Tyler

Tyler came to Arizona on a football scholarship as a kicker. He knew faith was something he should hold to, but his vision for faith was small. He told me as a freshman, "If I can get through college and keep my faith the same, I'll consider that a win."

We ended up living together the next two years. Tyler began to grow a heart for a deeper walk and a desire to help lead others to Christ — but he struggled to make friends on the team. For his first two years he didn't see anyone on the team show interest in faith, or even want to be his friend.

He kept persevering anyway.

One faithful guy appeared — Gunner, the captain of the defense (the one with the tattoos). Gunner came to Christ at SMC 2023 and started growing with Tyler's help. That spring, Tyler baptized him.

That fall, the dam broke. Tyler saw over 4 guys on the team come to Christ, and started pouring into them himself — even bringing Gunner along to share his testimony and learn how to disciple others.

The stories above didn't come out of nowhere. They came out of four years of life on life — meals, road trips, late nights, church mornings, road games, hard conversations. Here's what some of that looked like.

When the day came, Tyler asked me to officiate his wedding. There aren't many things in ministry that beat that — watching a guy you've walked with for four years stand in front of his bride and commit himself to her under God.

Tyler now kicks in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens. The platform is bigger. The locker room is different. But the calling is the same — be a man who follows Jesus in front of his teammates, at the highest level of his sport.

The work that started in a UofA dorm room is still going.