Ghostwriting and Copywriting Samples

Book Projects:

Last Flight Out:

Chapter One

War and Peace

“Waiting on God requires the willingness to bear uncertainty, to carry within oneself the unanswered question, lifting the heart to God about it whenever it intrudes upon one’s thoughts.”

Elisabeth Elliot

Provinces fell like dominoes in the wake of a major Taliban offensive that began in May of 2021. An agreement signed by the U.S. and the Taliban on February 29, 2020, was the handwriting on the wall that foretold the impending collapse of the Afghan government. A reduction in air attacks by American forces took away the crucial advantage the Afghan National Security Forces had in combatting the Taliban.

The remaining U.S. personnel were scheduled to withdraw by August 31, 2021. Back in Washington, the U.S. intelligence community said Kabul would fall perhaps six months after the withdrawal as if they were giving odds for a major sporting event in Las Vegas. But the Devil showed up early as the Devil always does when opposition to him is removed.

Kabul International Airport could be likened to the Devil’s hell on the morning of August 24, 2021. Crowds of living, breathing, desperate souls pressed together among dead bodies whose souls, perhaps mercifully, had left them. The living souls choked down gasps of air filled with the stench of human waste from a broken sewage system.

Food and water were scarce, and hope was all but gone. The last flicker from light once held high over the land would indeed pass into darkness when the last U.S. military flight left the country. The scheduled evacuation was now a rescue mission.

Naim and Rahimi lived outside the gates of the airport for thirty hours with their newborn baby and ten girls under their charge. They observed one of those girls comfort a younger sister after she saw a two-year-old trampled to death by a surging crowd during an earlier rescue attempt.

Jane and I watched these events unfold from 7,000 miles away in the comfort of our home in Omaha, Nebraska. But we were anything but comfortable. Naim and Rahimi were our friends, those were our girls, and the responsibility for getting them on the last flight out of the country fell onto our shoulders.

The weather in Kabul at that time of year is much like what we experience in Nebraska with hot days and cool nights. Our hearts broke for our friends and the girls as we thought about them spending those thirty hours out in the elements knowing they were gripped with fear at the thought of falling into the hands of the approaching Taliban. If the rescue mission failed, the teenage girls would be married off to ruthless fanatics and our friends faced torture and death.

Those same girls had once laughed and giggled like girls everywhere as they twirled around on the dance floor of Kabul Dance Studio, the first and only dance studio in Afghanistan. Jane started the studio while I taught at the International School of Kabul.

Two of these girls, the daughters of our housekeeper, grew close to our children during this time. We paid for them to attend the school and the girls soon excelled in English and Education. But the security situation in the country was rapidly deteriorating. After a meeting with President Karzai, we decided it was time for our family to return to Nebraska.

My school was forced to close as the government teetered on the brink of collapse. Another, smaller school, opened in its place. Some of our students began attending the new school but unfortunately, we lost contact with most of them. We were able to continue supporting the two Afghan girls who had become like family to us, hoping they would somehow receive a quality education despite their circumstances.

It was 8:00 in the morning at the airport in Kabul on that 24th day of August, but it was 10:30 at night on the 23rd at our home in Omaha as we sat on our sofa and watched events unfold in real time. During that surreal experience, we seemed to be getting a glimpse of what the future held for Afghanistan, and for our girls if they couldn’t get past the wall separating them from the relative safety of Kabul International Airport. We didn’t think we would ever get a good night’s sleep again if that happened.

Jane hadn’t slept for days. She worked around the clock assembling a rescue team from across the world. This was not her first rodeo. It was in fact, her third. The first two rescue attempts failed.

Our Marine friend Mack was on the line with her. He had a promising lead, he said, but we had to jump on it right away. We took that leap every time we heard such an urgent plea in the past, but each time our friends remained outside the outer gates of the airport. Jane told Mack to handle it the best way he knew how and hung up the phone.

“Something has shifted,” she said, turning to me. “I feel total peace. It’s time to release this.”

