Ever wondered how a college football injury could lead to a profound ministry calling? Caleb Bloom's story is a fascinating journey from potential sports stardom to a pivotal role with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) in East Central Indiana South. Caleb shares his path of faith, family influences with host, Michael Allen on this episode of the Hub Sponsored by Manpower Richmond. Caleb talks about his serendipitous moments that guided his transition from the mortgage world to becoming a beacon of hope and guidance in student athletics. Through his experiences, discover the transformative power of faith and how it can redirect paths in unexpected, fulfilling ways.
Join us as we explore Caleb's efforts in expanding the FCA's reach in local schools, where he creates "huddles" to connect coaches, athletes, and Christ. These small groups serve as safe havens for students, offering Bible studies, leadership camps, and impactful events that nurture their spiritual growth. Caleb's passion for sports is evident as he recounts the joy of teamwork and leadership, emphasizing the camaraderie and guidance that FCA provides to young athletes. It’s a touching narrative about building community and resilience through shared faith, particularly as students navigate the challenges of high school life.
Additionally, Caleb sheds light on how FCA's initiatives are transforming lives by offering emotional support and fostering a sense of belonging among teenagers. Through heartfelt stories of leadership and community, he illustrates how faith-based programs play a crucial role in providing stability and hope during transitional periods. This episode promises to inspire and inform, offering insights into the profound impact of the FCA's mission on both individual lives and broader school communities. Whether you're interested in faith, sports, or community building, Caleb’s story is sure to resonate and encourage.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Michael Allen from Manpower.
We are a national brand, yetlocally owned franchise.
We are familiar with thechallenges businesses face.
It's tough recruiting andretaining qualified employees.
That's why working withManpower is a smart,
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(00:24):
uniquely positioned to helpeliminate the hassles and save
you time and money.
Let us help contact Manpowertoday.
Hello and welcome to the Hubpowered by Manpower of Richmond,
with offices also in Portlandand Newcastle.
I'm your host, michael Allen,and here on the Hub we interview
local businesses, communitypartners and various special
(00:44):
guests.
And our mission the hub.
We interview local businesses,community partners and various
special guests, and our missionis to share and spotlight unique
and untold stories of companies, organizations and people who
are making a difference in ourcommunity.
And today we are visiting withCaleb Bloom.
Caleb is the arearepresentative of East Central
Indiana South for Fellowship ofChristian Athletes, fca.
(01:07):
Caleb, welcome to the Hub,thank you, thanks for having me
Good to see you today.
It's great to meet with you andtalk about Fellowship of
Christian Athletes and before wedo that, a couple things I
wanted to talk about.
I mean, we're just a couple ofdays out from christmas and, uh,
(01:29):
I don't know, you're quite abit younger than me, but I don't
know if you've ever watched thecharlie brown christmas my
mom's obsessed with charliebrown and uh, so, uh.
Anyway, charlie brown's prettyfrustrated with what's going on
with the school productions andjust all the kids and stuff, and
he kind of has this meltdownand he really wants to
(01:50):
understand what the true meaningof Christmas is.
And so Linus takes the stage.
And I want to go through thispart that Linus quotes from the
Bible, out of Luke 2.
He says and in the same regionthere were shepherds out in the
field keeping watch over theirflock by night, and an angel of
the Lord appeared to them andthe glory of the Lord shone
(02:13):
around them and they were filledwith great fear.
And the angel said to them fearnot, for behold, I bring you
good news of great joy that willbe for all people, you good
news of great joy that will befor all people, for unto you is
born this day, in the city ofDavid, a savior who is Christ,
the Lord, and this will be asign to you.
And you will find a babywrapped in swaddling clothes and
(02:35):
lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was, therewas, with the angel, a multitude
of heavenly hosts praising Godand saying Glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peaceamong those whom he has pleased.
And you know, jesus came tothis world for a particular
(02:56):
reason and he said it himselflater in the same chapter, same
book Luke 19.
He said For the Son of man cameto seek and save the lost.
And FCA's vision, from ourdiscussions before, is to see
the world transformed by JesusChrist through the influence of
(03:17):
coaches and athletes.
And so it's just takingsomething that happened
thousands of years ago andsharing that story with with
others.
