A Man on a Mission

I've always liked hearing stories about missionaries and also just listening to all that they had to tell about their lives and experiences, ever since I was young and they would on occasion visit us when on furlough. It is such a rewarding and educating experience and usually their zeal for The Lord rubs off on others. Last week there was a story in Sports Illustrated magazine about Heisman Trophy winner and two-time national champion, Florida quarterback, Tim Tebow, and it just gave me goose bumps as I read it!
Here is an excerpt from the SI story:

The man on the other end of the line is calling from the Philippines. He has taken time from his missionary work to reply to a reporter's e-mailed questions. Now Bob Tebow has a question of his own: "Have you heard the story of Timmy's birth?"

Even if you have, it's worth hearing from the mouth of his father: "When I was out in the mountains in Mindanao, back in '86, I was showing a film and preaching that night. I was weeping over the millions of babies being [aborted] in America, and I prayed, 'God, if you give me a son, if you give me Timmy, I'll raise him to be a preacher.'" Not long after, Bob and Pam Tebow conceived their fifth child. It was a very difficult pregnancy. "The placenta was never properly attached, and there was bleeding from the get-go," Bob recalls. "We thought we'd lost him several times." Early in the pregnancy Pam contracted amebic dysentery, which briefly put her in a coma. Her doctors, fearful that medications they had given her had damaged the fetus, advised her to abort it. She refused, and on Aug. 14, 1987, Pam delivered a healthy if somewhat scrawny Timothy Richard Tebow.

"All his life, from the moment he could understand, I told him, 'You're a miracle baby,'" Bob recalls. "'God's got a purpose for you, and at some point I think He's going to call you to preach.'I asked God for a preacher, and he gave me a quarterback."
"It's a good line, and a welcome injection of levity from a man who takes his religion very seriously. But it's fast becoming obsolete. Having covered Tim for three years, I would say he's the most effective ambassador-warrior for his faith I've come across in 25 years at SI.

The Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association web-site

Read the whole story at SI Vault HERE