I looked at my wife in disbelief for a moment. Jane acted with the unrelenting ferocity of a bear robbed of her cubs for weeks by that point. After gathering a team of the unlikely to do the impossible she was now just going to walk away?

But an invisible handoff had occurred, and I felt a peace come over me. As a man, it seemed so unnatural to just turn and go sit down on the bench as the final moments ticked down with the game on the line. Of course, she was right. We had done all we could do. The time had come to hand it over to God.

“Ben,” Jane continued, seeing that my peaceful countenance now mirrored hers. “Naim and Rahimi need to be told to try one more time.” She picked up her phone once more and punched in a number. “Talk to Naim man-to-man and tell him they must push forward to the airport one last time. Then we are going to go to bed. We’re going to trust God and go to sleep.”

After the failed rescue attempts, we assumed our friends had given up, left the airport, and returned home. We knew that staying at that house was worse than a death sentence for them. Naim was the older brother to the girls Jane and I had taken in during our seven years in Afghanistan. They were all best friends with our daughters. We loved them as our own. They were family to us.

“Naim,” I said when Jane handed me the phone after getting him on the line. “This is a critical moment for your family—a life-changing moment you will never get back. I know you’re tired after waiting for thirty hours at the airport, but you can’t stay at your house. You know that. You have to go back.”

“We can’t go home, Mr. Ben,” Naim said. “The Taliban watched us leave our house for the airport and they are now watching our home. We cannot go back.”

He explained that he had taken the group to a relative’s house near the airport. They were hungry and exhausted from the ordeal but worst of all they had lost hope after the failed rescue attempts.

I pleaded with him once more. “You have to try one more time.”

After a long pause, I heard a renewed determination in my friend’s voice.

“We will do it. We will go back to the airport.”

Our friends received that word from Omaha, and by faith, they were returning to the airport. We received a word from God to rest. There was no real reason for renewed hope for any of us. We had no plan. Our team had no plan for the next mission. None of us had any idea what would happen next.

I handed the phone back to Jane and nodded. We turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Never a Straight Line:

Chapter One

Never a Straight Line

“Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ.” 

John Piper

Calling myself a bougie girl got a laugh out of Nate and Janene when we sat down with them for the interview at the steakhouse. But as I said earlier, my bougieness was about to be put to the test when it came time to join Matt in his truck upon the completion of his training.

God was about to do a work on me in that area. And it’s a good thing I spent that time in deep dive prayer while Matt was on the road with his trainers. As expected, Matt picked up the skills needed for his new job in no time. Without my prayer time, I don’t know if I would have been prepared for what was to come in such a short period of time.

Let me give you a little background so you may understand more why this life was such a radical change for me. Not to sound like a snob, but I had seen the finer side of life and I rather enjoyed that time. The quote attributed to Sophie Tucker, among others resonated with me: “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better.” Sophie Tucker was a popular entertainer during the first half of the twentieth century. She was known as “The Last of the Red-Hot Mamas.”

I wasn’t rich before, or I wouldn’t be calling myself a bougie girl. Bougie, as the word is usually applied, means someone who aspires to be a higher class than they are. The term comes from bourgeois, the term used by communists to describe despised middle- or upper-class people.

That was me – a middle class country girl from a family in the American heartland. Of course, my family life wasn't always as nice as it appeared on the outside. But my siblings and I all picked up the entrepreneurial spirit from an early age and I'm grateful for that. 

So, I wasn't rich, but I did want to achieve all that God had for me. And I didn’t consider myself a red-hot mama, either. I just liked to dress for success. During my career as a hairstylist, I would fly off to New York City with the jetsetters to attend elite atelier workshops and stay at the best hotels the Big Apple had to offer. That was me - the bougie girl.

Our new accommodations were not going to be anything like the best of the Big Apple, but we would nevertheless be riding in style on the road. After all, the truck King Bros. provided for us was a brand-new top-of-the-line Peterbilt 389 painted crimson red – just like in the vision God had given me.

