A Pioneer in Portugal fell in love with wrestling at a young age. He now gets to use that love to meet friends and share the love of Christ as he serves on a church-planting team in Lisbon.
Tommy fell in love with wrestling at first sight. It was a special day in kindergarten when they headed to the gymnasium for an assembly and he was shocked to see two guys fighting on the stage. He was captivated by the way they moved with elegance and power.
Tommy ran home to share his new enthusiasm and wrestling moves with his dad. His parents immediately put him in wrestling and it became a pillar of his childhood. He loved everything about it. He loved learning from his coaches, trying new techniques, and trying to make his body move with a combination of explosiveness, speed, purpose and control.
Tommy continued wrestling until a series of injuries abruptly ended his wrestling career in college. He was devastated. In the midst of that devastation, Tommy noticed God had kindly surrounded him with a few new friends who were always talking about Jesus. They were confident in their identity and seemed to talk about God with the same passion Tommy thought about wrestling. He joined them at their church one day where people showed genuine interest in him.
“There were people asking my name, what I do for fun, people genuinely interested in me. They were asking what I thought about the passage, they were people genuinely caring for my heart.”
God opened Tommy’s eyes to the Gospel through the meek, genuine love of his church. “God took wrestling from me and made Himself my deepest desire. He graciously caused me to repent of my sin and believe the Gospel. He reordered my heart and saved me from pursuing a perishable wreath of temporary, ever-fading false glory.”
That same community and Tommy’s girlfriend at the time (now wife) challenged him to use skills he’d learned through wrestling to disciple kids. He suddenly saw an opportunity to teach wrestling’s discipline, suffering joy, and work ethic on the foundation of God’s Word.
He became involved with high school teams in the States and saw God bring fruit on and off the mat. When Tommy and his family moved to Portugal a few years later, he remembered how God had used his experience and love for wrestling and wondered if there was opportunity to do something similar in this new city. He found a wrestling club, assuming he would pursue the same kind of role he had as a high school coach: teaching, mentoring, challenging and ultimately discipling young men to follow Jesus.
Tommy got to practice and noticed everyone was older than expected, 18 to mid 30s. He asked the coach how he could help and the coach in turn asked if he would compete. To Tommy’s own surprise, God led him to say yes and opened the door to a new community where he could extend the same Gospel love that first attracted him to Christ back in college.
“It really was as simple as that, I continued to show up to practice, train hard, share my knowledge of the sport, and be genuinely interested in my teammates, asking them questions about what they like, about their family, about what they believe, just like that first church I went to with my friends.
This became a regular rhythm for Tommy as he learned language and culture in a new place. He faithfully showed up and engaged everyone at practice and over time, God gave room for spiritual conversations.
“As we stretched after practice, there would be really good questions and conversation about our beliefs, questions about the world and evil and suffering…countless opportunities to share that God loves the world, that we are sinners and choose ourselves over God and it results in broken marriages and child abuse and so much evil we see all around us...”
When Tommy took a step back (literally), considered how he could steward the experience God has provided him over the years, and gave a yes to the coach’s invite to compete and God’s invite to trust him, a new world opened up.
He continues to show up, train, and share knowledge with the club so that God would be glorified in this city, specifically on the mat. Tommy has gotten countless opportunities to share that passion for God with others and continues to pray for those seeds of truth to flourish in the young men’s lives.
“I have yet to see someone in Europe come to faith that I met through wrestling and at the same time I can also say that it is in wrestling, in the conversations while we are still dripping sweat and can barely finish a sentence, the conversations while we cool down and talk about life that I have seen God most clearly and directly reveal who he is to those people who do not have a relationship with Him. It is in those conversations that I have seen him communicate through me to people that don’t know him about his desire to restore the world to a perfect and beautiful harmony….and that is far more beautiful to me than anything I have ever seen.”
Pioneers throughout Europe are stewarding the skills and experiences God has provided them in response to God’s call to “go”.
Tommy’s willingness to steward his love and meekness on the wrestling mat has opened doors to share the Gospel with new communities in Portugal. Is this something you could do? What experience do you have that could be grafted into the work God is doing to build bridges and share His good news in Europe?
