Redemption Power
Very little compares to the redemption power of the cross. Over the years, I have seen that power and the love of our Savior Jesus Christ transform young men in ways that are hard to believe. My current starting center, Joshua Wilchcombe, has one of the most amazing stories I have ever heard when it comes to Christ finding a broken young man and completely turning him into a masterpiece. Joshua now has a heart for God like few you will ever see. After he shared his testimony last year in our FCA meeting to around 150 students, over 30 athletes committed their lives to Christ. Not only that, but we baptized many of them along with other students in the pond on campus just weeks later. It was one of the highlights of the year and what many OKWU faithful called the most powerful move of God on our campus to date. I believe God has so much more in store and this is only the beginning of even greater things to come.
I received an email from a former player of mine recently sharing his redemption story. It is one that I felt led to share. James Manthe was the younger brother of two of our former players at JBU. As an assistant coach, I did all the front end recruiting thus building a relationship with him. His brothers were right in that James had the potential to be the best of the litter. James could do it all. He was 6’3, athletic, strong, could shoot it, defend, and play PG, G or SF. Not only that, but he had both drive and mental toughness. One of our most challenging off-season strength and conditioning drills required players to throw a 25 lb. heavy ball up against a wall over and over for one minute. It required you to use your legs, arms, hands, and core to maintain the drill for one minute. It would simply melt most freshman. I will never forget the first time James did the drill. He attacked that ball and made the drill look like a walk in the park tossing it up high on the wall and he even talked a little noise the whole time. I saw so much promise in him. Sadly though, James was missing one very vital component required to making him special. Spiritual strength is something few in the world of athletics consider to be vital in helping a player reach or exceed his or her potential. At that point in his life, James chose to ignore this vital ingredient.
He had a good freshman season, but instead of allowing his fearless gift to propel him to greatness, he had a fearless immaturity that knocked him off the ladder of success. It not only caused him to underachieve on the floor, it led to poor decisions off. I took the head coaching position at OKWU after his freshman season, but had high hopes of James maturing into a very special player. It was very discouraging to hear he not only got hurt, but was dismissed from JBU for other poor decisions.
Below is his story. It is a testimony of redemption and faith.
THE JAMES MANTHE STORY
Coming off of a disappointing end to my senior season in which we were upset in Sub-State, I showed up to John Brown University for my freshman season in 2006. I watched all of my older brothers compete for a state championship, and I had fallen short of a life-long dream. However, showing up to JBU that fall I had something to prove and I was going to make it happen.
I had been taught from an early age what was right, but I had never committed my heart to following Christ. As a result, while at JBU my life continued to take a downward spiral. While my focus was basketball, Satan used my selfish motives to continue to take me further and further away from the one who loves me the most. Without the protection of God in my life, I was wide open to attacks. It was during my sophomore season that an injury changed the course of my life forever.
I remember this moment like it was yesterday. After injuries of our two best players, I felt the load was on me to carry the team. I was not in a place to carry that load, because I was facing everything in my life alone and with only my strength. Early in the 2nd half of a game, I caught the ball in the corner and went by my defender. As I attacked the basket one of their forwards rotated over. I jump stopped and was a play ahead in my mind. I would shot fake, he would jump to block the shot, and I would jump into him, draw the foul, and attempt to get a 3-point play. As I pump faked and I went to draw the foul, I felt my ankle give out. I began to fall and felt something that I had never felt before, a pain that shot all the way through my body as the 6’8” 250 pound forward proceeded to fall onto my foot. As I laid on the ground in pain, not just physically but also spiritually, and emotionally, I couldn’t even make a noise. I know something was wrong by the way the training staff was attending to me, but I had no idea what had happened.
During those years, I had nearly zero contact with my family, but it was God’s grace that my oldest brother, my hero, happened to be at the game. My life off the court was in turmoil and now I was a complete wreck. It seemed like an eternity waiting to be seen at the E.R. After X-rays they believed that my ankle was dislocated and they needed to put me under to put it back into place. The next thing I remember was waking up in an ambulance and I was on my way to a bigger hospital. I was confused and did not understand what was going on. Once we arrived I was immediately rushed into surgery. After coming out of surgery, I faced the realization that my basketball playing days might be over. The doctor was able to explain that I had a Les Franc Dislocation and had shattered my foot.
Basketball was my life, my focus, and all my dreams were wrapped up in it. I spent the next four days in the hospital facing pain that I did not understand. This pain was more than physical. The war that was raging in my soul was more than I could bear. The reality of facing up to three more surgeries and potentially having screws permanently in my foot for the rest of my life crushed all my dreams. It was at that moment that I stopped caring about anything.
I spent the next two weeks laying on my parents couch trying to gain the strength to go back to school. Once I went back, my life continued to plunge deeper and deeper from the purpose that God had originally intended for my life. A month later, after spending pretty much every minute in my dorm room, the school and the athletic program had reached their limit with me. I was living in alcoholism and drug addiction and as a result, I had lost my scholarship and was dismissed from campus. As I went back home to Kansas, I told myself that I didn’t care and that I didn’t need basketball, school, or anything it offered me.
