In my recent conversation with Kampman, he talks about his Christian upbringing, how missions work has changed his life and his thoughts on the the NFL lockout:<\/p>\n
Bonham: How did you become a Christian and what has that journey been like?<\/p>\n Kampman: Christ was on display early in my childhood. Both my mother and father were living examples of what it meant to live for Christ and have Him be the focal point of decisions, actions, thoughts and words. It was a blessing but not entirely unexpected when very young I also came to the faith. I had a tremendous upbringing and foundation but as others like me have experienced, when you go to college, mom and dad are no longer there to help guide. There were some moments in college that really cemented my own convictions and beliefs. It was a real period of growth and maturity in my sanctifying process. I got married in college. That was a tremendous blessing. Four years later, we started having children and that gives you a deeper understanding of the Father\u2019s love.<\/p>\n Bonham: I read that you\u2019ve recently studied to earn a degree in theology. Where are you at in that process?<\/p>\n Kampman: I went to Dallas Theological Seminary online and got a degree there called Certificate of Theological Studies. It\u2019s not the full Masters of Divinity. I didn\u2019t take Greek or Hebrew. I didn\u2019t think I needed to learn two more languages (laughs). With the tools these days, you can look up words as needed. But it was great. I spent five years working at it during the offseason. It\u2019s a tremendous school that provided a significant time of spiritual growth.<\/p>\n Bonham: What inspired you to pursue your ministry degree?<\/p>\n Kampman: There were a lot of purposes. From a very practical standpoint, I\u2019m 31 years old and I can\u2019t play football forever nor do I want to. So I have a lot of life, Lord willing, to live after that. A good mentor of mine knew I was looking to get into the ministry in some form or fashion and gave me some wise counsel that I might want to get this out of my way so I could jump into something else right away. But at a deeper level, I wanted to continue to know Christ more. There are so many questions that one has that go round and round in your head, especially in a postmodern, relativistic society. It wasn\u2019t just for myself, but for my family as I lead them. I want to get as much training and anchoring to the truth as possible. Dallas (Theological Seminary) did a great job giving me a very biblical, conservative approach to studying scripture and understanding church history and theology and where we come from and where we\u2019re going. Also, there are so many (theological camps) out there. I\u2019m not negating those but the spectrum is so large and broad. You\u2019ve seen that recently with the controversy surrounding some new books that are coming out. I want to be able to navigate that very well, not only as I lead and minister in my own family, as (my wife) Linde and I do, but also in the larger context of the locker room and teammates.<\/p>\n Bonham: Who have been your models of serving?<\/p>\n Kampman: I would start with my dad and my mom. My dad is a self-employed business owner. He owns a lumberyard. He\u2019s done it for years. He has tirelessly, without a word, served people. He\u2019s a model of integrity to the point that (laughs) I remember one time as a kid wondering, \u201cIs this man Santa?\u201d He\u2019s just a very upright man. He\u2019s very humble and just goes about his work. I caught that. It wasn\u2019t something he had to say, but I caught that at a very young age. I saw it lived out and I\u2019m seeing it lived out to this day. He\u2019s a special man.<\/p>\n Second to my wife, my mother may have the biggest heart. She has a tremendous giving spirit. She\u2019s a registered nurse so she takes care of elderly people and sick shut-ins. She\u2019s also the county health nurse so she just takes care of people. So I had two parents that were others-centered. As I\u2019ve gotten into the athletic world, I\u2019ve felt like my calling is to help athletes become truly others-centered in a me-centered society.<\/p>\n Bonham: How did you get involved with Compassion International and what ultimately led you to take this trip to El Salvador?<\/p>\n Kampman: When a lot of athletes get done playing, they end up in some really tough positions. They have a hard time transitioning because their identity is wrapped up in who they are as a player and what they do rather than who they can be in Christ. We desire to help people understand the invitation that God has given each one of us as Christ followers to be a part of this global redemptive story. If you can\u2019t give your life to something with meaning and purpose of that magnitude then there\u2019s nothing there.<\/p>\n That\u2019s led us into different ministries. We\u2019ve worked with a Pauline ministry in Southeast Asia that\u2019s part of the indigenous church planting movement. Compassion focuses on the Apostle Peter\u2019s model of working with the local church. It also focuses on children. We know how Jesus felt about children. But it wasn\u2019t until friend named Bob Lenz\u2014he\u2019s a traveling evangelist who goes on tour with bands like Kutless and the Newsboys\u2014introduced us to Compassion when we went down to El Salvador the first time in January of 2009 and just loved it. We\u2019d already sponsored some children through Compassion but then we decided to sponsor a little boy we met there who was in a tough situation. He just captured our hearts, so now we sponsor nine kids. It\u2019s been fun to correspond with him and see him grow. Two years later, we decided to go back down there is again this past February. We saw our sponsored child and got to love on him a little bit, so that was obviously a highlight.<\/p>\n Compassion has just hit a million kids sponsored. It\u2019s a really neat ministry that needs to have the spotlight put on it. There are a lot of ministries out there and we\u2019ve had the opportunity to see a lot of them and they\u2019re all doing great work. Compassion would tell you that they\u2019re a few pieces to a thousand-piece puzzle, but we think they\u2019re really great.<\/p>\n Bonham: What does this kind of trip reveal to you about yourself?<\/p>\n Kampman: That\u2019s a great question. What you learn about yourself is that you continue to see that you\u2019re selfish. It\u2019s so easy, in our Laodicean culture with all the different things that grab our minds that aren\u2019t of eternal value, to let those tentacles wrap themselves around your heart. That\u2019s one of the reasons why we love going overseas. It helps us to break free of those things. We\u2019ve been on all of these trips, but it\u2019s easy to slide back into the selfishness of life. That\u2019s what we find out about ourselves.<\/p>\n But we get so excited seeing the faces and hearing the stories of faithfulness of the saints that are working there tirelessly and many times in really difficult situations. It brings much more clarity to the verse that says, \u201cThe first shall be last and the last shall be first.\u201d There\u2019s just great clarity and perspective once you get to see things in a different context.<\/p>\n (Wide receiver) Jordy Nelson, a former teammate of mine in Green Bay, was going to come to El Salvador with me, but .he called me the day before and said he couldn\u2019t go because his knee had swelled up. He\u2019d hurt it in the Super Bowl. We took his picture down with us and showed it to his sponsored child Rudy. We were asking Rudy some questions through the translator and asked him, \u201cDo you know what this football is?\u201d He said, \u201cNo.\u201d We asked, \u201cDo you know what football is? Americano?\u201d He shook his a head a little but you could tell he really didn\u2019t know. So we gave him a picture of Jordy and (his wife) Emily with the ticker tape coming down in their Super Bowl parade. The kid didn\u2019t even get it. It was so refreshing. The same thing happened to us. No one identified us as athletes. No one identified me as Aaron Kampman the football player. It\u2019s really refreshing for us guys. We\u2019re always identified by what we do and not who we are. So that\u2019s a powerful piece.<\/p>\n Bonham: What is the message from God that you take away from these experiences?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/256\/2011\/06\/kampman2-300x200.jpg\")
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