And what FCA does that isthrough, uh, the influence of
coaches and athletes and otherindividuals in the school system
Is that fair to say, yeah.
(03:37):
Yeah, excellent, so, uh, butwe're, we're gonna, uh, so we're
going to talk about that today.
One thing that we do here onthe Hub is because of our
association with manpower.
We put people to work and welike to talk about jobs.
So the question I have for youand this is a real enjoyable
(03:59):
part for me is what was yourfirst job that you ever had?
Do you remember what that was?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, for me is what was your first job that you ever
had?
Do you remember what that was?
Yeah, my first job.
My dad owned a restaurant inEdgewood a restaurant and, golf
course okay, and my first job.
I started working when I was 14, I think.
Bus boy doing dishes, workingin the kitchen, whatever, just
walked in and helped out however, edgewood yeah, and where was
this located at?
Just outside of Anderson on theLaPel side?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Okay, yeah, all right .
So is that place still aroundto this day?
It's still there.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
My dad doesn't own it anymore.
He got rid of it right beforeCOVID hit.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
But we had it for about four or five years.
It's still there, edgewood GolfCourse and Restaurant, I think
is the name of it.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
All right.
So a little nine hole 10, 18hole course 18, 18 hole.
All right, so you didn't get todo the golf stuff.
You were me.
Golf course, You're morehelping in the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I did some golf course stuff where I was like
weed eating or edge and bunkersand stuff like that.
But my dad's passion was thegolf course and I loved the
restaurant.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Great.
Well, that's interesting.
That's uh lots of people have.
People have, you know, hadtheir first jobs, and really
even at that stage in theirlives, so, yeah, it was fun.
Next, I'd like to ask you, Imean, uh, share with our
followers a little bit aboutyourself, kind of where you grew
up, your education, some ofyour previous vocational
(05:23):
pursuits, your family, wife, anychildren that you may or may
not have.
So tell us a little bit aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah Well, like you said earlier, I'm Caleb Bloom.
I grew up in LaPelle, indiana.
I'm 25 years old now.
Lapelle is kind of sandwichedbetween Noblesville and Anderson
, but that's where I grew up, mywhole life, played football and
basketball, went and playedcollege football for two years
before I ended up getting hurt.
So I came back home in 2020 andstarted working and my first
(05:58):
job coming back then was helpingopen up a restaurant in
Anderson not Edgewood, my dad'sprevious one, but Grandview,
also in Anderson.
So helped open that up, workedthere for a while as a server
and then went out and sold cars.
Sold cars for nine, 10 months.
I think it was okay, didn't loveit and then went out and
started doing mortgages and wasdoing mortgages for about two
(06:18):
and a half years, all right, andthat was a pretty tough market,
pretty tough industry.
And then, while doing mortgages, my current or my wife and I
got married.
Uh, we've been married for overtwo years now.
Um, she does cardiac rehab indowntown Indy.
Uh, we do not have a baby.
We have a fur baby.
We have a little golden doodlethat we spoil like a kid.
(06:39):
Um, and then, shortly aftermortgages is when I started
pursuing FCA fellowship ofChristian athletes.
I started with them in 2023, uhSeptember.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So you made a transition from uh sit from uh
car salesman to doing mortgagesto, and now you're uh involved
in a pretty well-known ministry.
Has it's been around, I think,since the 50s?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Long time.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, FCA has been so I don't know probably heading
around getting close to 75 years.
What kind of led you in thatdirection?
I mean, did you know about FCAfrom the time when you were in
school?
Was that something that youwere exposed to then, or is that
something that kind of postschool that you found out about
(07:31):
and eventually became involved?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
in?
Yeah, I was exposed to it inhigh school.
My dad was actually the FCAlike school sponsor for my high
school and he was doing thatever since I was in elementary
school.
So I was exposed to it throughhim, but I didn't know how big
of a corporation company like itactually was.
I thought it was just a thingthat my dad did at lapel and we
had donuts every Wednesdaymorning, talked about Jesus and
(07:54):
went to school.
But I sat down with my dad againFebruary of 2023.
So almost two years ago now andbasically just asked him how I
could find my calling that Jesushad for me, cause I didn't feel
like it was that doingmortgages Like I enjoyed
mortgages, but I wasn't likefeeling fulfilled, um, doing it.
