Pictured are (from left) Pinecrest High Coach Chris Metzger, Guest
Speaker and Scott High Coach Jordan Jeffers and Pinecrest High assistant
coaches: Ben Hammer, Josh Wilson and Mitch Johnson. (See more photos from this FCA meeting at the end of this article.)
Jordan Jeffers, a
7-time College All-American athlete, spoke on Wednesday, September 4, 2013, at
a Pinecrest High School Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) gathering that was
kicked off with a pizza party on the lawn of the school’s Robert E. Lee
Auditorium in Southern Pines, N.C.
“All the food and funds needed for pizzas, drinks and the guest
speaker were made possible by a love offering from a local church,” said Chris
Metzger, Pinecrest’s head football coach who attended the event.
Around 350 Pinecrest
students and visitors to the school gathered for the event that culminated in
the auditorium where Jordan Jeffers, 27, of Helenwood, Tn., told of his journey
from “good Christian kid” to award-winning athlete to drug abuser to “a child
of the One True King.”
Jeffers and his
younger sister grew up in “a Christian home.” Their father is a pastor. Jeffers
graduated in 2004 from Scott High School in Huntsville, Tenn., where he
was a 3-sport athlete, an all-state football player, and a 3-time state
champion in track. He earned an athletic scholarship to the University of
the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky, where he played football and ran track.
He became an
abuser of prescription pain pills (Oxycontin) after he broke an ankle while
playing college football during his sophomore year.
Expelled from the
university after failing a drug test near the very end of his senior year, Jeffers
spent a year at Teen Challenge, a faith-based drug and alcohol recovery program.
He returned to the University of the Cumberlands and earned two degrees: a
bachelor of exercise sports science degree in May 2010 and a masters of arts in
teaching in December 2011. He and his wife Ashton have been married
for over a year, and he serves as a health and wellness teacher and
assistant football coach at his alma mater, Scott High School in Huntsville,
Tennessee.
Jeffers’ story of
redemption and restoration inspired popular Christian songwriter Matthew West
to write and sing “Hello, My Name Is,” a song with over a million hits to-date
on YouTube. The song is included on West’s album “Into the Light.”
West, who said he
wanted "to turn the mic around” and help share his fans’ stories, invited people
to send him stories about forgiveness. From over 25,000 submissions, he selected
stories to interpret into songs. One of those stories came from Jeffers and it began
with this sentence: “Hello, my name is Jordan and I am a drug addict.” Jeffers explained
that he thought of himself that way for years until he began identifying as “a
child of the One True King.”
Sal DiBianca,
director of the Sandhills Men’s Recovery Home of Sandhills Teen Challenge,
located in Carthage, N.C., opened the Pinecrest FAC rally with worship songs. He
played drums as he and his son, Brandon DiBianca (guitar), and Jacob Guden
(bass) led the audience in singing songs such as “It’s All Because of Jesus I’m
Alive” and “You Are Holy, Great and Mighty.”
Pictured (from left) are Jacob Guden, Sal DiBianca and Brandon DiBianca as they lead choruses at the Pinecrest FCA rally.
Student Athletes participate in the music.
Before Jeffers spoke, DiBianca accompanied himself on guitar and sang “Hello, My Name Is.” That song, inspired by Jeffers story, begins with these words: “Hello, my name is regret / I’m pretty sure we have met / Every single day of your life / I’m the whisper inside / That won’t let you forget.” Find the official Matt West music video on YouTube under “Matthew West – Hello, My Name Is (Lyrics).”
Jeffers, standing 5-feet-8-inches tall and sporting close-cropped black hair, walked to the center of the Pinecrest High stage. Tanned and trim, he wore a red polo shirt with an “S” printed in white over his left chest area. The word “Basketball” in smaller letters was printed below the “S.” (He also coaches girl’s basketball at Scott High). He wore khaki Bermuda shorts and brown loafers with no socks.
“We’re known by
labels in life,” he said. “I lived under the lies of the devil for a long time.”
There is
something beyond victory called “vindication,” he said.
He gave a
dictionary definition of “vindication”: “to defend, to justify as against
denial . . . to avenge or punish. . . . ”
Jeffers indicated
that “vindication” includes the idea of not only winning but also rubbing an
opponent’s nose in the dirt after defeating him. He illustrated with this
story:
A widow prayed
each morning on her porch. An atheist moved next door to her and observed her
praying for her needs. The atheist bought groceries and placed them on her
porch before she came out for her morning prayer. The lady thanked God for
providing the groceries. While she thanked God, the atheist began mocking her,
saying, “God’s not real. I provided those groceries for you.” The lady
continued praying, saying, “And thank you, Lord, for providing these groceries
and making the devil pay for them.”
“Vindication is
more than victory,” Jeffers said. “It’s God letting you live something before
others and drawing them to Him.”
Jeffers’ father,
a pastor, played basketball in junior college, and on most Sunday afternoons he
played basketball with Jeffers while Jeffers was in elementary school.
“I never won,”
said Jeffers. “I was ‘vertically-challenged.’ He wanted to beat me, to rub my
nose in the dirt.”
