Big Announcement at MBBC

Many at Maranatha have know about this for some time, but last Friday the official announcement was made: Jeff Pill is named as the new soccer coach at Maranatha! You can read the story here. Ironically, I have been "stealing" Pill's Drills for a long time and a couple of years ago I learned that Jeff was a member of Dr. Phelp's church in New Hampshire. In fact, when Dr. Phelps became the new president of Maranatha, I had hoped to get Coach Pill to instruct at the Maranatha Soccer Camp. This is a great hire for soccer at Maranatha. I have been privileged to spend some time with Coach Pill and believe that he and I are in lock-step when it comes to coaching philosophy - the difference between us is that he just might be a little bit better coach.

I have shared this on a number of occasions, but I believe that both the men's and women's teams are poised for outstanding seasons. Anyone who watched us play late in the season last year will know that both teams have the talent and now the experience to win on both the D3 and NCCAA levels. I also believe that with the addition of a coach the stature of Coach Pill, there may be some recruits who who will chose Maranatha and put the teams "over the top".

In the meantime, I have taken a new position at Colorado Christian University. The announcement was made a couple of weeks ago and I am looking forward to a new challenge as their head men's soccer coach. Things have moved very quickly and we will be moving at the end of March so that I can be a part of the spring season at CCU and start recruiting for the fall.

Please keep Coach C and Coach P in your prayers as we make transitions to our new places of ministry. - C

Another Mission's Trip

Many of you remember the men's and women's soccer team trips to Germany in the spring of 2006. That is when this blog began. This summer several members of our soccer rosters will be joining Maranatha's project: Global Encounters and taking the Gospel to other cultures.

A mission's trip is a great encouragement to missionaries already on the field and a way to further train our own students for further service. The teams are preparing for their respective trips through meetings and language study. They are also in the fundraising stage of the trip - a great exercise in faith for the young people.

I want to encourage some of you to consider a gift toward this effort - either a general gift to Global Encounters or a gift to a specific individual. Here are the soccer players who are going:

Mexico: Sarah Berry

Argentina: Emily Dow, Matt Huggins, Chris Jochum

China: Elise Jones, Rebecca Manion

If you cannot give, please keep Global Encounters in your prayers.

Maranatha Choirs

I am going to interrupt the series of memories with a post about the choirs at Maranatha. Last night, my church was privileged to host the Maranatha Chamber Singers, a group of which I am an alumnus. I was able to travel on five choir tours in three years. Chambers used to travel once in the fall and once in the spring. I have often said that choir tour was the best thing that I did in college. I was involved in sports and plays and other events, but nothing beat choir tour for sheer enjoyment.

I enjoyed the bus trips. Hanging out with college friends, walking up an down the aisles, trading jokes, endless games of Rook or looking out the windows at the new terrain that we were always passing through. I always tried to do my homework before tour. I knew that I would do very little (if any) on the trip itself, so I usually just left my books in my dorm. Visiting the homes of church members was also a memorable experience. Folks were always very kind.

Last night's Chamber's Concert was one of the best that I have heard in my 15 years around MBBC. Hand's down. Mr. Ledgerwood always does such a good job with harmony and over half of the package was acapella - kind of appropriate since I always remember him trying to get the pianists to play more softly when I was in choir. Looks like he just decided to go without the accompaniment altogether. Other new things included:

• Formal dresses on the ladies
• Tuxes on the men
• Larger choir (40 vs 36 when I sang)
• Mr. Ledgerwood's hair seems to be under better control than it was back in the 90's

Things that are still the same include:

• Mr. Ledgerwood's hand gestures - minimalist but effective
• The emphasis on harmony over volume
• Singing in "the round"

I missed "O Thou, In Whose Presence" and "Jesus Paid It All", but the current selections were outstanding as usual. I also enjoyed seeing several soccer kids in choir. There seemed to have been more of them in the fall, but the spring '08 Chambers include Joel Smith, Kat Alley, Jarid Lawson, and Laura Kennedy. The Chamber Singers leave for their tour on March 7th. If you can make it to a concert, I highly recommend it.

The Madrigal choir just returned from their tour. Soccer/Madrigal members include James Collard, Chris Jochum, and Hillary Lockhart.