That’s a trucker’s dream, and here we were going to be able to drive that beauty right out of the gate. Or so I thought. God had other plans and needed to do a little work to prepare me for The Radical Road journey.

When Matt pulled into the yard at the end of his final training run, I was on cloud nine. We were finally going to get started on The Radical Road journey - together. Even though I had been busy with preparation for our first trip and the road ahead as well as all the catching up with my family, I had missed Matt immensely. And I knew he missed me. We are best friends and go everywhere together. 

King Bros. had a load to Idaho lined up for us. But the truck we would come to know and love and call Crimson Creed was not ready yet. Instead of that beautiful 2023 Peterbilt we would make the trip in Big Blue.

God was about to wring out the last bit of pride from this bougie girl like He was cleaning a dirty old washcloth to prepare me for the journey. The fact that Matt and I are very close to one another took on a whole new meaning when we tried to sleep cheek to jowl in the sleeper in Big Blue.

Nate said he would pay for us to stay in a motel each night of the week-long trip to Idaho and back. But he had been so kind in providing the new truck for us and in supporting our ministry in any other way he could that we didn’t want him to have to pay the extra expense.

But after a few sleepless nights packed like sardines in that tin can sleeper we felt we had to stay at motels for the rest of the trip. It was a safety issue. Matt had to get some sleep to drive safely on those crazy roads we had to travel. Not to mention I needed sleep as well to help put together the pieces for The Radical Road. There was a podcast to start, a website in development, and merchandise being created to help support our ministry.

The motels available for us to stay in were not much of a step up from our accommodations in Big Blue. Choices are limited for truck drivers due the size of their rigs. Matt and I both came from places where we had much and were brought low to experience firsthand the struggles people face regardless of which rung they are currently on in the ladder of life.

Did I mention God had other plans? I had the opportunity to experience with Matt some of the challenges faced by truckers every day. I especially, needed more refining to prepare me for whatever was ahead on The Radical Road. We had taken this little detour for a reason.

After all, life is never a straight line.

Copywriting Rewrites 

Academic Treatise Translation:

Original:

Mining the Field for Mindfulness, Workplace Stress and Performance: 

A Multi Field Review

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a synthesis of published research on mindfulness in multiple fields as it directly and tangentially relates to the workplace. In particular, two research areas are given primary attention: managing stress and enhancing performance. Sustained attention, improved problem solving, and reductions in impulsive reactivity are among the benefits linked to mindfulness in potential workplace settings. Areas for further research are denoted with a strong call for management scholars to develop stronger links between the concept of mindfulness and key management research themes. 

INTRODUCTION

Generally, mindfulness denotes a state wherein an individual is said to be present in the moment, eliciting a non-judgmental awareness, and aware of the mind’s focus or direction without adding opinions or thoughts, either negative or positive (Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 108). Despite an increasingly wide body of publication on mindfulness (Black, 2013), a deeper understanding of how mindfulness is related to workplace dynamics is needed. I therefore conduct a multi-field review on mindfulness to broaden the research agenda and stimulate further management research in this area. I focus this review primarily on two organizational research topics: stress and performance.

Having acute levels of workplace stress creates business costs which come in the form of high turnover, absenteeism, decreased productivity, and direct health-care costs (Michie & Williams, 2003; Goetzel et al., 2004; Wolever et al., 2011; Noblet & LaMontagne, 2006; Thygeson, 2010; Limm et al.,2011; Goetzel et al., 1998). As increased levels of stress become common place in organizational life (American Psychological Association, 2007-2012), research increasingly includes meditation and behavioral methodology in order to go beyond technology or psychopharmacology based solutions (Channuwong, 2009). Though mindfulness related research on stress includes expected variation (Galantino, Baime, Maguire, Szapary, & Farrar, 2005), the bulk of the research denotes marked improvements across subjects and samples. In this paper, in depth reviews of relevant research from multiple fields illustrate these findings.