(08:15):
And dad said that I would begreat ministry and great with
kids and great with sports.
So see if you can figuresomething out.
I'm like ministry now, but I'llfigure out something with
sports and kids.
Yeah, so I thought I was goingto be a coach and a teacher or
(08:36):
something like that.
Go back to school, finish up mydegree so I could become a
weights teacher or something andthen a football or basketball
coach.
Followed that conversation withmy dad to where seven people in
about a two week time span allasked me if I ever considered
pursuing ministry, and each timeI told them no, no, no, no.
And then the sixth and seventhone happened and me and my wife
were like maybe this is Godtrying to talk to me, not just
random events of people askingme if I would pursue ministry,
(09:01):
but kind of the icing on thecake for me was my wife and I
were wondering what brought usto Hagerstown, because
Hagerstown is not close toanything except her parents and
a couple of relatives.
It was far away from both of ourjobs, far away from my family,
far away from our church, andthe job that FCA was looking to
hire for was an area rep in theexact county that my wife and I
(09:21):
were living in and surroundingcounties.
So you're like, okay, maybethat's why we were called to
move out here two years inadvance before this ministry
started.
And then I sat down and talkedwith my aunt and basically told
her the whole story of all thesepeople coming into my life
leading me to ministry.
And for two months, before anyof those signs or conversations
(09:42):
even happened, she was prayingfor somebody to come into my
life and lead me in thedirection towards my calling.
So for two months before any ofthe things even started
happening, she was prayingconstantly, every single morning
for two months straight, ofsomebody to lead me towards my
calling.
So that was the icing on thecake for me was that she was
praying for that for that long.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, it's cliche cliche, but you know things
happen for a reason, right, yeah, and you get all these
indicators and it's just keepcoming back into your, your
pathway.
You know kind of getting yourattention about, about maybe
getting involved in ministry and, specifically today, fca.
Let me just backtrack a littlebit.
Tell me, uh, you playedbasketball and and football.
(10:25):
So, between it looks like youwent later and played college
football, and that was atnorthwestern st paul,
northwestern, and uh, so in highschool, though, what was kind
of more of your passion?
Was it basketball or football?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
yeah, so I obviously am built like a football player,
not built like a basketballplayer.
Um, but basketball at lapel hada little bit more like
excitement and stuff behind it.
Um, so basketball was probably.
I had more fun playingbasketball, but I was better and
enjoyed football more, if thatmakes any sense.
Yeah, um, it's good, I loveboth, but I wasn't built to play
(11:01):
basketball for much longerafter high school, so I went
with football and didn't regretit Were you 6'4 then in high
school.
I've been this tall since aboutseventh grade.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Okay.
So I mean there's definitelysome advantages in basketball,
so were you coordinated enoughto take advantage of that height
?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I was actually a perimeter player.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I had two guys on my high school team that were
bigger than me wow, um, andreally skilled post players.
You guys have a pretty goodbasketball team those years.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, yeah, one sectionals a couple times and
won the state championship in2016 okay, awesome, yeah, that's
great.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
and then, uh, what position did you play in
football?
I was a tight end, tight end,so Mm-hmm, so what's like your
best game?
How many catches did you havein a game?
Or do you name success by that?
I mean, are you wanting theball?
Tight end is not just areceiver, you're a blocker,
right, but I mean, what part didyou enjoy about that position?
(12:02):
Or I mean, what do you thinkback of that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, it was funny.
I caught my first varsitytouchdown in a game my junior
year and my dad came up to meand he's like dude, you caught
your first touchdown.
Was that your favorite play ofthe game?
I'm like, no, my favorite playof the game was a pancake block
I had in the second quarter.
So I did a little bit of both.
Catching was always fun my bestgame.
I think I had seven catches ina game at one point, which was
(12:28):
fun.
But I enjoyed the dirty worktoo of blocking and things like
that.
So it was just a fun sport.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, absolutely Well , thanks for sharing that.
So let's go back and talk alittle bit about what Fellowship
of Christian Athletes is kindof review and tell us a little
bit about what Fellowship ofChristian Athletes is this kind
of review, and tell us a littlebit about what it is.
