Regional spots – those not aired nation wide – are somewhat reasonable in cost; $25,000 per 30-second commercial to be exact. Yes, that’s a lot of money. However, you have to ask yourself “What price would you put on a soul being saved?” As of the writing of this update, the Wrights have raised enough (a lot of it their own) to air at least one spot during the Super Bowl. Their goal is to air at least one spot during each quarter, which means they have at least another $75,000 to raise.

Seventy-five thousand dollars is a lot of money to raise right now. The timing couldn’t be worst – in man’s eyes. Churches are under a lot of financial pressure to help the victims of the hurricanes. The holiday season is coming up and giving something extra to those in need is a high priority. And, of course, we can’t neglect our own church tithes, offerings and special gifts, not to mention special mission offerings. But once again, you’ve got to ask yourself “What price would you put on a soul being saved?” With an estimated 1.2 million network viewers and who knows how many hundreds of thousands of cable viewers watching the Super Bowl, the Lord has provided a unique opportunity for His Body to touch the hearts and minds of the lost. This is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. The Wrights are being obedient and answering the call and so must we.

In our October issue we printed the Wright’s account as to how the Lord tapped them on the shoulder for this project and what they went through to get things started. The following is a follow-up on the progress of the project.

God is Great!

By Susan Wright

September was a busy month for Athletes4Jesus. We are definitely on our way to completing the tasks necessary to air the commercials during the Super Bowl. It has been amazing to see how God has put this all together.

In August our church allowed us to speak before the congregation at both services and show our commercial. The outpouring of love and encouragement was overwhelming and a large donation from the body was given. We were overwhelmed. The members of Victory Church in Pevely, MO were truly touched and gave from their hearts. This was our first major collection of funds and it established a cornerstone that gave us the encouragement needed to continue on with joy and enthusiasm in our hearts.

We reached a point where we realized we had to figure out how we could handle the twenty to thirty thousand projected calls that would be generated on Super Bowl Sunday from the commercials. The network was concerned that if we didn’t supply a number for people to call, the network would receive the calls. So, we spent weeks calling and talking with different ministries looking for a way to handle the calls. We were starting to get discouraged because we couldn’t find a suitable solution. We were determined that the calls not only had to be answered, but answered by trained counselors that could lead people to accept Christ as their Savior and/or recommit their life to Him. As we were contacting athletes and businesses to get involved, they all asked about after care for people who called in. I knew we had to solve that problem ‘before’ we could move forward. Through God’s love and network, I was put in touch with someone at the North American Missions Board and found out that their Evangelistic Resource Center took calls from across the country for the Billy Graham Crusades. We were overjoyed to find out that they are prepared to take up to 20,000 calls at a time, 7 days-a-week, 24 hours-a-day. Within days of speaking with them, we had an agreement that they would handle the calls for us on Super Bowl Sunday at no cost. Praise God! God is Great! Referrals from these calls will be dispatched to local churches within a five mile radius of the caller’s home. One more piece of the puzzle was solved! Now we could move forward because we had a plan to handle the incoming calls and we had peace of mind that they would be handled by trained counselors that have the experience.

In September, we participated in a local three-day city event for the city of Arnold, MO. We set up a booth at Arnold Days and entered a float in their parade. It almost seemed like one of those moments made for TV. When we signed up to participate in the parade, we were told that the theme of this year’s parade was “Champions of Character.” It was perfect. Our Champion of Character was Kurt Warner who had agreed to be the voice on our commercial. There was much planning involved in this event, as this event would increase awareness of the Athletes4Jesus Super Bowl Project.

In the weeks leading up to Arnold Days, we had paid a visit to Kurt Warner’s foundation. They supplied us with over 1,000 posters of Kurt reading a Bible with a caption of “Looks who’s reading the Good News.” They also gave us three boxes of a book which Kurt wrote the foreword for called Christianity for Dummies. Those books proved to be extremely useful during the parade.

Our float had a goal post in the middle of it with our big vinyl signs strung between the posts and a big foot ball hanging down the middle. The bottom of the float was lined with the posters from Kurt’s foundation. We also had 15 members of our group wearing our Athletes4Jesus shirts that walked the parade route giving out brochures, candy, Athletes4Jesus pencils and selling our bracelets. It was day I will never forget.

As I walked and ran the parade route, I realized that this was where God intended us to be - out among the people. I watched my husband and kids walk up and down interacting with people which brought tears to my eyes. I was so proud. We were serving God as a family and best of all we had the love of the Lord and joy in our hearts knowing we were where we were supposed to be - serving Him.

Help is on the way

Weeks have passed, much has happened with a lot of peaks and valleys. I have admittedly allowed myself to be gripped by fear at times. There have been evenings that I have sat in the quiet of my downstairs office and thought to myself, “Where will the money come from for these commercials?” One night, while lying in bed, I prayed and asked God, “God, show me where the money is going to come from for these commercials – please!” God quietly said to me “I brought the animals to the ark; I can bring the finances for this.” I felt a little silly. God was right. He has done much bigger things than this.

From time to time, members of the team have also gotten discouraged. We are so few and we have worked so hard and it just seems we should be further along. We do however celebrate each milestone and constantly remind each other that this isn’t about us -- it’s about giving God the Glory. Every success is His doing and He uses us for His purposes and what He wants to accomplish will happen according to His timing.

In the last few weeks, we’ve mailed information to approximately 5,500 churches and businesses asking for prayers and financial support. A member of our group has set up teams of prayer chains for our organization. I’ve made appearances on several radio shows and we are working with newspapers and TV stations to get our story out. We continue to visit and speak with churches to encourage them to participate in this project through donations and accepting referrals from people who call in on Super Bowl Sunday. The journey has been so exciting and watching it all unfold has been an incredible blessing.

God has shown favor on us and is still sending people to help us. We were blessed with a two page spread in the October issue of the MetroVoice. In addition, the online publication of the MetroVoice has generated many hits on our website. Right now we’re at 25 percent of our goal.

Athletes4Jesus has several fundraisers planned. Check out our website www.athletes4jesus.org under “Coming Events” for where you can find us next. On December 10th we will have an exhibition basketball game featuring the Harlem Legends at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO.

Anyone interested in making a donation, purchasing Athletes4Jesus armbands, bracelets or becoming a corporate sponsor of our Harlem Legends event or just finding out more about our project, please call us at 1-877-63-JESUS, write us at Athletes4Jesus, P.O. Box 275, Festus, MO. 63028, e-mail us at info@Athletes4Jesus.org or visit our web at www.athletes4Jesus.org.

We are continuing to walk in faith, but lately, it feels like we have broken out into a sprint. Stay tuned and please, help Jesus be represented on February 5, 2006 at the Super Bowl!