{"id":2445,"date":"2012-04-21T19:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T23:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/?p=2445"},"modified":"2012-04-21T19:10:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-21T23:10:00","slug":"auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html","title":{"rendered":"Auburn coach Gene Chizik accompanies several players on mission trip to Liberia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/04\/09Chizprac1N.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2446\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/256\/2012\/04\/09Chizprac1N-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Earlier this month, Auburn head football coach Gene Chizik traveled to Liberia on a mission trip and was joined by team chaplain Chette Williams and student-athletes Clint Moseley, Emory Blake, Daren Bates, John Sullen, Dee Ford, Kenneth Carter and T&#8217;Sharvan Bell. It was a life-changing experience for all the young men, most of which had never traveled outside the United States.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You really can&#8217;t even describe it in words,&#8221; Bates told the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ledger-enquirer.com\/2012\/04\/03\/1999212\/auburn-football-players-talk-about.html\" target=\"_blank\">Ledger-Enquirer<\/a>. &#8220;Going out and helping those people, even though they saw it as us helping them, they really were helping each and every one of us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chizik has helped organize a trip like this before. He went with some players to the Dominican Republic in 2010. Chizik spoke to Inspiring Athletes last year and talked about how his position as a national championship coach has increased his influence as a Christian leader.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I start thanking God, I\u2019m thanking Him for the platform He\u2019s given me to lead, the platform He\u2019s given me to be in situations where I have been able to overcome insurmountable odds and where I\u2019ve been able to express to a team the importance of faith and believing in each other,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more of that interview with Chizik by clicking the link below:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/2011\/07\/a-conversation-with-auburn-national-championship-football-coach-gene-chizik-part-1.html\" target=\"_blank\">A conversation with Gene Chizik<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this month, Auburn head football coach Gene Chizik traveled to Liberia on a mission trip and was joined by team chaplain Chette Williams and student-athletes Clint Moseley, Emory Blake, Daren Bates, John Sullen, Dee Ford, Kenneth Carter and T&#8217;Sharvan Bell. It was a life-changing experience for all the young men, most of which had&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,601,384,4],"tags":[441,440,551,992,994,996,993,350,995,997,991,998],"class_list":["post-2445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-athletes","category-christian-coaches","category-football","category-sports-news","tag-auburn-football","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-chette-williams","tag-clint-moseley","tag-daren-bates","tag-dee-ford","tag-emory-blake","tag-gene-chizik","tag-john-sullen","tag-kenneth-carter","tag-liberia","tag-tsharvan-bell"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Auburn coach Gene Chizik accompanies several players on mission trip to Liberia - Inspiring Athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Auburn coach Gene Chizik accompanies several players on mission trip to Liberia - Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Earlier this month, Auburn head football coach Gene Chizik traveled to Liberia on a mission trip and was joined by team chaplain Chette Williams and student-athletes Clint Moseley, Emory Blake, Daren Bates, John Sullen, Dee Ford, Kenneth Carter and T&#8217;Sharvan Bell. It was a life-changing experience for all the young men, most of which had&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiring Athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-21T23:00:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-04-21T23:10:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/04\/09Chizprac1N-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chad Bonham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Auburn coach Gene Chizik accompanies several players on mission trip to Liberia - Inspiring Athletes","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Auburn coach Gene Chizik accompanies several players on mission trip to Liberia - Inspiring Athletes","og_description":"Earlier this month, Auburn head football coach Gene Chizik traveled to Liberia on a mission trip and was joined by team chaplain Chette Williams and student-athletes Clint Moseley, Emory Blake, Daren Bates, John Sullen, Dee Ford, Kenneth Carter and T&#8217;Sharvan Bell. It was a life-changing experience for all the young men, most of which had&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html","og_site_name":"Inspiring Athletes","article_published_time":"2012-04-21T23:00:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-04-21T23:10:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/04\/09Chizprac1N-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"Chad Bonham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html","name":"Auburn coach Gene Chizik accompanies several players on mission trip to Liberia - Inspiring Athletes","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/04\/09Chizprac1N-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2012-04-21T23:00:20+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-21T23:10:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/04\/09Chizprac1N-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspiringathletes\/files\/2012\/04\/09Chizprac1N-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/2012\/04\/auburn-coach-gene-chizik-accompanies-several-players-on-mission-trip-to-liberia.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Auburn coach Gene Chizik accompanies several players on mission trip to Liberia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/","name":"Inspiring Athletes","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Chad Bonham","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/#\/schema\/person\/95c3e9443bb9bfa81645d8daef1193c1","name":"Chad Bonham","description":"Chad has been working in mass media for over 20 years. Chad\u2019s professional journey began at the University of Tulsa where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (1993) while working extensively in athletic media relations and serving as a sports editor for The Collegian. Since then, he has written extensively for such publications as Relevant, CCM, Christian Retailing, New Man, Charisma, Today\u2019s Christian, Ministries Today, Breakaway, Brio, Sports Spectrum, Christian Single, Faith &amp; Friends, Sharing the Victory and Gospel Today. He has authored, co-authored or ghost written and edited 13 books including Life in the Fairway (New Leaf Press), Glory of the Games (Cross Training), Wrestling with God (River Oak), Spiritual Journeys (Relevant) and the four-part Fellowship of Christian Athletes Core Value Series; Excellence, Teamwork, Serving and Integrity (Regal Books). Chad is currently working on five new books including Sooner Legacy, Husker Legacy and Lessons From Sooner Football (Cross Training) as well as The Faith of Stock Car Racing (Judson Press). When he's not writing, Chad lends his efforts to various independent television and film projects. He was the coordinating producer for Choosing Life (2010) and Life Happens (2011). Chad is currently serving as producer on a forthcoming documentary about Super Bowl champion Brian Kinchen. Chad and his wife Amy live in Broken Arrow, Okla., with sons Lance (September 2003), Cole (February 2008) and Quinn (February 2011).","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/author\/cbonham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2448,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445\/revisions\/2448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspiringathletes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}