I talked a little bit about thevision, but maybe explain it a
little bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, so, like you said, the vision is to impact
the world, like get coaches andathletes into a growing
relationship with Jesus Christand his church.
Like we don't just stop once hegets into a relationship with
Jesus.
Like FCA is more than Tuesdaymornings, church is more than
Sunday mornings and Wednesdaynights.
So we're trying to get them ina growing relationship with
Christ and then the church.
(13:11):
That way they can do more thanjust 25 minutes on Tuesday
mornings before school.
And our first goal is huddlesgetting campus huddles started,
which is basically just like asmall group for kids at their
campus.
And the way we go about that,without getting thrown off
campus, with us being areligious group, is finding a
(13:32):
student leader that initiatesall of it.
He initiates the time thatwe're meeting.
The room that we're meeting ingives a piece of paper to the
principal or superintendent orwhoever, and it's during
non-instructional school hourswith a school representative
present, a teacher, coach,whoever.
So we try to get huddlesstarted and then try to get
those kids to go to camp to tryto teach them more like
(13:55):
leadership skills and what it'slike to lead a huddle, like
biblically, and not just gettingtogether and doing motivational
speaking for 25 minutes in themorning.
So our ultimate goal is justhuddles and getting a huddle
active in every single school,just a safe place for kids to
gather, hang out, learn a littlebit about Jesus.
(14:15):
And then the next step that Ihave taken this year was we got
every high school in my area Iserve Wayne, fayette, franklin,
rush and Union counties sogetting a high school huddle
started in every single highschool, which happened last year
Um, we were 10 for 10.
That's awesome, yeah,incredible.
And then, after all the highschools huddles were started, I
(14:36):
wanted to start team huddles.
So having a active FCA huddlefor every single team at every
single school like that's goingto take a very long time.
Yeah, pretty lofty goal, yeahNoble.
Yeah, it's been a fun start.
This year we have seven huddlesactive at Hagerstown from
athletic teams.
We're with the men's andwomen's basketball team, the
(14:58):
wrestling team, swimming team,track baseball and softball, and
then we have a second huddle orsorry, first girls basketball
huddle at Northeastern.
So that's been a lot of fun.
Team huddles has probably beenmy favorite part of the job so
far because I'm obsessed withsports.
So it gives me an excuse to goin and watch a little bit of
(15:20):
practice and hang out with someathletes afterwards.
Kind of takes me back a littlebit to my high school days where
I'm sitting in a gym for acouple hours at a time.
Except this time I get to talkabout jesus afterwards to kids
who may have not heard of himbefore yes, I, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
It talks a little bit about a question that, when
they ask you, is like I mean,you're organizing these huddles.
You have all these differentschools and different times.
I mean, how much connection doyou have with the students on a
regular basis?
You know you get this studentorganizer that kind of gets the
(16:01):
uh, the classroom use setups andthen come and they meet.
But how?
I mean, what's your role inmore of the from the interaction
standpoint?
Yeah, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
for you.
So the student leaders,especially at new huddles,
because when I came in Iinherited a couple pretty
successful huddles already.
So my interaction with students, especially at huddles that are
new, is weekly and almost daily, is just in communication with
them.
How can we make fca better?
How can I help you?
What do you?
Interaction with students,especially at huddles that are
new, is weekly and almost daily.
It's just in communication withthem.
How can we make FCA better?
How can I help you?
What do you need from me?
What training resources do youneed?
Do you need me to come in andspeak?
(16:33):
Do you need food?
Which is always a yes, but myinteraction with especially
Hagerstown, northeastern andRichmond are pretty daily, for
sure weekly, but sometimes daily, just because they're new.
They've only been doing it forabout a year.
Connersville started up theirhuddle about a couple months ago
(16:54):
first high school huddle thereas well, and my interaction with
them is also weekly, justbecause they're new.
They haven't led an FCA before.
With my other huddles it's, Iwould say, monthly active
communications and stuff withthem the sign of led an FCA
before.
With my other huddles it's, Iwould say, monthly active
communications and stuff withthem the sign of a successful
FCA huddle is when they don'tneed me anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So how many kids or young adults are part of this,
of the program?
