{"id":3777,"date":"2012-10-02T09:39:29","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T13:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/?p=3777"},"modified":"2014-07-21T10:11:22","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T14:11:22","slug":"olympic-diving-coach-adam-soldatis-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/olympic-diving-coach-adam-soldatis-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Diving Coach Adam Soldati&#8217;s Testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Above:\u00a0Adam Soldati congratulates David Boudia \u00a0after David won the gold medal in the men&#8217;s 10-meter platform diving.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Adam Soldati, the Head Diving Coach at Purdue University, gave the following testimony to his Faith Church family on September 9, 2012.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/49233084\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" title=\"Adam Soldati&#039;s Testimony\" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the athletic world, often Christians think that glorifying God happens when we accomplish something spectacular or earn a high achievement and then from that podium, if you will, we point to the sky or kneel and pray and give God the glory.\u00a0 Now- don\u2019t hear me wrong- there is nothing wrong with this we have seen this made famous by guys like Tim Tebow and I say go for it- Tebow it away!\u00a0 But- I have come to believe that the most powerful, awe-inspiring, exhilarating event that makes God and His grace shine the brightest is not in winning an Olympic gold medal.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe that God\u2019s glory and greatness is most visible in beating the unbeatable Chinese on the biggest stage in the world- but rather, God\u2019s magnitude and strength and supreme power is most visible in a changed life.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Upon reflection of all that has happened not just in the past month at the Olympic Games- but in the past 4 years it leads me to a whirlwind of thoughts, memories and emotions primarily regarding the Gospel and God\u2019s grace in changing lives\u2014including mine.<\/p>\n<p>About three years ago, My wife and I were approached to serve in the <a title=\"Purdue Bible Fellowship\" href=\"http:\/\/www.faithlafayette.org\/pbf\">college ministry<\/a>.\u00a0 It was a natural fit for Kimiko and I because of my job as the Purdue diving coach.\u00a0 What I didn\u2019t expect was how much joy and growth I would experience in investing in the lives of others. <div class=\"simplePullQuote right\"><p>What I didn\u2019t expect was how much joy and growth I would experience in investing in the lives of others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\u00a0 For me, my full time job is a diving coach but my calling is to live out the Gospel and invest in others 24-7. \u00a0Therefore, I am not a diving coach who happens to be a Christian but rather I am a Christian, follower of Christ who happens to be a diving coach.<\/p>\n<p>In a society that idolizes athletes, the sporting world can be very dark\u2026.. and at some point in time, student athletes who are living for the wrong things often despair and engage in destructive lifestyles when they experience the severe mercy of dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3786\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3786\" style=\"width: 204px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3786  \" title=\"Soldati Family in London\" src=\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20170523133614\/Soldati-Family-in-London.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"204\" height=\"307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20170523133614\/Soldati-Family-in-London.jpg 425w, https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20170523133614\/Soldati-Family-in-London-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3786\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adam with his family in London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As I served in the college ministry, I began to realize how much I didn\u2019t know about helping students.\u00a0 So I took the counseling training as well as sitting under Pastor Aucoin&#8217;s teaching and discipleship. Kimiko and I begin to pour our lives and the Gospel into the many students God brought our way.\u00a0 One of the first to respond to the Gospel was <a title=\"Olympic Gold Medalist David Boudia's Testimony\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/david-boudia%E2%80%99s-testimony-%E2%80%9Cmore-desirable-than-gold%E2%80%9D\/\">David<\/a>. When one looks at David and sees all that this young man has accomplished and done I believe that God is <strong>most glorified<\/strong> in how He has taken a life of total despair and darkness and self and how His grace has turned it into a life of growth, love, and joy. THAT is what is amazing about this story and THAT is how I believe that God\u2019s glory is most visible to a world and people that are desperate for a savior.<\/p>\n<p>Since David, we have seen many come to know Jesus and start growing in the Gospel. We have even found a new love for housing students and young men and women and sharing not only the Gospel but our own lives with them as well.\u00a0 This is why we are so thankful for the church\u2019s plans for Faith West and the opportunity to minister to young people like David.\u00a0 We know now that God may choose to give one of these students an international platform, like David, for Gospel ministry.<\/p>\n<p>I will quickly close with this.. I want to encourage you AND challenge you to never underestimate the power of the gospel and the power it has to radically change a life.\u00a0\u00a0 The articulated gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16) and we must believe that what He has promised He is also able to perform so we can be bold in our faith and bold in our trust that our God is a saving God and that through faith and trust in Jesus, lives can and will be changed- to Him be the glory alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Above:\u00a0Adam Soldati congratulates David Boudia \u00a0after David won the gold medal in the men&#8217;s 10-meter platform diving.\u00a0 Adam Soldati, the Head Diving Coach at Purdue University, gave the following testimony to his Faith Church family on September 9, 2012. In the athletic world, often Christians think that glorifying God happens when we accomplish something spectacular&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/olympic-diving-coach-adam-soldatis-testimony\/\">read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,11773],"tags":[242,11774],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Olympic Diving Coach Adam Soldati&#039;s Testimony - Faith Church Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/olympic-diving-coach-adam-soldatis-testimony\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Olympic Diving Coach Adam Soldati&#039;s Testimony - Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Above:\u00a0Adam Soldati congratulates David Boudia \u00a0after David won the gold medal in the men&#8217;s 10-meter platform diving.\u00a0 Adam Soldati, the Head Diving Coach at Purdue University, gave the following testimony to his Faith Church family on September 9, 2012. 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