Stacy Dragila
Testimony First and foremost, it is my belief that my life and talents are God given and I thank Him everyday. Because of my personally held beliefs, I live my life giving 100% in whatever I do. This includes whether I’m doing the chores around the house, or following my coach’s instructions during a practice session. Once I commit to something, it is important for me to see it through to the end. It may not always be pretty, but the more committed to a goal I am, the more likely I am to succeed. I also strongly believe in treating others as I would want to be treated, believing the world will be a more pleasant place. My advice to you: That is why I believe it’s important for you to surround yourself with positive role models. Let your dreams be known by those with your best interest at heart (parents, teachers, church leaders, club leaders, and friends) so they can help you keep moving in the right direction. Write your dreams/goals down to help you see them everyday, and so others can hold you accountable. Remember your dreams should be “your dreams” and you should be proud of them. It is also important to be realistic with your dreams/goals. These dreams/goals may seem tedious at times, but if not done in progression, it could seriously jeopardize the likelihood of the ultimate goal. Remember not every step you take along the way to the dream/goal will be in the right direction. We all have unforeseen situations that come up and we must deal with. It’s how we react to these unforeseen or poor decisions that determine the next step(s). Take any positives from these setbacks, learn from them, and get right back on course. I also think it’s important to step “outside” the box and try something new once in awhile. You’ll never know if you’re good at other things if you never take risk, or dare to be different!!! Imagine if I never tried pole vaulting for the first time at age 23. My life would be drastically different and I would have never won multiple U.S. national championships, three world championships, or an Olympic gold medal. Dream a little…. A quote: (Unknown) |
Matt Hasselbeck
Testimony Your testimony is louder when you're going through hard times. It's easy when everything is going your way. What I've learned through all of this is not to point fingers, to listen to criticism and not to blame others When a coach would say something, I'd say, “Didn't you see the receiver's route?” I have to admit, I was a little immature at times. I'd play the blame-game. But you know, this isn't something you can coach. It's something you have to go through. I realized I needed to change a lot of things. I also needed to block out the crowd, block out the negative things. It's easy in good times to be able to say the right thing, But so what? The true test of a person is who they are during those difficult times. (Excerpted from an article in Breakaway Magazine.) |
Dave Downing
Snowboarding star, featured in many extreme sports videos Testimony I was born in a beach town in Southern California. I grew up in a family of three sisters and a loving mother and Father. I spent most of my early days hanging out on my dad’s boat, and playing at the beach. I was your typical sandy beach kid from California. My parents were part of a Presbyterian Church and I was first introduced to Jesus Christ there. At first I didn’t really get it, it was hard for me to see through all the robes and big organs. It didn’t seem too personal to me. But then I went to a Christian Camp at Catalina Island when I was about 12 and there I learned that I could have a relationship with God through his Son Jesus Christ. Since that point the Holy Spirit has been in my heart guiding me. I thank God
that this happened before high school because that really saved me. I went to
a big high school in Redondo Beach and it was kind of easy for me to be invisible.
I had some friends there that surfed and I was pretty into playing on the soccer
team. I thought that going to all the parties and the football games was pretty
stupid. I would rather go to sleep and wake up early to go surfing. I also worked
at a surf shop there and I had some good friends that just surfed all day and
worked at the shop in the evening. I did have some trouble fighting the Devil
when I was in high school and I still do, but I know that God is When I was working at the surf shop, I wanted to be a professional surfer. That was my dream. When I was 21, I was on a ski trip in Utah and God introduced a snowboard to me. After my first run I was totally in love with it. I didn’t really think much of what I was doing, but God just put one thing in front of me and really made things easy for me in snowboarding. I still to this day don’t know what happened, all I did was trust him. So from when I was 21 till 24 all I did was snowboard. When I was 24 I went on a trip to Italy for a snowboard magazine and I met this snowboarder named Shannon Dunn. I fell in love. This was another time that God really plopped something in my lap. We dated for about 4 years and we got married in 1999. We live in Encinitas California in the summer time and have a great church home, North Coast Calvary Chapel. We have some super good friends down here. In the wintertime we are up in Lake Tahoe and doing a lot of traveling. I feel that God wants me to be a snowboarder that affects the snowboard community. A lot of people think that to be a snowboarder you have to be into partying and get tattoos and nose rings. But you don’t. God has blessed my life so much and continues to bless my snowboarding career. I am now 37 years old and I am still super stoked on snowboarding and riding my board for God. He’s my best sponsor. My advice to you: Some people might think that being a Christian means that you can’t have any fun. That is the farthest thing from the truth. God made this world to enjoy and have fun in. The hardest thing to deal with is Satan. He is real and there is a battle going on over your soul. There will always be things pulling on your heart to do the wrong thing in life. This is where you have to rely on God to get you through. Prayer is your communication with God. I used to think that prayer had to be serious and if I messed up the words that God wasn’t happy. But now I know that God just wants you to talk to him like you talk to your best friend, He is your best friend so he just wants to hear what is on your heart. Also reading the Bible is very important to how close you feel with God. Reading his word and having the Holy Spirit reveal things to you is awesome. I know that people always say, “Just try to be yourself,” but that is the best advice I can give to young people. Just because you see every other kid going out to parties and doing things that you know are bad news doesn’t mean you have to do that to be cool, or to fit in. Be yourself and stand up for what you believe in. Have Fun. |