I mean, like I don't know ifyou have an exact number or not,
but how many kids are wetalking about?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah.
So CU at the Pole gives us kindof our best estimate of how
many kids we have because we getpictures from every huddle.
So at CU at the Pole this yearwe had 615 kids roughly across
17 different schools.
So I would say CU at the Poleis always an increase in kids
that are there because it's aspecial, different annual event.
(17:45):
So I would say we serve about550 kids on a weekly basis.
Uh, not just at CU at the pole,but on a weekly basis.
Just cover what.
Cu at the pole?
Yeah, cu at the pole it's notan FCA thing, it's a country
wide thing.
It's just a national day ofprayer.
I don't know exactly whostarted it country-wide thing,
it's just a national day ofprayer.
(18:06):
I don't know exactly whostarted it, but it is a thing
that FCA helps with.
It's you circle around the poll, a flagpole on your campus,
with whoever wants to come andjust pray.
It's a student-led thing.
This year we had again 615 kids,which was up from last year and
Franklin County High School.
It's my favorite story.
One of my favorite stories tosee at the poll this year was
they had 25 kids roughly attheir CU at the poll last year
(18:30):
and this year there was aseventh-grade girl that said I
want this to be the biggest,best CU at the poll that
Franklin County has ever seen.
And she talked to her teacherhigh school teachers, like
middle school principal, highschool principal, like got an
article in, like a newspaper,was going all out for this and
they went from 25 to about 150in just one year.
That's amazing.
This seventh grade girl justspread the word.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
She had a passion for it.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, just spread the word to everybody and it was
awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
How do you you talked about it a little bit, but
navigating through, I I mean Idon't think, trying to think
about how I want to say this thecoming in to the schools.
I guess there's a certainconcern, but because there's no
(19:20):
religious affiliation, they,they don't want maybe perceived
in and I'm maybe speakingignorantly about it some type of
people coming in andindoctrinating people or
whatever.
I mean, is it tough to kind ofget this set up?
I mean obviously to, I'm maybecontradicting myself.
It's not that tough because youdo have some people.
(19:40):
But what?
Where does the pushback comefrom sometimes?
Or or is it more open than whatpeople would think?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, it's very open.
I haven't had at least in myyear and a half of doing this,
I've had no pushback from anyschool or any teacher or
anything like that.
Most of the pushback normallycomes from anybody with a
leadership position in school.
But the ones that I've ran intoto try to start huddles or
continue huddles or grow huddlesare like I love what you're
(20:09):
doing.
I don't know, I might not be areligious person, but I just
want my kids to gather in a safespace.
So I haven't personally had anypushback.
Fca has had pushback before,but as long as it's student led,
student initiated with theschool supervisor and
non-instructional school hour.
Like you can't have FCA duringEnglish period as much as I
would have liked to, but youhave to have it before school or
(20:31):
after school or during like astudy hall period or lunch
period or something.
And as long as we do it duringthat, then we can't have
pushback because it's legal forus to meet.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
All right, okay, all right, uh, uh, okay, all right.
Part of some of my notes hereis that are you giving out
Bibles or Bible study?
(21:02):
Resources and discipleship ispart of what we're doing here.
Um, you also have a field.
Did I say that right?
I mean, am I accurate in mynotes there?
And then fields of faith.
Tell us a little bit aboutabout that fields of faith is
incredible.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Um, I'll tie that in with the bible handouts that we
do, cause our biggestevangelical event of the year is
fields of faith, and this yearfields of faith is just a
student led worship night.
Basically, it's gap or puttogether by FCA leaders across
the state to come in and lead inworship.
(21:42):
We had a whole band this yearthat was made up of FCA kids and
our entire um speaking team wasmade up of five current high
school FCA students and they arethemed this year.
Was ID, please?
Talking about how your identityis not in your sports, it's not
in your girlfriend, it's not inyour job, it's not in the money
that you have, but youridentity, true identity lies in
(22:03):
Christ, and Christ calls youlike his child, his son or his
daughter.
So your true identity lies inthat, none of this other worldly
stuff that a lot of us put ouridentities in, oh for sure.