The notion of secular meditative training aimed at improving performance poses a shift in approach when held against a “working harder” dominant discourse (Hallowell, 2011). Locating mindfulness in workplace settings, or by relevant factors having to do with performance functions such as attention and managing emotions, I provide review and summary of existing publications. Aside from some preliminary lines of inquiry (Shao & Skarlicki, 2009), a body of research aimed at predicting individual performance based on a degree of mindfulness is underdeveloped. Two subsections provide developed research in the areas of emotional regulation and attention as they relate to identified factors of performance. Following the two subsections, I briefly review two publications which touch on problem solving and task related performance. Finally, I discuss the implications of this review for future management research. 

The paper begins with a thorough definition of mindfulness. I challenge a range of western cultural assumptions about meditation practices which include “repressing emotions,” “mind numbing,” or “tuning the real world out.” These assumptions hinder a practical understanding of mindfulness and the role it can play in workplace applications. With a definition in place, I provide a thorough review of related literature under the general theme of Mindfulness and Stress. This primary section is further broken into three sub-sections: improved health and mindfulness, stress and mindfulness in the brain, and a case example of mindfulness programs aimed directly at healthcare professionals. Next, I review existing literature on workplace performance and mindfulness with three sub-sections: emotional regulation, attention, and problem solving/task performance. Lastly, implications for further research are strongly developed following with concluding remarks to summarize project findings and contributions. 

Mining the Field for Mindfulness, Workplace Stress, and Performance: A Multi-Field Review

Abstract:

This paper synthesizes published research on mindfulness in relation to the workplace, exploring its impact on stress management and performance enhancement. The benefits of mindfulness include sustained attention, improved problem solving, and reduced impulsive reactivity in potential workplace settings. Areas for further research are highlighted, urging management scholars to establish stronger connections between mindfulness and key research themes in management.

Introduction:

Mindfulness refers to being present in the moment, cultivating non-judgmental awareness and attuning to the mind's focus without adding opinions or thoughts (Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 108). While there is extensive research on mindfulness, its relationship to workplace dynamics requires deeper understanding. This multi-field review aims to broaden the research agenda and stimulate further management research by focusing on stress and performance, two vital organizational research topics.

The Impact of Stress in the Workplace:

High levels of workplace stress incur various costs, such as turnover, absenteeism, decreased productivity, and healthcare expenses (Michie & Williams, 2003; Goetzel et al., 2004; Wolever et al., 2011; Noblet & LaMontagne, 2006; Thygeson, 2010; Limm et al., 2011; Goetzel et al., 1998). As stress levels continue to rise, research incorporates meditation and behavioral methodologies as alternative solutions beyond technology or psychopharmacology (Channuwong, 2009). Although studies on mindfulness and stress exhibit some expected variations (Galantino et al., 2005), the majority of research indicates significant improvements across diverse subjects and samples. This paper provides in-depth reviews of relevant research from various fields, highlighting these findings.

Shifting the Approach: Mindfulness for Performance Enhancement:

The concept of secular meditative training to enhance performance challenges the prevailing notion of "working harder" (Hallowell, 2011). By exploring mindfulness, organizations can tap into powerful strategies to optimize performance.

Together, this review aims to provide an engaging insight into the relationship between mindfulness, workplace stress, and performance, fostering further exploration and understanding in management research.

Title: Exploring Mindfulness in the Workplace: Stress Management and Performance Enhancement

Abstract:

This synthesis delves into published research on mindfulness in various fields and its connections to the workplace. Emphasis is placed on two key areas of study: stress management and performance enhancement. Mindfulness has been linked to benefits such as sustained attention, improved problem-solving, and reduced impulsive reactivity, offering potential value in workplace settings. Further research opportunities are highlighted, with a call for management scholars to establish stronger connections between mindfulness and key research themes.

Introduction:

Mindfulness, a state of non-judgmental awareness and present-moment focus without interfering thoughts or opinions, has gained significant attention (Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 108). While extensive literature exists on mindfulness, understanding its implications in workplace dynamics requires further exploration. To broaden the research agenda and stimulate management studies, this review encompasses diverse fields and concentrates primarily on stress and performance. 

