ASSOCIATE CAMPUS
DIRECTOR
Multipling Lives
A T H L E T E S
I N
A C T I O N
A R I Z O N A
S T A T E
U N I V E R S I T Y
Longest Gospel Presentation Ever!
Emma Tautolo
The next “R” in the 3 R’s of
Christian Community Development:
RECONCILIATION
To reveiew, the first “R” was Relocation which I wrote about in my last
letter. Jesus relocated from heaven &
glorification to the “slums” of earth
to live among us, identify with our
needs and bring His presence into our
lives that we might be changed. In
reconciliation, thru the cross, Jesus
reconciled us to Himself, made it so
that we could be in relationship with
God and no longer have to be separated by our sin. The Gospel is also
that He reconciled us to one another.
Reconciliation is the heart of the
Gospel. Jesus said the essence of
Christianity could be summed up in 2
inseparable commandments: love God
and love thy neighbor (Matt. 22) So
our greatest concern is to reconcile
people to God and disciple them in
their faith; But also reconcile people
to each other. A persons love for
Christ should break down every racial,
ethnic and economic barrier. We pray
in the model prayer the Lord taught
“Your kingdom come, you will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Churches should reflect heaven on
earth, and heaven will be the most
integrated place in the world. People
of every nation and every tongue will
worship Christ together. This is the
picture of the church Christ’s presents
to His people.
Meet Elisha Davis! We know her
as Lili (Lee-Lee). She is a sophomore on the women’s basketball
team. Lili started coming to our
weekly mtgs. From the very beginning of the year. I love working with all the athletes in every
sport, but because I played basketball in college there always
seems to be more natural relationship with basketball girls
because much of our experiences
have been shared playing basketball at a division 1 university.
With that, I asked Lili when she
could meet up and chill with
me :) I ended up meeting her in
their locker room team room
after practice one day. It was
great because I got to hang with
many of the girls on the team and
not just her. But after most of
the team trickled out, we began
to talk about what it really means
to be a Christian. So I began to
give a Gospel presentation, starting from the very beginning with
creation and how the Lord intended everything to be with us
in a beautiful, perfect relationship
with Him and then the fall, with
Adam and Eve. We proceeded
on to talk about sin. I was explaining how sin means “missing
the mark” and yes, we do sin
everyday, but sin is a condition.
We are born with it and we can’t
help it, we are born with a sin
nature. One of my favorite moments ever was how Lili responded to that. She said to me,
cept Christ that day but we continued to meet together each
week to talk about who God is
and the attributes of God that
we can see in the bible. (She
needed God to prove to her that
He was worthy of her trust). 5
weeks later we shared the Gospel at our weekly mtg. and I
knew that this was her night. I sat
in the back of the room and
prayed for her as she listened to
the message. After the mtg. she
got up, I looked at her and asked
“is it about that time?” and she
replied “It’s about that time.”
We prayed and asked the Lord
to come live in her and help her
surrender her life to Him. These
are the precious moments that I
toil and labor on campus for.
PRAISE GOD! I am going thru
follow-ups with Lili now and
basketball season is in full effect.
Please pray for her continued
growth, that she learns to lean
on God, trust Him and obey His
word and that in a busy season
she is able to make consistent
time next semester for discipleship.
“Oh! So we are all kinda like
crack babies???” (If you don’t
know what a “crack baby” is, it’s
a term used to refer to a child
whose mother consumed crack/
cocaine during the pregnancy and
consequentially the child is usually born with some severe deficiencies.) Myself and her 2 teammates in the room with us started dying of laughter. But in the
midst of laughing that hard, I
looked at her and said, “Yes! Yes
Lili, we are all kinda like crack
babies and we are born with
some serious problems that only
Jesus can fix!” This conversation
lasted 2.5 hours! It is most definitely the longest Gospel
Reading thru the
presentation I have ever
Gospel of John
given! At the end she said,
together
“Well, I thought I was a
Christian but I’m really
not.” I told her it’s okay,
she has got to hear truth
before she can choose for
herself to give her life to
the Lord. She did not ac-
(909) 518-4500 emma.tautolo@athletesinaction.org 1311 W. Baseline Rd. #1127 Tempe, AZ 85283 Give @ give.ccci.org acct. #0618880
Students Reaching Students
The picture to the right is
5 of our student-leaders:
Payton, Trever, Shaina,
Josh, Kelsey (pictured
from left to right). Payton
is cross-country and she
and Trever have been
dating for over a year. She
has made huge steps of
faith to love her crosscountry team with the
love of Christ! One of her
teammates is Shaina (the
one in the middle). Shaina
was dating a non-Christian who is on
the baseball team. The Lord used
Shaina to bring her boyfriend (at the
time) to the Lord and he accepted
Christ. However, Shaina felt the Lord
calling her to break up with him
shortly after since it was clear that he
could not lead her spiritually in this
season of life. This was obviously just
heart wrenching for her and tore her
up to make that decision after she
just experienced her boyfriend give
his life to Jesus. But she answered the
call to obey the Lord even though she
could not understand why He would
call her to do that in that time. As
time has gone on we have seen the
Lord’s faithfulness and timing at work
in this plan. It’s still hard, but day by
day she is trusting the Lord with what
He is doing in her life. The Lord calls
us to radical obedience and I was so
proud of her for making that kind of
decision to hear and obey God.
Trever, a pitcher on the baseball
team, was projected to get drafted
last year and it didn’t end up happening. It was definitely a time of wondering why? Upon him returning to
ASU this year, he has led 2 of his
teammates on the baseball team to-
Christ! Well that’s exactly why he
didn’t get drafted! The Lord had
some way more important work for
him to do here in Tempe before he
goes on to pursue his baseball career
beyond college! Josh & Kelsey (2 on
the right) just got married in October. They are both only 21 and mature well beyond their age. Josh is
discipling one of our young leaders
on the cross-country team with the
prayer that he will be able to take
Josh’s spot & lead athletes at ASU
after Josh graduates. I am pouring
into Kelsey & now thinking about
what it looks like for me to care for
her as a wife, since she is newly married. Next semester, I will be going
thru a series called “The art of marriage” with her. It’s a video series
with a work book that consist of
dramatic stories, real-life testimonies,
expert interviews, humorous vignettes, and other teaching methods
that lay out God’s design for marriage. I am ready to take a lot away
from this as a single person as well :)
Pray for each of these students as
they are the influencers of the next
generation and on each of their
teams.
Soul food and planning discipleship times for next semester
Took out women’s bball
players: Nisha, Promise and
Lili
Meeting with Marina, a transfer swimmer & new student
leader
Last bible study of the
semester: Christmas
cookie making