Returning to Give Thanks
A personal testimony of FCA's influence on one man's life
By Pastor Michael Welchert
Luke 17:15-18 "One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, 'Praise God!' He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, 'Didn’t I heal ten men? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?'"
I began attending FCA during my freshman year of high school at Valley West in Des Moines, Iowa. My guidance counselor, Jay Cookman, was the FCA Huddle sponsor. We met every Monday night at his house for FCA and since my family did not attend church FCA became my youth group.
By my junior year, our JV Basketball Coach, Rick Nielsen, was also actively involved in our high school Huddle. That summer I attended my first FCA Camp at St. Olaf in Minnesota. It was a life-changing experience. From then on I became a committed Christian and began to fall in love with the Bible. I still have the notes from the speakers during that week at St. Olaf.
I owe the vitality of my young adult Christian faith to my FCA experiences. My faith began to take root during both my junior and senior years, and as a starting member of the football and basketball teams I led team prayer before every game. I extended my Christian witness by writing both a Christmas and Easter letter to nearly 200 of my high school friends in an attempt to share Christ with them.
Also, my senior year I was able to deliver the commencement speech for our graduation ceremonies and returned to FCA Camp at St. Olaf with my best friend who gave his life to Christ.
Since then I have traveled, pioneered and pastored in the ministry of Jesus Christ.
A couple of years ago, I was dropping my oldest daughter off at high school and saw that they were having a special FCA chapel speaker. I found out it was Rick Nielsen, my high school coach. I returned to the school and stood in the back during his presentation to listen. Standing there was like a flashback to my times in high school where Rick use to take me with him on some of his “magic” speaking engagements for FCA. What an impact he had on my spiritual life.
After the event, I came up front to re-introduce myself to Rick and before I could he said, “I thought that was big Mike Welchert standing in the back.” I was floored that he would know me by name after 27 years. I shook his hand and looked him square in the eye and said, “Thank you! Never under estimate the influence that you had on my life. I just had to be here today to say thank you Rick.”
I realized that day just how grateful I am for Rick and FCA being a part of my life as a teen. It is the spiritual influence of both Rick and FCA that has driven me to touch the lives of others through my role as a pastor, an assistant varsity football coach and a chaplain for the Missouri Western Griffons football team. For that, I could never say thank you enough.
