by Angie Lash
During the fall of 1997, I started attending a Single’s Bible Study group at Calvary. The second week of attending, a dashing young man, Kevin, entered the room and I was instantly smitten. We both joined the Esther small group… me because I was interested in learning more about Esther, and Kevin because he didn’t think he would have to buy extra study materials because Esther was a book in the Bible. Ha! Not surprisingly, Kevin was the only guy in the Esther group. It gave me a great opportunity to witness his love for the Lord and his genuine goodness as a human.
The Singles group was a very social bunch. Many nights were booked with volleyball, meals, and hangouts at people’s homes. These events allowed even more opportunities to see Kevin’s personality and deep kindness towards others. I also discovered we had a common love besides Jesus… sports! Especially as fans of the MN Vikings!
To try to impress Kevin, I had my friend quiz me on a bunch of sports questions in a game we would play as a group just so that I would come across extra knowledgeable. It must have worked because after a couple of months Kevin asked me out, within 6 months we were engaged and married the following year. This year we will celebrate our 25th anniversary. We have been blessed with 2 awesome children … Anna (22) and Joey (19).
Kevin “managed” a Calvary softball team for years. Attending those games were summer highlights as we were able to spend time with other young couples and families from Calvary. We also were season ticket holders for the Vikings for 10 years and loved attending games together or watching them on TV. Kevin also has been coaching Schaeffer Academy’s girls’ basketball and softball teams for the past 8 years. Seeing him encourage and support his athletes is so wonderful! Needless to say, we live and breathe sports almost year round.
While we love watching sporting events, I would say the biggest impact our common love of sports has made on us as a couple is when we started hosting Rochester Honker baseball players in 2010. Almost every summer since 2010, we have hosted 1-4 college ball players in our home at a time.
While the initial draw was the sports aspect (attending all the games), the continued draw is opening our home to these aspiring athletes and providing them a fun and safe place to live. It does get a little crazy as we have often doubled our family size over the summer. All the laundry, grocery shopping, and meal-making … has been worth it over the last 14 years as we truly make the fellas a part of our family. In all, we have had 35 ball players live with us. As a couple, we truly try to share the love of Christ and the joy of a Christ-centered marriage/family with these young men. An additional blessing has been getting to know the parents of the boys. We have been able to continue those relationships beyond the summer through visits and phone calls.
While the solid foundation of our marriage is truly Jesus, our common love of sports has been such a fun part … even when the Vikings don’t make the playoffs!
Angie Lash is the wife of Kevin, mom of 2 adult children, and a kindergarten teacher at Washington Elementary in Rochester. She serves as a helper in the kindergarten class at Calvary and facilitates a small group at Calvary’s Monday Night Women’s Bible Study.