So that was our theme this yearand a lot of kids just came in
and shared their testimoniesabout how they found their true
identity or one of the mostinfluential people in their life
(22:26):
who wasn't a Christian, howthat was affecting like this
person's identity and thingslike that.
And then afterwards if abaseball analogy we have a
closing pitcher he's just aclosing speaker that comes in,
he's a pastor or somebody localin that area that comes in and
kind of wraps up everything thatwe talked about and just closes
(22:46):
out the night, and thenafterwards we open up the altars
to anybody who wants to receiveprayer or even receive Christ
for the first time, give theirlife back to Christ.
We open up the altars forwhoever wants to do that.
And then this year had about130 kids come up and do that and
one of them was a mom who'sbeen a drug addict and alcoholic
for 15 years and she felt thecall to come up and give her
(23:09):
life to Christ at a studentevent, which was incredible, and
that night we handed out about170 Bibles and that's our
biggest like Bible distributionnight.
Um, we do it throughout schoolsand stuff like that too, like
Richmond high school.
Uh, last year we let them in amessage of Romans road, because
there are a lot of new kids inthere that don't know anything
(23:32):
about the Bible or walk withJesus or anything.
And basically a summary ofRomans road is we're all centers
.
Jesus died on the cross.
For us, we can't earn Jesus'slove but, like, his grace is
given to us anyway because heloves us.
So if we just put our faith inhim and trust him and have a
relationship with him and giveour life over to him, then we
(23:52):
could spend forever with him.
And we had 10 kids come up tous.
That was our biggest FCA of theyear.
Last year was that Romans roadmessage that we had about 35
there and 10 kids came up to usafterwards and said I want to
give my life to Christ.
I don't know what that lookslike, but I what you said.
I felt something in me thatI've never felt before.
(24:13):
So how do I give my life toChrist?
How do I get a Bible?
Where do I start going tochurch?
How, how do I do this?
So the next week we handed out24 Bibles at Richmond's FCA to
all the kids who did not have aBible, and my wife and I went
through the week before andhighlighted 35 verses in the
Bible or the Bibles, just togive them a place to start Cause
(24:35):
that's great.
We.
When we talked about the Biblewith them previously, they
didn't know how to open theBible to John three, 16, which
is a verse that evennon-believers know.
But these kids, who have neverowned a Bible, never opened a
Bible.
I said open to John 3, 16, andthey looked at me like I was
speaking French.
So we had a Bible 101 kind ofday with them.
(24:57):
What's a chapter, what's averse?
What's a book of the Bible?
Where do I start?
And I told them that they don'thave to read it front to back
and it just blew their mindwhere do you point for a kid or
young adult that hasn't reallybeen exposed to that, to the
scriptures?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
where are some of the places you tend to lead them to
?
Speaker 2 (25:17):
first, because I mean , there's a lot there and
there's some.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
You go into some books of the bible and they it's
just like.
I mean it's not boring, but itcan come off like I don't even
understand what I'm reading here.
The begats begat you know, andcertain things could be a little
confusing.
So I mean, where do you tend tokind of direct kids?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
initially.
I always point to Matthew, mark, luke or John when kids are
first starting, first four booksof the New Testament, the
gospels, where it just talksabout Jesus's life from four
different perspectives.
That's where I always point to.
I tell some kids like kind ofmake a joke of it, I'm like who
thinks they're the smartestperson in the room?
And some kids raise their hand.
I'm like go read Proverbs, andProverbs is just a whole book of
(26:04):
wisdom and then you'll see somestuff in there and it'll kind
of humble you, because ithumbled me when I read Proverbs
all the way through for thefirst time.
And then if there's like choirpeople or band people, music
lovers in the room, then I tellthem to go to the book of Psalms
, because a lot of our currentworship music is written from
verses in Psalms.
(26:24):
So those are kind of the sixverses that I always go to, or,
sorry, six books of the Biblethat I always go to.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It's called Fellowship of Christian Athletes
and is it?
I mean it seems like it's isthe athletes a part of it?
I mean, is that through theteams, that's just kind of the
conduit that kind of helps youget groups together, or is it
really?
I mean, when it started I guessit was probably more geared
(26:57):
toward athletic teams, whatever,but it sounds like it's really
much bigger than that now.
