FCA finally gets its 'Back-to-School Bash'

It took three tries, but Comanche’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes finally got to have their “Back-to-School Bash.”

FCA president Kinley Rendon summed up the year in her welcome speech to the group when she noted the group was having their back-to-school event, “three weeks before Christmas.”

The guest speaker was FCA area representative Travon Smith of Edmond, a former Oklahoma City University wrestler and coach.

Smith, originally from Louisiana, talked about playing every sport he could growing up and how it became the main part of his identity of who he was as a person.

Smith said he grew up in church, but did not get saved until his freshman year of college after he realized the identity he had through sports was not enough.

He spoke about how he grew up without his father, though he knew who he was and where he was.

Smith said he thought through success in sports, he could win support and respect from his father, but a couple of events brought those hopes crashing down.

He had asked his father to come watch him at a high school playoff game. Smith recalled how his father showed up in the fourth quarter, came down to the bottom of the stands, waved at him and then left.

Another time when Smith, the No. 1 wrestler in his weight class, was competing at the state wrestling tournament, he asked his father to come support him since his mother had military duties to attend to.

“I tore my ACL during a match and lost,” Smith said. “I looked up in the stands and he had never shown up. He lived 10 minutes away from where the tournament was.”

It was a hard reality check for Smith, who went on to wrestle for the Stars. A teammate invited him to church one Sunday and that invitation changed his life.

Now, Smith spends his time telling others about Christ and how he would hate to know that a friend of his would die without knowing Jesus because Smith had never told his friend about Jesus.

He gave an illustration of a blacksmith molding the tools he needs to work and the importance of being a tool in the hand of God, allowing Him to mold them into something useable.

Following a time of invitation, Comanche FCA sponsor Jack Francis said the theme for this year is “Unity for Christ,” given the fact there is so much disunity in the world right now. He told the students they could do great things when there is unity.