Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a ministry to students and coaches in high schools and colleges all over the country, and with schools closed for the spring semester, local FCA staff members have had to become creative on how they continue to minister to these athletes.

Chris Kaiser, is the area director for Northeast Oklahoma, and is now in his 28th year of working with the ministry. I spoke with Kaiser last week, and he said he really misses the personal interaction with the athletes and coaches.

“It’s been hard for us as a staff because we spend the better part of our days on campuses visiting with students and building relationships,” Kaiser said. “With the quarantine we’ve lost those opportunities.”

Kaiser said the FCA staff has had to do what everyone else is doing; meet online.

“We’ve been saying this whole time that ministry doesn’t stop, however, we’re so relationally based and have had to reinvent ourselves and create virtual environments like the schools have done,” Kaiser said. “We have tried to encourage our schools, coaches and sponsors to do the same thing on a virtual platform. We’ve had some success with it, but it’s not the same as being there. We’ve been doing local and national online huddle groups, which have been very well received. I’ve had to learn these virtual environments, and learn how to create ZOOM meetings. I probably have 8 or 9 ZOOM calls per week.”

There has also been a statewide online huddle group for coaches that has been hosted by Owasso head football coach, Bill Blankenship.

“There’s been on average 60 coaches joining in each week, and over 80 total in the past four weeks, and that’s been really neat,” Kaiser said. “The coaches have been enjoying it, they long for it, and really need it. The meetings have gone longer and longer each week, as the coaches want to share more and ask more questions.”

Like many of us, Kaiser finds himself with more time on his hands these days, but he’s enjoyed more time with his wife Betsy and their four sons who are at home.

“We’ve done lots of home improvement projects, we’ve painted every room in our house and are remodeling to potentially sell our home,” he said. “Two of our boys are home from college, and their taking virtual classes, the grocery bill has increased quite a bit, I’ll tell you that, but It’s been great to have them here.”

Kaiser is a fan of the outdoors and has had the opportunity to spend much more time hunting and fishing, than normal.

“Personally, [the quarantine] landed right at the beginning of turkey season, so I’ve been hunting quite a bit with my kids and they all got birds,” he said. “We went out fishing three or four times, so it’s been great to get together with them. Apparently, a lot of people have done the same thing. It’s amazing how many people have been out on the lakes and in the woods.

Kaiser and his wife have four boys. Their oldest son is staying Edmond and attends UCO. One of their sons who is home from college is Gage, a football player at Pittsburg State. The other is Matt, who plays baseball at Seminole State College. Their youngest son, Cooper, is a junior at Broken Arrow High School.

“I think this has been hardest for the baseball players,” Kaiser admitted. “The baseball teams went from being super competitive to doing nothing, since the season was just getting started and now there’s no summer ball, and that’s very important for college players.”

As Kaiser said, the ministry work never really stops, but sometimes we have to change with the times in order to better meet the needs of those we influence. All in all, he’s learned, like many of us, that the bottom line is, regardless of what we’ve been able to do, or not do, spending more time with family is a good thing.