Workplace stress has substantial costs for organizations, including high turnover, absenteeism, decreased productivity, and healthcare expenses (Michie & Williams, 2003; Goetzel et al., 2004; Wolever et al., 2011; Noblet & LaMontagne, 2006; Thygeson, 2010; Limm et al., 2011; Goetzel et al., 1998). As stress levels rise in organizational life, meditation and behavioral techniques are increasingly explored as complementary approaches to traditional solutions (Channuwong, 2009). Although research on mindfulness and stress exhibits some variations (Galantino et al., 2005), overall, it indicates significant improvements for individuals and groups. This paper provides comprehensive reviews of relevant research from various fields to shed light on these findings.

In contrast to the prevailing "work harder" mindset (Hallowell, 2011), secular meditative training aimed at enhancing performance offers a different approach. Mindfulness challenges traditional notions by emphasizing quality over quantity.

Rewrite:

Mindfulness at Work

Lao Tzu said, “If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” About five hundred years later, Christ said, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matt. 6:34 NRSV) 

If living in the moment or practicing mindfulness will bring peace to your personal life, as has been understood for thousands of years, how will it affect the workplace? Published research on mindfulness in the workplace, especially regarding stress management and performance enhancement, confirms that it will have a similar effect.

Mindfulness has been linked to benefits such as sustained attention, improved problem-solving, and reduced impulsive reactivity. It’s an ancient practice that has gained popularity in recent years due to its positive impact on mental health and overall well-being. We’ll explore the power of mindfulness and why management needs to incorporate this practice into the workplace.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness refers to being present in the moment, cultivating non-judgmental awareness, and attuning to the mind’s focus without adding opinions or thoughts. In modern parlance, this talk about mindfulness may sound too woo-woo for the workplace, but science tells us otherwise.

While extensive research on mindfulness has been conducted, its relationship to workplace dynamics needs to be better understood. Maintaining focus in today’s hyperconnected world is becoming increasingly difficult. Mindfulness can help us stay focused by training our brains to be more present and less distracted. Thus practicing mindfulness can improve our productivity, enabling us to achieve more in less time.

What about ‘Working Harder?’

You may have heard scientists have decided to replace lab rats with lawyers. There are three reasons for this:

1. They are plentiful; there will never be a shortage of lawyers.

2. The lab assistants won’t feel sorry for them.

3. There are certain things rats just won’t do.

But this model will likely fail because the study of behavior leads to predictable patterns when we follow the science rather than allow results to be skewed because facts don’t align with preconceived outcomes. A scientist must determine why the rats won’t do certain things rather than replace them with lawyers who will do anything so that the scientist may continue the study.

Consider the following scenario: A manager rat is responsible for increasing the supply of cheese, and the only available source is from mousetraps. The manager may feel pressured to follow the ‘work harder’ model and demand more from the unfortunate rats under his charge.

Following this model will understandably be stressful for those who must somehow remove cheese from the traps, knowing what happened to their colleagues who had achieved undesirable results during past attempts. Productivity suffers when responsible parties lament past failures and agonize over future predictable outcomes.

Mindfulness at the Workplace

What if the team practiced mindfulness? Remember the earlier definition—a non-judgmental awareness and attuning to the mind’s focus without adding opinions or thoughts? Team members practicing mindfulness would recognize the inherent flaws of past systems and work to design a workable solution.

Perhaps when free from the negative emotions engendered by the ‘work harder’ methodology of the past, someone may postulate that any jarring motion would set off the traps. Team members would concur that this was their observation as well, and then they would work toward the desired outcome, i.e., how to get the most cheese with the least risk.

Eventually, their competition (the trap-setters) would catch on to them, but it would be too late because the team had learned to work together to find solutions.

This is mindfulness at work.

 Nonprofit Fundraising - Before:

It's hard to believe that _________ has been providing transformative experiences in nature for youth for 33 years! During this time, _________ has established itself as one of the country's most well-respected and effective youth-serving nonprofit organizations in the outdoor industry. As a former board member, we know you care deeply about ________'s future and long­ term stability as we do and we need your help to keep up the momentum.

