Men of Faith on David Beckham's team

More News

Men of faith on David Beckham's new team
Two of the star players of LA Galaxy share their faith

By Dan Wooding

LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) -- There are men of faith on David Beckham's new team, the LA Galaxy, and they agreed to talk about it after an exciting 2-2 tie with the Kansas City Wizards at the Home Depot Center on Saturday, July 7th.

It was just days before superstar Beckham joins his new team, and the LA Galaxy had held their 5th Annual Faith Night where Christian artists performed and many Christian ministries and churches had exhibit booths.

Chris Klein

A speaker at the Faith night event was Chris Klein, a US national team player who recently joined the club. He told the crowd at the pre-game event stage about the importance of faith in his life.

"My relationship with Christ is the center point of why I play this game and why I go out there every day and work hard," he said. "I do it to let my light shine and glorify Him."

After the hard-fought game, I was allowed into the LA Galaxy locker room and talked with Chris Klein and I asked him when he had first become a Christian.

"It was when I started dating Angela, who became his wife, and she started asking me some probing questions," he said. "I was 22 years old then and in my junior year at college and this eventually resulted in me giving my life to Christ." Klein said a friend called Steve from Athletes in Action then "really pushed me in my walk."

I then asked him how, as a Christian, he coped with the kind of adulation that many sports stars get.

"It can be difficult, but I think it's always keeping that perspective of where we are in His world and how we just can each play a role in it," said Kelin. "As I said before the game, we all need to be living our life before an audience of one, and if you always keep that in mind and always know that it is Him that you're living for, and Him who is your audience, then with that in mind, you do everything you can to live your life for Him."

Chris Klein then talked about Athletes in Action, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, that he is involved in that serves professional athletes.

"They have really urged me get out there and speak more to kids and to groups to really share my faith," he said.

I then wondered how the arrival of David Beckham would affect him personally.

"Well personally, I don't know how much affect it's going to have on me except we're bringing a very good player in and the atmosphere around here is going to ramp up pretty significantly in about five or six days," he said.

"So the addition of him from a soccer standpoint is pretty amazing. The spotlight is going to be on this team for the rest of the season and for the foreseeable future because a guy of his caliber and his magnitude, from a worldly standpoint, is going have in our locker-room and out on the field."

Chris said that Ray Caldwell, a chaplain for the LA Galaxy who is part of Athletes in Action, conducts a weekly chapel service. I wondered if Beckham might attend one of them.

"I have no idea," he said. "That's going to be up to him. We sort of leave an open invitation with all the players. We keep an open door and if guys want to come in and dip their toe in the water, we'd love to have them."

I asked Klein to give some advice to youngster who wanted to be famous sport stars.

"I think that the most important thing is to have an eternal perspective and to know that we're living our life before an audience of one -- and that's Jesus Christ," he said. "If you do that, the other things in your life are going to fall into place. You're going to work harder at your job; you're going to be a better brother or sister or son or daughter. "If you do that and with that perspective, it's a lot more fun, but living under God's grace is certainly the best decision I've ever made."

I concluded by asking him if, when prays before a game, it is so his side will win.

"No," he laughed, "because, just two weeks ago, I was on a different team. So I don't pray to God, 'Let me win the game,' but mainly I try to just ask God that I can go out there and glorify Him with my actions and what I do on the field."

Cobi Jones in action

I then spoke with Cobi Jones, the man of the match who had just scored two goals after coming off the bench. Cobi has an extraordinary record. He is only player in MLS history to play the with the same club for each of the League's first 11 seasons, Jones is the Galaxy's all-time leader in games played (281), goals (66) and assists (86). He is one of three players in MLS history to have scored 60 or more goals and added 80 or more assists and was named an All-Star in each of MLS' first eight seasons. He won his first MLS Cup Championship in 2002 after he anchored the Galaxy to its first championships in club history, the 2000 CONCACAF Champions' Cup and the 2001 U.S. Open Cup. Jones was then a major part of the Galaxy team that did "The Double" in 2005, winning both the MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup for a second time. The all-time leader in caps with the U.S. National Team with 164 from 1992-2004, Jones announced prior to the start of the 2007 MLS season that he would retire at the conclusion of the campaign.

I noticed that he was wearing a cross and so I asked him what faith meant to him personally.

"For me personally, it means faith in myself and in God," he said. "Faith that I'll be looked out for and everything I do is for right and will come out well. You know I have got to believe through God and myself that I'll always make the right decisions and move forward and do good in my life."

So I asked Cobi Jones if he had a religious faith and he replied, "Yes, I'm a Christian."

He added that he is a regular attendee of the Athletes in Action chapel for the LA Galaxy.

"We have the chapel here and someone comes in and holds a session, and whoever wants to come in can; it's open to all players. I've been in there and we have our discussions!"

As I left the locker room, which was relatively quiet, one of the players smiled and said, "Look around. You won't be seeing it like this again for a long time. As soon as David Beckham comes it will be a zoo!"

Note to radio stations and network. Both of these interviews are available for broadcast in audio form. To receive them, just send me an e-mail at danjuma1@aol.com and I'll send them.

Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing these interviews.

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com. Pictured: Dan Wooding reporting on the LA Galaxy game on Saturday.