CHRISTIAN COACHES            CORNER                        Jan Barnett Miller (above in a photo taken by Will Smith, bspnms.com) has been girls basketball coach for two seasons at The Veritas School in Jackson. Jan won two Mississippi Private School Association Overall girls basketball championships at Kirk Academy and also played basketball under Hall of Fame coach Van Chancellor at Ole Miss. Jan has 17 years of coaching experience at Veritas, Jackson Prep, Brookhaven High and Lake Highlands High in Dallas. She and her husband, Dave, are members of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson. Dave also serves as Jan’s assistant coach at Veritas. Jan has been a member at First Presbyterian since 1982 and was missions director there for 10 years. She has traveled and played with Campus Crusade for Christ and Athletes in Action in Russia, Poland, Germany and Czech Republic.      It has been my distinct honor and privilege to share God’s love, grace and redeeming work in my life with others through sports and coaching. As I look back on my life, I can see how all of the challenges and struggles I encountered were the result of God drawing me to himself.   When I was a young girl, I struggled with the loss of a father’s love and affection and the absence of security caused by divorce. Initially, I sought my identity and self-worth in athletics and sports, thinking that if I worked harder and outperformed everyone else, then I would be loved. Much of my feelings of value and self-worth came from the praise I received from others about my athletic accomplishments. I thought I was a Christian because I was raised by a Christian mother, faithfully attended church, always tried my best, and attempted to do what I understood was right---basing my relationship with Christ on my performance. It wasn’t until a trip to Kanakuk Kamp in Missouri as a counselor before my senior year in college that I discovered my true identity as a child of God.  For the first time in my life, I experienced unconditional love, affection, attention, grace and mercy for who I was, not for what I had accomplished on the field of athletic competition. John 13:35 --- They will know you are Christians by your love --- is a great example of how people loved me for who I was. It was then that I realized and confronted – in a very personal way – my own sin and my desperate need for God’s unconditional love in my life as demonstrated by the redeeming work of his son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. (It was “a love that would never leave nor forsake me” Heb.13:5). In my lifetime, God has given me many opportunities through basketball to serve Him and love others using the talents and gifts He so graciously gave to me. During my travels with Campus Crusade for Christ and Athletes in Action in foreign countries, I learned how to play for and glorify God with my talents and skills. Sports are a great way to deepen relationships, to share my faith and help develop strong Christian character. My involvement in sports has certainly influenced the person I am today and has allowed me the opportunity to share my faith and invest in lives of others. My life verse is Colossians 3:23 – “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”              NEXT ISSUE OF VICTORIES IS IN LAYOUT, DESIGN PROCESS    The next issue of Victories in Metro Jackson magazine is in the layout, design stage right now. Features in the next issue:    Madison Central's Kelsey Simmons and Jackson Prep's Massey Buckner, who were good friends in seventh grade and learned a lot from older girls in a Bible study at Broadmoor Baptist Church;      Jackson Academy graduates Casey Chinn and Louis Rogers, who were outstanding athletes in high school, but made a bigger statement by going on a mission trip to Peru;      Madison-Ridgeland Academy graduates and brothers Chad and Clay Crosswhite, now baseball players at Mississippi State and Mississippi College and how they leaned on God and each other.      Northwest Rankin graduate and Millsaps baseball player Todd Barnthouse, recognized as one of the most Christ-like athletes in the history of the school;      Brandon graduate and former Ole Miss soccer player Perryn Tyler and her vision to become a coach and role model to younger kids;       Clinton High and Hinds Community College alumnus Dominic Douglas, who led the SEC in tackles last year at Mississippi State and is trying to make the NFL;        Ridgeland High graduate Ben Sticker, who missed his senior year of playing baseball due to an injury, but made a positive out of it and followed God's will for his life;        St. Andrew's graduate Chandler Anthony, now at Vanderbilt who credits God for all of his talents and success;        Christian Coaches Corner has testimonies from Belhaven College softball coach Rick Fremin, Copiah-Lincoln Community College baseball coach Keith Case, Vertias girls basketball coach Jan Barnett Miller and Hillcrest Christian boys basketball coach James Crain.         A new featured called "From the Heart" will have stories about Jackson Academy graduate and Ole Miss football player David Traxler and Northwest Rankin graduate and Mississippi State soccer player Hannah Tyler.       