We are reaching out to all former board members to join us in helping to establish an endowment for _______ and grow it to $600,000 by 2026.

This is the moment to plan for the long-term. _________ has successfully emerged from the COVID pandemic under new leadership and with renewed resolve. The work in which ________ has been engaged has never been more relevant or more needed. Given the state of the world in 2022, right now is __________ 's singular moment to shine.

Over the past two years, people from all parts of society have turned to nature to heal, rejuvenate, grow, learn, and feel a part of something larger than themselves and their immediate circumstances. However, individuals, especially youth from the communities __________ serves, continue to be among the most vulnerable to the biological, ecological, and social stresses and dangers the world has been experiencing. Additionally, these folks continue to be among the least likely to have access to nature to support their overall well-being. _________ is here to answer the call.

This you know.

What you might not know is that very recently, ____________ secured a $300,000 gift from a small family foundation. This may very well be the largest single gift in our organization's history. The directive with this gift, to be distributed over five years, is to establish an endowment fund to ensure the long-term sustainability of the organization.

Needless to say: we are thrilled with this news. We've attempted to establish an endowment for ___________ several times in the organization's history, but as you know, it didn't stick. This time it will. We are able to add several original endowment gifts totaling $130,000 to the gift's principal and BCM is in the right financial position to make good on this long-term dream.

In practical terms, this means we would need to collectively raise $45,000 specifically for the endowment every year for the next five years to achieve our $600,000 goal. We believe that this is not only doable, but a great initiative to put in front of __________'s former Board to help out with. In this way, we can create and share a legacy that will ensure __________'s continued success well into the future together.

This is our truly singular moment. We hope you are able and willing to join former board members from all of __________'s areas to ensure we can continue to deliver on our vital mission for the next 33 years and beyond. Personal gifts are of course welcome but equally important is an effort to leverage your communities and networks.

Please expect communication from one of us in the coming weeks; we look forward to speaking with you soon.

T

Yours,

Nonprofit Fundraising After:

We are happy to share some great news with you. A small family foundation has donated $300,000 to__________, the largest single gift in our history. Of course, we’re excited about the gift and what it means to_________, but we wanted to be sure to reach out to you and thank you for all your hard work and continued support.

As you know, ________has provided life-changing experiences for disadvantaged youth since 1989. The smiles and the sparkle in the eyes of these young people are testimony enough of the far-reaching impact of your service to the community.

But these youths have gone on to live transformed lives, multiplying your contributions many times over. Without your generous giving in the past, the large gift we received would never have been made. You helped lay the foundation that made this day possible. Thank you.

The $300,000 gift will be distributed over five years and will be used to establish an endowment to help ensure that your hard work will endure for generations to come. $130,000 from other endowment gifts takes us closer to our dream of growing the endowment to $600,000 by 2026.

To reach that goal, $45,000 must be earmarked for the endowment each year. We all have our communities and networking groups we live and work with every day. Can you reach out to yours to help turn this dream into a reality?

Benjamin Franklin said, “if you want something done, ask a busy person." That’s why we’re reaching out to you. We know you’re busy. And we know that your hard work and dedication in the past prove that you care and that you desire to help kids in the most vulnerable communities.

These youths will continue to have opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise experience without people like you stepping up to the plate and making it happen. Can you envision these kids laying under stars they’ve never seen in the communities we serve as they imagine lives they never thought possible?

Amy did just that. And in doing so, she discovered that she had far more courage packed inside her 4’11” frame than she had ever imagined. Amy leaped at the opportunity to go backpacking in Yosemite after _________reached out to her youth agency, East Bay Asian Youth Center. At Yosemite, she carried her 50lb backpack and hiked up steep terrain to reach a10,000-foot elevation and beyond. 

But Amy wasn’t done reaching for the stars. She went on to attend the Outdoor Educators Institute, the 10-week training program offered by________, to pursue a career in the outdoors she fell in love with at Yosemite. After completing the course, she enrolled in the Environmental Studies program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Amy has given back by returning to __________ to serve as a volunteer and board member.