Noting that
Samson had superhuman strength and a “call” on his life, Jeffers said, “He
[Samson] had a bunch of labels put on his life, but he couldn’t understand
where his true strength came from.”
He said that
after Samson (Judges 16) was captured and was “blind and shaven,” the hair of
his head began to grow again – from the inside out.”
“He was blind and
shaven, doing the job of a mule,” Jeffers said. “His true strength came from
his Maker. He had nothing to rely on but his Savior.”
But Samson dispatched
more of his enemies on the day of his death than during his lifetime, Jeffers
noted.
“‘Vindication’ –
more than victory,” Jeffers said.
Jeffers made “a
profession of faith” at age nine and earned Sunday school “perfect attendance
awards” for many years.
“But I had no
personal relationship with Christ,” he said.
He earned
all-state honors in football for two years in high school and was “seven times
All-American” in track during his college years.
After he broke an
ankle while playing college football, he developed an addiction to “prescription
Oxycontin,” a narcotic used to treat moderate to severe pain.
He rummaged through his friends and families cabinets and drawers to steal pills.
He progressed to the street to buy pills, and he stole his grandparents.
“And I was driving
and putting others in danger,” Jeffers said. “For three and a half years during
college, I was ‘using.’” (He spent an extra year in college.)
He somehow continued
participating in college sports until he failed a drug test for the second time
and was expelled from school, two weeks before his graduation.
“I was kicked out
of school for one year,” he said. “God cared more about me than I cared about
myself.”
His parents were
able to get him into a 12-month Teen Challenge program.
When they were
ready to leave him at a Sandhills
Teen Challenge (STC) branch located in Carthage, North Carolina, Jeffers told
his mother, “Mom, don’t leave me here; you love me too much.”
His mother said, “I
love you too much to take you home.”
Jeffers spent
four months at STC.
“I was angry most
of that [four months],” he said, noting that God began to “mend the
relationship.”
He transferred
from STC to Teen Challenge’s main location in Rehrersburg, Penn (a normal
transition for Teen Challenge students).
Jeffers said he
was “‘saved’ at 24 years of age” and returned to college and “set the 400-meter
record in that last extra year.”
“‘Vindication’ .
. . for God to be given more than victory,” he said.
He married “Ashton”
in June 2012 and announced “a call to preach” in January 2013.
“Not for anything
I’ve done, but to give him [God] vindication for himself,” Jeffers said.
He noted that
young people are sometimes known by the sports they play.
“A lot of times
we’re known by those labels, but a lot of times they don’t give an indication
of who we are,” he said. “Six months after [graduating from] Teen Challenge, I
was unwilling to announce a call to preach. In a lot of people’s eyes, I was
still just a silly little drug addict. Maybe you’ve made mistakes in your past
and you’re still defined by those mistakes. ‘That’s just how I was going to be,’
I said [to myself].”
Though “saved”
and reformed, he still identified himself as a “drug addict.”
His girlfriend,
before they married, commented to Jeffers about something he did while they
were dating. He perceived her comment negatively and responded, “What do you
expect? I’m a drug addict.”
She said, “You
are going to be a drug addict as long as you tell yourself you’re a drug
addict.”
“She was right,”
Jeffers said.
He noted that
there will always be a label on his life.
“And it won’t
always come from me,” he said. “The most important one for me is to be called a
child of the One True King.”
(Under Jeffers’ name
on his business card are these words: “Spokesperson for & Child of The One
True King.”)
“Jesus Christ
came to save the lost,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what sport you play, who
your mom and dad are – we all need a savior. I don’t know what your label is you
struggle with tonight. God wants to set you free from any bondage, from any
chains you may have walked into this room with tonight.
“Parents won’t
matter, what you do won’t matter, what you wear won’t matter, if you have never
been introduced to our ‘seeking Savior’ who’s seeking you.”
Jeffers said he wants to live “in the
assurance” of what God is saying about him.
“Most of all, he
[God] wants to call you ‘his,’” Jeffers said.
He closed his
presentation by praying “We’re so thankful, God, for where you’ve brought us
from. . . . but most of all for where you’re taking us to . . . you’re a ‘seeking
savior.’ . . . I pray that you would set the captive free, tonight . . . the
backslider . . . Lord, we ask you to give them strength to come tonight. In
Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”
Sal DiBianca,
Jeffers and others prayed for many attendees who came forward for prayer before
the meeting closed.
DiBianca leads as the meeting ends.
According to Pinecrest High Head Coach Chris Metzgar, the following
Pinecrest High assistant coaches who attended the 2013 09 04 FCA meeting are
pictured here: (from left to right) George Outlaw (ninth grade, defensive
line); Josh Wilson (special education, offensive line); Mitch Johnson (special
education, offensive line); Ben Hammer (social studies, offensive line); Trent
Frederick (special education, defensive line), and Shane Fluet (math, offensive
line and backs).
###
Music Videos by Matthew West: "Hello, My Name Is"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl9KcbtUbrM
a music video with Jeffers and Songwriter West interacting.
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