For Paul Grizzle, India is close to his heart. It was his first mission trip in 2011 at the end of his freshman year at Valor Christian High School that first got him excited about serving and loving the poor and "untouchables" of India's caste system. The recent Valor Christian High School Discovery trip to the slums of Kolkata, India and surrounding villages was the third such trip that Grizzle has undertaken and this time, he took some used equipment from the Colorado Rapids to distribute to some of the poorest of the poor in the world. You never see the same thing in India, this trip was different because I was asking bigger questions than previous trips. Instead of just

I had the privilege of attending portions of the recent ID camp held for Colorado high school student athletes at Valor Christian High School this past week. The camp was put on to give students and college coaches an opportunity to be observed in hopes of receiving scholarships or invitations for possible openings on college teams. Of the 100-some students and 25- some college coaches participating in the event, there was an air of  anticipation and hope  - perhaps this might be an opportunity to receive an offer from a college to study and play the sport that they had come to love. As I reflected further, I was reminded of the life of Jesus and his own ID'ing that

On the last day of 2013, there is occasion to pause for reflection. There is much debate around looking backward in order to move forward in our culture. Some criticism - that the only reason we look back is so that we can make more efficient our practice or modernize our mechanistic attitude. Some wisdom - that we ought to learn from mistakes and strive to not repeat them, to teach our children how to overcome them. Some practical application - goal-setting, resolutions, and the like. Some fantastical dreaming - see above. In looking back and contemplating 2013, there are several poignant moments (notice I didn't use the word highlights) for 2013 that have shaped and framed 2013 as its

CrossTraining has announced the second awarded Timothy Project for 2013. This project will be one familiar to CrossTraining supporters and followers as a team from Valor Christian High School returns to Zacapa, Guatemala - this year with a more soccer-oriented focus in mind. In 2011, Valor had an immersion trip with students learning Spanish and living in country - the team requested soccer balls to take on their trip as they had several outreach moments with children in the city of Zacapa and several surrounding villages. This year, the team from Valor will consist of players and coaches from the boy's and girl's soccer teams. And the plan is to run several soccer camps and clinics during their time