There will be updates from Victories alumni Eric Green of Tri-County Academy and Karen McCullough of Clinton. PLEASE PRAY FOR PRO GOLFER KEN GREEN, WHO IS AT UMC IN JACKSON AFTER ACCIDENT     Please pray for pro golfer Ken Green, who was injured in a RV accident while traveling through Mississippi on I-20 near Meridian. Ken is at UMC in Jackson and has multiple fractures in his right leg and broken bones under his left eye, according to his manager Kevin Richardson. Also, Ken's brother, William Green, Ken's girlfriend, Jeannie Hodgin, and Ken's dog, a German Shepherd named Nip, were all killed in the accident. Ken, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, is now playing on the Senior Tour and was traveling from a tournament in Austin, Texas to his girlfriend's home in North Carolina when the right front tire blew out, sending them down an embankment and into a large tree. Ken had his lower right leg amputed and is recovering at UMC. Please pray for Ken and his recovery. SWAYZE WATERS, VICTORIES COMBINE FOR JOURNAL AS HE WORKS OUT WITH LIONS Jackson Prep graduate Swayze Waters, a kicker-punter from Alabama-Birmingham, signed a free agent contract April 26 with the Detroit Lions. Swayze (at right in a photo by Bob Smith, bspnms.com), a Victories in Metro Jackson alumnus, and Victories are combining to write a journal every few days after his experiences. Click on Swayze Waters journal on the left side of this page to read it. God has given Swayze a great opportunity to make an NFL roster and also a platform to share Christ with other players. We congratulate the Waters family (parents Susan and Joel, brother Sam and sister Shelby) on their role in Swayze's life. MISSISSIPPI STATE'S RYAN FARLOW HONORED ON SENIOR DAY FOR HIS TENNIS CAREER     Mississippi State tennis player Ryan Farlow of Madison was honored on senior day Saturday, April 18, in Starkville when the Bulldogs played Ole Miss. Ryan, a Victories in Metro Jackson alumnus, is ranked No. 99 in the nation and has had one of the most successful careers of a Mississippian in the history of college tennis. He is playing No. 1 singles for the Bulldogs. Ryan is a member of Broadmoor Baptist Church. His parents are Vickie and Bill Farlow and he has one sister, Holly, a student at Mississippi State. Ryan's fiance is Landon McCoy, a cheerleader at Mississippi State. We congratulate Ryan on his accomplishments and how he plays tennis with a Christ-like attitude.  MADISON CENTRAL GRADUATE NATHAN WRIGHT HONORED ON SENIOR DAY AT TREVECCA UNIVERSITY IN TENNESSEE Madison Central graduate Nathan Wright, a Victories in Metro Jackson alumnus, was honored at Senior Day for baseball at Trevecca Nazarene University in Tennessee April 25. Nathan, an outfielder, is in his second year at Trevecca after two years at Meridian Community College. Nathan, who has started 28 games, has a .311 batting average with four home runs and 24 runs batted in. His team has a 29-16 record and is in second place in the Trans-South Conference in the NAIA as of April 20. Trevecca was in the national Top 25 poll until last week. Nathan says he will not graduate this year, but transfer to Vanderbilt after this semester and graduate from Trevecca in the spring of 2010. Then he will go to Vanderbilt for another year and graduate from there in the spring of 2011. He will receive two bachelors, one in engineering, with one degree from Trevecca and one from Vanderbilt. We are proud of Nathan's accomplishments on and off the field and are excited that he is spreading God's word in Tennessee as he plays baseball and goes to school. Nathan is a member of Broadmoor Baptist Church in Madison. Nathan's parents, Jane Ann and Steve, have five children, Daniel, 29, Michael, 25, Nathan, 22, Judson, 14, and Katherine, 12. To read about Nathan's story in a previous issue of the magazine, do a search on him on this home page. To keep up with Nathan at Trevecca, go to www.tnutrojans.com.       Prep's Buckner, Madison Central's Simmons display Christ's qualities             The seventh grade is a very important year in any girl’s life. Fortunately for Massey Buckner and Kelsey Simmons (pictured from left to right in photos taken by Bob Smith, www.bspnms.com), their seventh grade years had two major factors --- loving parents and a solid church background --- to keep their priorities in order, their decisions based on Christ and a loving group of friends.             Parents Misty and Steve Buckner and Lea Ann and Mark Simmons, along with the Broadmoor Baptist Church family, were instrumental in the development and maturity of Massey, now a senior basketball player at Jackson Prep, and Kelsey, now a senior basketball player at Madison Central.              In addition, they had something many seventh-graders don’t get a chance to have. Then seventh graders Massey and Kelsey had a pair of older role models, Morgan Brister and Remey Graham, who took an interest, answered questions and gave advice regularly. Morgan and Remey, also members at Broadmoor, became close friends with Massey and Kelsey. Morgan was a junior and Remey a senior in high school when Massey and Kelsey were seventh-graders.          Read the rest of Massey and Kelsey's story in the next issue of Victories in Metro Jackson magazine. To subscribe, click on the "to subscribe" line on the upper left side of this page.         THE CURRENT COVER       Victories in Metro Jackson magazine's current cover is shown above. Clockwise, starting in the top left corner, Mark Buchanan of Pearl High and Hinds Community College, Dan Hall of Madison Central High and Samford, Ala., University, Justin Mapp of Northwest Rankin High and the Chicago Fire and coach Jan Sojourner of Jackson Academy. Chad Bradford of Byram High, Hinds CC, Southern Miss and the Baltimore Orioles (traded to the Tampa Bay Rays after printing deadline) is in the center. Victories photo editor Bob Smith took the photos of Buchanan, Mapp and Sojourner. Bill Barksdale took the photo of Hall and Todd Olszewski of the Orioles took the photo of Bradford. Mike Wharton designed the logo. Chad Tyler designed the cover.