As my focus shifted from basketball to trying to find happiness and pleasure in other things, I found myself at an all-time low, which I didn’t think was possible. It was in May of 2008 that God reached into my life and changed it forever. An assistant college basketball coach from
Champion Christian College in Hot Springs, AR called me. I was living at my friend’s apartment at the time sleeping on his couch trying to survive in a world that seemed harsh and unforgiving. I was still in a cast, thought everything was over, and felt this would now be my life. When the coach called me, I put on a tough front that everything was great. At the end of the phone conversation, He did something that he may never know the depth or impact it made on my life. He prayed with me, then he said these three words, “I love you”.
The whole time we talked on the phone something inside of me was screaming that I needed something and this guy knew what it was. However, as I had done so many times before, I ignored that voice. I know now that it was the Holy Spirit drawing me. A week later life hit me even harder, in an attempt to quiet all of the pain and anguish my soul was going through, I took too much of a prescription drug and I woke up 3-4 days later. It was not an attempt at suicide, but it was a cry into the darkness for help.
When I came to, I sat up and looked around, and that same voice spoke to my heart and said “Is this what you want your life to be?” In tears, I audibly replied “no”. The same voice spoke back and said “Remember that coach that talked to you last Week? Call him”. For once I listened and after our conversation, I felt that voice inside me say, “I have what you are hungering for”. I packed up the few belongings I had, I swallowed my pride and called my mom. In tears, I told her what was going on and said that I needed to move to Arkansas to go to this small Christian college. I asked for her help and she made it possible. Thank the Lord for my aunt who lived in Hot Springs, who let me move in with her.
When I moved down to Hot Springs in the summer of 2008, I had no idea the plans that God had for my life. I was just a lost kid with no purpose looking for satisfaction in anything except the joy and love waiting for me there. I soon found all of that. I put my faith in trust in Christ on October 18, 2008 and was baptized the next day. I believe that God saved my soul when I chose to follow him months before, but I wanted to make a public confession of my faith.
In the next year my life, God completely changed everything. I began to feel this source of strength, this unconditional love, and to top it all off, a joy and peace in my soul that I had never experienced. As I began to submit my life to Christ, He began to give me back everything that I thought was gone forever. The doctors had told me that I might never play competitive sports again, and if I did, that it would take at least a year to recover. God’s grace was greater, as I was back playing by the end of September. Champion was a small college, and competed nationally in the Association of Christian College Athletics. God blessed our teams and we were able to win back to back National Championships in 2009 and 2010. The mountain tops that I experienced during those years were amazing and I was thriving in every area of my life. I had purpose, hope, peace, joy and I experienced love in a way I never thought was possible.
During my senior season at Champion another valley showed up as I was declared ineligible based on the number of games I had played my sophomore season at JBU. I thought I would receive a medical red-shirt, but did not, and it devastated me. The only difference this time was that God was in the valley with me. After graduating college in 2011, I considered pursuing playing professionally, but God had other plans. He opened a door for me to coach at Gospel Light Christian High School. Coming from a very competitive basketball background, I began to pour into those kids about how to win on the court. I hoped that God would change their lives the way He changed mine, but my focus was still primarily on winning. In my four years there, we were state runner-up three times. I then was blessed with opportunity of becoming the head coach at Champions Christian College, where God continued to grow me. In 2017, God moved my family to North Carolina to coach and teach at Nebo Crossing Academy. Once again we finished 2nd overall at the state tournament in the Carolina State Athletic Association. 2nd place again!
In October of 2018 God hit me with a startling realization, when one of my players, my best player, approached me. He had the intention of not playing basketball anymore, because of issues he was struggling with personally. That’s when God laid it on me, and it hit me like a ton of bricks! This is was what he asked me, “Are you the type of coach, that your players cannot see My grace”. It burned deep inside me because I had coached for seven years and had been so out of focus. I knew God could change their lives, but I was praying for God to change their lives in chapel, church or even during a bible class. Not recognizing all along that God could do that same work during practice, or at half time, or even during a timeout.
That’s when I began searching and asked myself, “How I can get involved in what God wants to do through my coaching?” I played for Coach Bostwick as a freshman at JBU, and he had a tremendous impact on my life. I didn’t realize the value of what he was trying to pour into my life that season. Coach Bostwick took a head coaching position at OKWU the next season, but the seeds he planted would someday grow.
As I realized I had no idea how to even begin a running college program, I called Coach Bostwick for advice. He was always kind and willing to talk basketball, but I could tell with him coaching was not just about winning championships, it was a ministry. His success was a byproduct of that ministry. I finally recognized that the call of coaching on my life was to be something more than just trying to win a championship.
I have reconnected with Coach Bostwick since moving to North Carolina, and God has begun to show me what a real Christian coach looks like. It has been amazing to see God change the lives of my players. The concept that playing is a way that we can worship God and that this worship can change both my life and the lives of my players is so powerful. In the last few months, I have seen players overcome things such as anger and confidence issues. It is something that is permeating into the culture of our program and I believe it is going to change these player’s lives forever. I have found that I can’t accomplish anything of true value on my own, but God desires to work through me. Nothing is impossible, if I just submit to his will of coaching for His glory!
I can’t help but tear up when thinking about where God has brought me in my life. As a young man I fell for every lie that Satan through at me. Decisions that led to the deepest darkest days of my life. Today, I am a husband of an unbelievable God loving and fearing wife and father of three precious children. I daily have the opportunity to invest in the lives of young men and to impact this world for God’s glory and His kingdom. Through it all, I am beginning to see that true joy and satisfaction in life is only found in one place and that is in Jesus Christ and to Him be glory and power forever.