Thanks once more for your ongoing contribution. Because of your generous support, Amy and the thousands of other youths served by _________ will carry the torch when we no longer can.

With gratitude,

___________________

P.S. One of our current board members will reach out to you in the weeks ahead. We look forward to speaking with you soon.

Letter to a Life-Changing Benefactor

Before:

Dear Tom,

Thank you for your kind, prayerful generosity. I wanted to thank you and share with you some of the things that your generous and kind gift has generated. Because you gifted Che with an education from Abilene Christian University, he has been able to touch lives of countless young men with Christian principals both in the realm of athletics and education, as a mentor, coach, teacher and father for the last 20 years.

He met his wife of 21 years at ACU. They have three Christian athlete sons. They have all chosen to follow Christ. They have all been baptized and are actively participating in and leading Christian fellowship groups, as well as, participating in football, baseball, and basketball. The Boerne High School football team that Che currently coaches, just made history with a 10-0 season, as they go into the playoffs. Both Houston and Hutson are on the team. Hank is in 8th grade and his football team has gone undefeated for the last 2 years. We haven’t heard the end of him!

You don’t always see or hear about the works and results that your generosity has produced. I just want you to know the good fruit you have helped produce by your generous giving to others. All three boys have grown up wanting to attend ACU because of the stories they have heard from Che and his friends that went to school there. 

Houston, the oldest, is a senior. The Air Force Academy has been recruiting him to attend the academy and play football. He has just recently committed to them. We are very proud of him and know he will go on to do great things.

God answered my prayer through you in providing Che with a wonderful Christian Education and I wanted to thank you again, 25 years after the fact and share with you some of the many blessings you initiated with your generous gift. 

Gratefully,

Extra thoughts, not sure if they should be included or exactly how to include them. I do want the scripture included. Not sure of just putting the address or complete scripture.

School board member said to me just recently at a football game, “It isn’t often you find Christian coaches that actually live out their beliefs and aren’t afraid to show them. We are lucky and proud to have Che.”

2 Corinthians 9:6-9

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done.

After:

Dear Tom,

Twenty-five years ago, through a prayerful act of generosity on your part, my son Che attended Abilene Christian University. You planted a seed that has grown into a mighty tree that continues to bear fruit to this day. My heart bursts with joy when I see that fruit and with gratitude towards you for making that happen. I wanted to share with you how your gift has impacted lives and will continue to do so for generations to come if the Lord tarries. 

Che met Lindsey, his beautiful wife of 21 years, at ACU. Together they produced Houston, Hutson, and Hank, three exceptionally talented boys who continue to amaze us with their accomplishments. Besides the legacy he’s built as a great father for twenty years, Che’s influence continues to be felt in the lives of the countless young men he has served as a mentor and coach.

Of course, we are most grateful that Che’s boys have chosen to follow Christ and be baptized. All are participating in and leading Christian fellowship groups. Each grew up wanting to attend ACU because of the inspiring stories Che and his alumni friends told.

And what athletes the boys turned out to be! They have participated in basketball and baseball but have excelled in football most of all. Che is blessed to coach Houston and Hutson at Boerne High School, where the team is headed to the playoffs with a record-breaking 10-0 season. And the world hasn’t heard the end of Hank! His 8th-grade football team has been undefeated for two years.

The Air Force Academy has been actively recruiting Houston during his senior year of high school, and he’s recently committed to them. We know great things continue to be in store for him there.

As we sat and watched a football game at Che’s school recently, a Boerne school board member turned to me and said, “It isn’t often you find Christian coaches that actually live out their beliefs and aren’t afraid to show them. We are lucky and proud to have Che.”

Yes, we are all lucky and proud to have Che, to use her words. My own words fail me. Thank you doesn’t seem adequate to express how much I appreciate your kindness and generosity.

With gratitude,

Marva

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. - 2 Corinthians 9:6-9