Welcome to the NCCAA: National Christian College Athletic Association

5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

My sister, Marianna Burke, was diagnosed with acute leukemia last week. She is being treated with chemo and so far things seem to be going as well as can be expected. Marianne has spent many years in service organizations - 26 years in with YMCA of Greater Cincinnati and now VP of Northern Kentucky Seniors Services. If possible, our family would be grateful for Marianne to be included in your prayer list. Thank you for your concern in this tough time for us all.

Sincerely,

Jack Schlueter

Golf Coach

Cincinnati Christian University

Please pray for the father of Dianna Bloom, wife of NCCAA Board Member, Kyle Bloom. Her father suffered a serious stroke a few months ago which left him unable to speak and care for himself. He has now developed pneumonia which is complicated by years of smoking and is refusing medical treatment for his condition. Dianna is visiting him at this moment and needs courage as she talks to him about receiving Christ as his Savior. Pray that God will give her the words and use her to reach her father for Him. Pray also for his wife and the family as they walk this path.

Please pray for Dr. Jerry Alexander, Vice President for Academics at Central Christian College of KS. He has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Remember his wife, Marie, as she cares for Jerry and as they walk this road together.

Jody Wheeler, wife of NCCAA Board Member John Wheeler, will be going into the Cleveland Clinic on April 21 for some more tests/check-up following her exams at the Greenbrier Clinic last week. There seems to be some concern relative to a hole in a bronchial tube possibly linked to parasitic damage. Please pray for the doctors as they diagnose the symptoms and for peace for Jody and John as they await the check-up results and plan of action.

We have received word that Bill Odell, Athletic Director of Azusa Pacific University, suffered a major heart attack during his daily workout at a local gym. He is currently resting comfortably in ICU at a local hospital with his wife, Gayle, at his side along with Dave and their daughter Suzy. While doctors say damage to his heart appears to be minimal, he will remain in the hospital for at least 3 days, if not longer. The quick response of a medic in the gym is being credited with limiting the severity of the attack. Of course, we also see that as God’s provision and sovereignty in that moment. Please keep Bill, his family, and the doctors in your prayers in the days and weeks ahead.

Please pray for Joan Wheeler, friend of the NCCAA, who is suffering greatly with back pain and facing surgery in the near future. She is now in a wheelchair. Pray for her husband, Earl, and the family as they care for her during these days.

We praise the Lord for how He met with us during the NCCAA Pro-Am that was held in Florida this last weekend. The presence of the Holy Spirit is beyond description. Two people rededicated their hearts to the Lord during this fundraiser! The spouses attending the event participated in an NCCAA CSP (Christian Service Project) and we have received numerous reports from people who were touched by their act of kindness. We were also privileged to pray for an employee, Myrtha, who had 10 family members killed during the recent earthquakes in Haiti and has several other family members still missing and presumed dead. Pray for Myrtha, who loves the Lord dearly, as she takes a 3 month leave to go help her family. Special thanks goes to Chris Lahm, Athletics Director at Ozark Christian College, his wife, Dawn, and 4 student-athletes who came and served during this event. They were such a blessing to both the donors and staff members. Please pray for all those involved and touched over the weekend.

Close friends of NCCAA Board member, Terry & Connie Metzger, have a son, Adam, who was riding his bike and was hit by a car that ran a stop sign. It is by God's grace that he is alive.

Max Greiner is a Christian artist who has created Christ-centered sculptures (i.e. The Coming King, Fishers of Men, Christ Washing the Feet of Peter, etc. and the NCCAA uses his work as part of our donor recognition) that are displayed on college campuses and many other places across the country. He is asking for our prayer support as he has been planning to erect a Christian Sculpture garden along I-10 in Texas. He has a major court battle on Monday as an atheist group has attacked the project and filed suit against him.

Donnie Bostwick, Athletics Director and Men's Basketball Coach at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, has requested prayer for his father who is experiencing serious kidney problems from a tumor blocking his kidney. The other kidney appears to have never functioned at all. Because of the blockage, dangerous toxins have built up in his body. Please pray that the kidney will drain so that they may perform surgery, that they can save the one working kidney, and that God's healing hand will be on him.

