Thank You

By Gary Fallesen, founding president, Climbing For Christ

I covered sports for years – from Pele when I was a 16-year-old working for national soccer publications to Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky when I was a columnist for the daily newspaper in Rochester, NY. From Super Bowls to World Cups, from high schools and colleges to The Masters and U.S. Open golf tournaments.

Sports were my life.

But a little more than 13 years since leaving that world to GO to the ends of the earth, there is scant trace of my work. It’s as if more than three decades do not exist.

Solomon told us that all human accomplishments will one day disappear. Isaiah, David, and James all instructed that we are like flowers, like grass, like fog – here today and gone tomorrow. Prosperity and success are fleeting. “Meaningless,” as the world’s wisest man said over and over.

Only the pursuit of God brings real satisfaction.

“In future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now,” Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:11. “I observed everything going on under the sun,” he added in Ecclesiastes 1:14, “and really, it is all meaningless – like chasing the wind.”

The only thing worth chasing, the only activity that will be remembered is something with eternal significance. God’s work.

We have been blessed to be supported by brothers and sisters who recognize the importance of Kingdom building. We made this video to honor the nearly 250 contributors whose donations (totaling more than $432,000 in 2019) helped us GO where others cannot or will not.

Solomon learned that true wisdom, true happiness comes from pleasing God.

Back to my roots in the sports world, there was a runner named Eric Liddell. He was the Scottish Olympic gold medalist brought to life for all to see in the film Chariots of Fire. Liddell left sports to become a missionary in China. But during his track-and-field career, he once said of his sprinting prowess: “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”

There is nothing like abiding in and feeling the presence and pleasure of God. To know that you are fulfilling His will and realizing the dreams He has for you. It gives us meaning.