Jonathan Anderson, volunteer coach of the 2024 LLWS champion Lake Mary All-Stars, led his team with faith, passion, and sportsmanship. His viral final-inning speech inspired millions. He proved that respect for God and love for the game—not money—fuels true champions. To learn more about the podcast or access the show notes, visit www.redletterpodcast.com.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Children’s HopeChest. Being a church partner with HopeChest is an amazing two-way transformational experience for your whole church. Not only do you and your church get the joy of knowing you are making a difference, but you also get to experience the love of a community and learn from their community through multiple mission trips to your community overseas.
HopeChest’s model gets into a community, they establish a multi-year partnership, and then build up local leaders in the areas they work with. They develop community plans with clear exit strategies, focusing on empowerment of the local people, not a forever dependence on those of us who want to help. It truly is the “helping without hurting” model that I know as a pastor I looked for a long time in my global mission work. In my mind, they check all the right boxes.
Take a first step and get to know this organization more by going on a vision trip. They are getting ready for some summer vision trips to Guatemala, Uganda, and Ethiopia. You can find out about them and sign up at www.hopechest.org/lutheran. Thanks again to HopeChest for being our Season 8 Sponsor.
Resources mentioned in the episode
Little League Baseball World Series
Disney Honors Little League Team/Coach Video
Key insights from the episode:
I tell the boys, “Take that pain and use that pain in your training.” – Coach Anderson
This was my calling, and I was taking every step to do that. – Coach Anderson
This is more than coaching baseball, it’s mental and character coaching. – Coach Anderson
You can fail 70% at bat and still succeed in baseball. – Coach Anderson
Jonathan Anderson’s Challenge: Train yourself with the Lord this week.
Are you following Jesus?
Many want to be greater followers of Jesus but don’t know how. We extensively studied everything Jesus commanded of us and located five key targets to which Jesus invited His followers. The five targets are Being, Forgiving, Serving, Giving, and Going.
In partnership with LifeWay Research, we created a Red Letter Challenge Assessment that will measure you according to these five targets. And the best news of all: it’s free! You will get results back immediately and be presented with the next steps to help you become an even greater follower of Jesus.
You can take the FREE Red Letter Challenge Assessment here.
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