Please pray for the family of Jeff Snider, friend of the NCCAA. His grandmother passed away over the weekend and the family is traveling to Kentucky for the funeral. Notes of encouragement can be sent to Jeff at jcsnider1@yahoo.com.

Please keep the family of Juliana Brown (Campbellsville University Lady Tiger basketball graduate assistant and former Lady Tiger basketball player) in your thoughts and prayers. Juliana's father, Doug, died Saturday night. His illness was sudden and unexpected.

Many of you have helped pray for NCCAA Board member, Layton Shoemaker, as he has battled cancer this last year. He sent us this praise update this morning:

As you may recall, just over a year ago I began a series of treatments for prostate cancer. Several friends have inquired regarding an update; thus it seemed appropriate to provide a current status of affairs. Well, praise God, and thanks to your prayers, all appears to be well and according to the attending physicians, I am making good progress toward a full recovery. I had my most recent follow up with the urologist last week and my PSA is now 0.74 and he says that is quite good. I am feeling very well and am not aware of any debilitating side effects. To this day, I remain enormously grateful for the prayers and encouraging words of so many friends. Saying “thank you” sometimes seems so inadequate; however, please know of my sincere gratitude. Currently, I am contemplating going to Haiti with a group from our church, at an appropriate time, to do whatever needs to be done to offer innocent victims hope and encouragement. Such a travesty is overwhelming and beyond the scope of imagination.

She met with an orthopedic Dr. yesterday and he wants to give the break 10 days to see how the healing process begins and then will decide on surgery. He did put her in a different sling that allows very limited movement of the arm. Thanks for all the prayers & encouragement! Cheryl was reading the emails coming in while she was at the Dr.’s Office yesterday and it really lifted her spirits!

Please be in prayer for Cheryl Cowart of Cowart Awards (our preferred vendor for awards, and an NCCAA ProAm attendee). We received the following today: "Good afternoon everyone! I wasn’t sure if you all had heard yet, but Cheryl Cowart fell yesterday morning getting out of the shower & broke her left arm right below the ball joint of her shoulder. The break was clean, but the Dr. says it is a bad place for a break to happen. She is going to see an Orthopedic Surgeon today @ 3pm & is in a lot of pain. They may be able to do nothing but immobilize her arm or they may do surgery. We won’t know until later today! Either way, she is expected to be immobilized for 8-10 weeks." Please keep her in your prayers for a speedy recovery & healing!

Update on Brooke Pagel, cheerleader at Southeastern University, diagnosed with a brain tumor, from Coach Deb Beck:

Brooke went into surgery on Tuesday January 12^th around 2 PM. Her Mom reports that she did very well through surgery and the Dr’s feel that they were able to get the entire tumor. They will do another MRI when she is stable enough to be moved from the ICU to determine if there is any tumor left. In the meantime continue to pray that the tumor was not cancerous, the Dr’s DID say that the type of tumor that was removed was typically not cancerous, but it would be sent for testing. Should they find that it is cancerous or that there is a portion remaining Brooke would have to undergo radiation (we are praying against that). The incision that they made is about 2 inches behind her hairline so they did not have to shave her whole head her Mom said that the Dr’s did a very nice job. She does have a tube in her head draining excess spinal fluid, the drain will be removed after about 2 weeks if the draining decreases otherwise it will be inserted permanently (internally) to drain to her stomach.

The Pagel family has expressed that they have felt the prayers that so many have offered up. They are praising God that Brooke is on this side of the whole situation. They thank you for the support you have given and are asking that you would continue to pray for favor in finding the tumor to be cancer free, and to have no remaining tumor left on her brain.

Letters of encouragement are being collected to be sent to Brooke. If you or your team would like to offer up any of these please forward them to:

Please continue to pray for the devastation in Haiti. Many across the association have ties to people, churches and other ministries throughout the country that have been affected by the earthquake.