I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
So when fca first started, um, it was started by,
I believe, branch ricky of thebrooklyn dodgers, and carl
erskine was one of the foundingfathers of fca as well, who's a
big anderson guy, um, and hegoes up to branch and is like I
love sports and I love jesus,how do I put it together?
And that's where fca started.
(27:25):
So fellowship of christianathletes was started by athletes
originally intended forathletes, but I like having a
sign that's like fellowship ofchristian anybody's and has
athletes marked out andanybody's can come um.
The reason that it's calledagain fellowship of Christian
athletes was because it startedfrom an athlete and athletes
typically have like leadershipprinciples and like leadership
(27:48):
attributes that other I don'twant to say other kids don't
have, but athletes are just bornnatural leaders and as an
athlete, especially a goodathlete on a high school team,
you're kind of like the popularkid of school and they would
have the most pull.
And my favorite story, kind oflike backing that is Pendleton
Heights High School.
(28:08):
Right when they were leavingfor COVID, there was a sophomore
on the football team, reallygood player, that was leading
FCA and they had about 20 kidsand then COVID happened so they
couldn't meet anymore.
They did online school for therest of the year.
Then August comes around andhe's nervous that nobody's going
to show up for FCA.
So he's going door knockingjust around Pendleton and
inviting as many people as hecan and he shows up to their
(28:31):
little classroom that they haveit in and has two dozen donuts
and a gallon of chocolate milkand then 110 kids walk through
the door and again I think therewould have been a lot of kids
still if anybody would have goneand door knocked.
But that's one of the bestplayers on the pendleton
football team.
That's inviting you tosomething, and if a really good
athlete from your high schoolinvites you to something, people
(28:54):
tend to go right uh, I bet a.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I mean I bet kids were just wanting to be together
and that was such a rough timefor kids in the schools at that
time.
And coming back and what agreat way to start it.
Come back and meet togetherwith something like FCA would be
a real great start to bringingkids back together again and
(29:22):
bringing in some good focustoward what Christ can mean in
their lives.
Anything else that maybe wehaven't talked about that's
important to share about FCA andthe work that you do.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
That's really the gist of it.
I can sit here for anothercouple hours and just share a
bunch of stories that havehappened forever.
But, um, the big thing ishuddles and then leadership camp
that we have once a year wherethat's the only FCA thing that
is not student led.
That's the staff just pouringback into them and that's where
we find a lot of leaders for ourhuddles.
But really the only thing wehaven't really touched on is
(30:04):
small groups too.
Like with FCA is something newthat I don't know if it's been a
thing before, but I had a groupof kids that came up to me and
said, hey, I, I want to have asmall group with other FCA
huddles.
Like I love my school huddlebut I want to get to know other
FCA kids too.
So kind of what you weretalking about during the COVID
time, how kids just want to betogether.
(30:25):
That hasn't really stopped.
Like kids still want to betogether and meet other kids.
And we just started a Biblestudy on Monday nights now where
five different schools we'veonly had it four times and five
different schools are presentthere and just kids coming from
all over this side of indiana tocome to a bible study and just
hang out with kids their age forour followers.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
kind of explain a little bit like I hosted a small
group at my home twice a monthand explain for those who are
watching or listening what asmall group is.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, so this small group is a little different than
your typical small group.
The typical small group atleast the ones that I've been a
part of is you get together insomebody's house, at a Starbucks
, at a restaurant, wherever, andyou just gather and talk about
Jesus, and it can be Biblestories, it can be life stuff
that you're going through, thatyou want to gather around and
(31:20):
just talk to people about andget biblical advice from.
Um.
Small groups that I've been apart of recently is a discovery
Bible study, where we just reada quick passage in the Bible and
what does this passage sayabout God, what does it say
about people and how are wegoing to let this change our
life?
Um, the main Bible studies insmall groups that I've been a
part of, though, have been Biblestudies.
(31:47):
This um Monday night service,though, is more of like a youth
night, a small group where wehave somebody come in and lead
us in worship.
We sing two or three songsevery week, and then, after the
songs are over, we do prayer.
