Welcome back to shout-out Friday, the day where I pick a friend who I want to applaud publicly. Join in below in the comments with others you’d like to shout-out.
I am certain of only a few things in life. (1) The Dook Blue Devils are not just nominally demonic. (2) The best thing in the world is to sleep in on a vacation day (so we’ll see you at, say, noon today). (3) If I had to pick a top 10 most encouraging moments in my life, Fritz Games would be in it.
He probably doesn’t even realize it, but one day in about 2004 he rocked my concept of campus ministry. I was an absurdly disorganized and overconfident single guy. He was the RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) minister at the church I was a member of in Murfreesboro, TN.
I was struggling with raising some new support (while not using the phone at all, hence the struggle) since moving the previous year to TN to start work with Campus Crusade for Christ at MTSU. Fritz and his wife Aimee (pronounced incorrectly by me for at least the first 30 times. I’m sorry, Aimee. uh-MEE) were, in my mind (again–my overconfident and young mind) at least partially the competition. We were ministers at the same school with different organizations. I thought that Campus Crusade for Christ had a great ministry philosophy, and like any arrogant kid, assumed that meant that it was superior to other organizations. Sure, I’d have said that we were on the same team, and not in competition, and I really believed that.
But I wouldn’t have financially supported him.
And one day, he absolutely rocked my world by handing me an unsolicited envelope with a note that they wanted to begin supporting me monthly, and the corresponding check.
I was the overconfident kid, so I didn’t let him see me nearly begin crying as he handed me the check. But it was more than a check, it was an interlinked arm in the foxhole that was campus ministry. It did more to shape my approach to the other ministries on campus than any amount of talking or praying together could have. He literally put his money where his mouth was.
Fritz and Aimee would likely be uncomfortable with me sharing about their giving. They didn’t do it for the applause. But I’m clapping today, and I want everyone to join me. If you are interested in supporting the work they do now in Western Kentucky, you can link arms with him in his current foxhole by clicking here. Tell him Ben Meredith sent you.
Don’t forget to add you own shout-outs below in the comments!