Southeastern University Athletic Director Duane Aagaard has passed this urgent prayer request to us from his Cheerleading Coach, Deb Beck. Please pray for this student-athlete and her family:

"I received some very bad news from one of my cheerleaders, Brooke Pagel, yesterday. Over break Brooke stayed in contact with me and as early as last week she warned me that she had what she thought was a sinus infection that she just couldn’t shake and that she had been getting really bad headaches and they make her sick to her stomach and dizzy. At the time she was just concerned she wouldn’t be 100% to work with the team when she came back. She set up some Dr appointments prior to coming back and they were working with her to figure out what was causing these symptoms. At yesterday's Dr appointment she found out that she has a brain tumor. Brooke lives in CT but was directed to Boston to undergo brain surgery possibly today or tomorrow. This is Brooke’s second season as a Fire Cheerleader and she was selected as a team leader. She is an amazing young lady who has a heart for missions. Brooke walks in the path the Lord directs her and she is one of the most obedient servants to His will that I have ever met. Her smile is infectious and she is always there to lend the voice of reason to her team members. She isn’t afraid to stand out and do things a little different just to make someone else happy. Please join us in praying for her."

In His grip,

Coach Deb Beck

Southeastern University Cheerleading Coach

Please pray for Dustin "Red" Asbell, a junior defender on the Piedmont Baptist Men’s Soccer Team. His mother arrived home last night and found Dustin's father unconscious and they were not able to revive him. Please pray for this family as they process this sudden and unexpected loss. Pray for Dustin as he deals with starting the spring semester with such a heavy heart.

Wheeler Anderson, friend of the NCCAA, has requested prayer from the NCCAA family for his friend, Mr. Courtney Middleton. Courtney has been fighting a long battle with cancer and the prognosis is not very good at this point. Pray for Wheeler as he ministers to his friend long distance and for Courtney and his family as they fight this battle.

There are two missing climbers on Mount Hood in Oregon. One of the missing is Katie Nolan, a 2002 graduate of NCCAA member Philadelphia Biblical University who played volleyball for four years. At this point they are still calling it a rescue operation but it doesn’t look promising as they have been on the mountain for three nights now in bad weather. Please pray for a miracle, that she and her friend, Anthony Vietti, will be found alive. A third climber who left with them, Luke Gullberg, was found dead on Saturday. Luke was a believer and so too are Katie and Anthony.

Thanks for your prayers.

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Please continue to pray for our 14 year old friend, Dakota Hill, and his single mom, Jennifer. Dakota has battled a lifetime of illnesses and has spent most of the last month in the hospital. His organs are beginning to shut down from the effects of Crohn's Disease. His stomach has already stopped working and now his intestines, bowels and kidneys are ceasing to function. The only nourishment he is able to take right now is Pedialyte. Having consulted with specialists across the country, the doctors told his mother last week they have done all they can do. They have him heavily sedated to help manage the pain associated with this disease. Jennifer has a very healthy perspective on the situation saying that he is God's child who was entrusted to her for a short while. Her biggest prayer is that her mother will come to know Jesus through the life of her son. Dakota told his mother he is ready to die and to quit suffering because he knows where he is going. Please lift this family in your prayers during these difficult days ahead.

Kelly Wood

NCCAA National Office

Rick Zimmer of Absolute Photography served as the Professional Photographer for the DI & II Volleyball and Men's & Women's Soccer Championships. He wrote to the National Office this morning asking for prayer. He just learned that his best friend of over 35 years, Kerry Decker, passed away suddenly. He is asking for strength for him and his friend's daughter, Erika, and mother, Alice, through these days of grieving as they struggle through the suddenness of this loss. Rick writes, "I know he is with the Lord but it is so hard to let go of those we love and to wait until we are reunited again in heaven." Please help us lift Rick and the Decker family to the Lord.

Sam Riggleman, Baseball Coach and Athletic Director of Spring Arbor University, sent us this update on the condition of his brother, Bob:

My brother Bob is out of the coma and off the ventilator. Praise God!! All along I have been praying that God, in His mercy, would provide one more opportunity to share God’s grace. Last Sunday I had that opportunity. We talked, read scripture and prayed for his physical and spiritual healing. I now am trusting that the Holy Spirit will minister to Bob and soften his heart. Thank you for providing prayer support. I was overwhelmed with the emails I received from across the country from NCCAA coaches and administrators. What a great feeling to know that brothers and sisters in Christ were praying for Bob’s physical and spiritual condition.

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From Mandee Craft, Women's Tennis Coach at Geneva College:

Thank you so much for all of the prayers and support in the past week [following the sudden loss of Mandee's father]. In a way this week has just been an awful blur, but I know that God has held us up through the prayers of people like you. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Please continue to remember the family of Mandee Craft, Women's Tennis Coach at Geneva College. Her father went to be with the Lord yesterday following a stroke over the weekend. The family is overwhelmed by the suddenness of his death, but praise God for a Godly father & husband. He is an organ donor so the family is praying for many people to receive a better quality of life through his living and dying. Please pray for Mandee and her family during these days.

Please pray for the father of Mandee Craft, Women’s Tennis Coach at Geneva College. He has experienced some seizures Saturday and Sunday and has been admitted to ICU. Doctors are stumped and concerned with the CAT scan and blood work finding nothing wrong but are leaning toward a serious infection which may have caused the seizures. Please pray for her dad, the doctors, and that the medical professionals will know whether he should be transported to a bigger hospital. UPDATE: We need more prayers badly. They have said my dad had a large stroke, and they strongly feel he cannot survive. They did find a doctor in Cleveland who will look at him, so we are having him life flighted. Just please pray for him, for us, for the doctors, and that we can have wisdom to make decisions. Thank you so much for your prayers and support.

Continue to pray for Bob Riggleman, brother of Sam Riggleman, Athletic Director & Baseball Coach at Spring Arbor University. Bob’s situation remains critical. He has contracted pneumonia which has complicated the situation. Until his lungs clear, he will remain on the ventilator. To this point, he has not regained consciousness although he was showing some positive signs on Saturday. Continue to pray for his salvation as well. Thanks for your continued prayer support for Bob and his family.

Please pray for the Olivet Nazarene University men’s soccer team. Coach Justin Crew reports that 2 members of the team have been confirmed with H1N1 and 7 others are quarantined with symptoms, including their trainer. Remember the team as this has caused disappointment as they have had to drop out of the Division I NCCAA National Soccer Championship as the #1 seeded team. Pray for the team, their families as it relates to the holidays, and the college as a whole as they deal with the effects of this disease.

I received news last night that my brother, Bob, suffered a massive heart attack. He informed his wife that he was experiencing chest pains and numbness in his arm and needed to go to an urgent care facility. Upon arrival, the physician ordered an EKG and immediately requested he be transported to a local hospital (Dayton, OH). Shortly thereafter, he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. He was revived and put into a “cath unit” where it was determined that he had 100% blockage of his heart. He is currently in an induced coma and on a ventilator. The concern is not only for the amount of damage done to his heart, but the amount of time his brain was without oxygen. Bob, who is 56 years old, lives outside of Dayton, Ohio with his wife Terri and children, Jason and Jamie. He does not know Christ as his personal savior. I would like to ask the entire NCCAA community to lift Bob and his family in prayer. My earnest desire is to have one more window of opportunity to share God’s grace with Bob.

Please pray for Tonja White, daughter of Lt. Colonel & Mrs. Charlie White, friends of the NCCAA. This request came to us as an urgent need for prayer:

We need your prayers. Tonja was admitted to the hospital last Thursday night, with what they thought was pneumonia. They discovered that she needed gall bladder surgery as she had not kept any food down for almost a week. They could not do the gall bladder surgery because of her White Blood cell count being so high. They then determined by CT scan that there was a mass on her liver and possibly lung. She had a biopsy yesterday and we are waiting on the results. Her family Dr came in this morning and said that it does not look good. She has some tumors on her liver and possibly lungs. They will know in the next 24 hours if it is infection or Cancer.

We are believing in God's love and goodness, and have put it all into His hands. Please pray that whatever it is God will heal her, either by a miracle or with the physicians and nurses and medication. Share this with anyone you think might lift a prayer.

Thanks & May God bless you,

Lt. Colonel Charles W. White

I just wanted to share that my grandparents got good news at the doctor. This doctor seems to think the issue is more likely prostate than bladder, and may not even want to pursue further treatment! They have a follow-up appointment this week to know for sure, but it sounds like the first doctor may have misread the MRI! I know that prayers have been answered and I thank you all for lifting him up this past week!
In Christ,
Mandee Craft

Please continue to pray for the family of Jill Hancock, NCCAA Office Manager. Her 94 year old mother passed away Saturday morning. She is very thankful that her brother, Wally Mowen, had flown down last week and was able to spend time with their mother beforehand. The service will be in Union, New Jersey on Thursday. Pray for the family as they finalize arrangements and travel north.

Please be in prayer for the mother of Jill Hancock, NCCAA Office Manager, Mrs. Edith Mowen, age 94. Jill was called from the office to go to her mom’s bedside as hospice indicated that it appears her mom has taken a sudden turn for the worse. Although her health was failing, this sudden change in her condition comes as a complete surprise to the family. She is responding to medications but doctors do not foresee a long term recovery. Please pray for Jill, her brother, Wally Mowen, and the extended family.

I am writing for prayers for my grandfather. You may recall that about a year and a half ago I asked for prayers for my grandma's bladder cancer. I also reported that she came out of that cancer-free, and indeed she is still doing wonderfully. However, they just found that my grandfather now has a tumor in his bladder. He has an appointment next Thursday to find out more, but please be in prayer for his health and for peace and strength for both of them as they realize the difficult road that may again lie ahead. Thank you so much for your prayers!

Two former Geneva College student-athletes were involved in a fatal car accident over the weekend. They were a young married couple that met at Geneva and were just coming up on their one year wedding anniversary. Jessica Vojnovich DeMarco was killed instantly, along with three other young men in the other car. Dan DeMarco is still in a coma in a Pittsburgh hospital with multiple injuries and of course he has no idea about his wife. The funeral for Jessica is on Thursday and it will be a difficult time for many of her former teammates. Please keep all of the families involved in your prayers as well as a full recovery for Dan. Jessica was a four year starter on the Geneva College softball team from 2003-2006 and Dan was a four year starter on the baseball team from 2004-2007. Following is a link to the tribute page that was posted on Geneva’s website in honor of Jessica:

Please pray for Lori Wynn, women’s basketball coach at Malone University, and her family. Lori’s brother Kirk developed a brain tumor about 10 years ago, but in the past year it was diagnosed as cancerous. He fought a valiant battle and as of yesterday morning (October 14) graduated to Heaven. Please keep Lori and her family in your prayers during this time. The memorial service will be next Sunday (25^th) in Raleigh, NC. Let’s keep Lori lifted up too as the pressures of being far from loved ones in times like this, and carrying a load of responsibility with season practices just starting, etc. can make it a more trying time.

Please pray for Dakota, a 13 year old boy, and his single mother, Jennifer. Dakota’s stomach has ceased to function and, following months of preparation, he was admitted to the hospital today to have the stomach permanently removed tomorrow. A feeding tube was inserted a few months ago but it has stopped working. The doctors also discovered late last week that his bowels are not working now either. After Jennifer admitted him to the hospital early this morning, several hours from home, she arrived to the local Ronald McDonald House, in which she had made housing arrangements several weeks ago, only to learn they have been closed down due to mold. She has no where to stay at this moment. To top matters off, Dakota is autistic, but functional. Please pray for the urgent needs of this family and for God’s hand on Dakota.

Please pray for Paul Furey, Men’s Soccer Coach at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University. Paul had a heart attack on Sept. 5^th and had a stint put in one of his arteries. He is home now and doing well. He has been given clearance to resume his coaching duties in another week. He praises the Lord that he is recovering and doing well.