Either one person comes in andpraise over the group as a whole
, and I'm going to go off on alittle side road here, but one
of the most incredible thingsthat I've ever been a part of
happened last Monday, where wedecided to break off and pray
(32:09):
over each other individually andI got up in front of him and
said if you are facing somethingwhere you need specific prayer
right now, sit down and those ofyou who are still standing go
lay a hand on everybody who issitting down and pray over them.
Pray over them silently, prayover them out loud, pray over
them quickly or shortly, likelong, doesn't matter, just go
(32:29):
pray over them.
And if you feel led to stand upand go pray with the rest of
the group, then stand up and gopray.
Long story short, that turnedinto what was a silent prayer to
the whole room, crying andhugging and praying with each
other so loudly to where youcouldn't even hear the worship
music that was playing in thebackground.
Just a group of kids sharingtheir high school stuff that
they're going through with otherbelievers and just praying.
(32:53):
So prayer is a huge thing withthis small group.
And then a message where astudent comes in and just shares
a brief 10 minute message andthe student that prepares the
message also comes up withquestions for the small group.
So what we just talked aboutrecently is finding your purpose
.
A senior from Northeastern camein and shared how to find your
(33:14):
purpose, and then all fourquestions that she came up with
was basically talking about yourpurpose.
How do I find my purpose?
How do I hear from God what mypurpose is?
And then the groups gettogether and talk about it.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
FCA is prime.
I mean you've got it inelementary or middle schools
middle schools middle schoolsand high schools, and then
you're working to have some incollege.
But wouldn't you say that thehigh school group is is maybe is
it fair to say the target groupor the biggest group of of the
(33:48):
participants in fca?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
it's been my target group for sure, um, just because
of my testimony and some of thethings that I went through in
high school were some thingsthat I don't wish other kids to
ever go through.
So that's been my target group.
Just because that was my mostlike adversity faced four years,
I would say so that's been mytarget group.
(34:12):
Just because I've that was myhardest four years, I would say.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I think being a teenager is some of the most
enjoyable part of of your lifeand memories, but it's, I think,
one of the most challengingperiods in your life, just that,
transitioning from being achild to an adult, and you want
to, and just you're in thislimbo and there's so many things
(34:40):
coming at you in life at thatage.
That's where I believe yourfaith can really give you
stability in your life when allthese challenges come.
There's a sense of hope there,through the relationship with
(35:01):
Christ that is is unparalleledwith anything else you know, and
so I I I can see where you knowthe ministry can do so many
good things in that age groupjust because it's such a
challenging periodin people's lives.
You know we, I mean there'schapters of life, life, you know
(35:21):
there's all kinds of things,but I, just when I look back, I
think that is a tough period.
Yeah, so well.
Uh, one thing I wanted to talkabout before we maybe kind of
wrap things up, is that so thisis your full-time job, but part
of being representative for FCAis you kind of have to raise
(35:46):
your support money.
It's kind of like you're amissionary on the ground, in the
schools and with those kids.
So how does that work, tryingto support?
I mean you have Bibles thatyou're giving out.
There's a cost associated withthat, but then you know you're
you're sacrificing a careerdoing something else by doing
(36:06):
this ministry.
So I mean you need to be ableto, you know, support yourself
and help support your wife.
I mean she works but, um, sohow does, how does that all work
?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, so, like you said, I am a missionary.
Part of my job is activelyfundraising monthly donors,
annual donors, talking toindividuals, churches,
businesses and sharing my visionwith them and then asking them
to go home and pray aboutsupport Right.
Part of that support goestowards my salary.
A lot of that support goestowards food because these kids
(36:39):
love to eat.
Of that support goes towards mysalary.
A lot of that support goestowards food because these kids
love to eat.
Right now, bibles is providedfrom my boss.
That will eventually end upbeing an expense that I carry.
And then the rest of the moneythat I fundraise kind of goes
towards savings as a backup planin case some donors fall off.
And then out of that savings Ican also give out scholarships
(37:00):
for kids to go to camp, becausecamp is expensive and some kids
do need financial support forcamp as well.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
so this is all of the funding stuff that you've gone
out and raised, or do you haveany money coming in through any
other conduits at all?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
I I have a side job on wednesdays that I work, but
all of the money coming inthrough FCA is money that I have
raised.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
But people can donate to that, and then that's a
check payable to FCA, and thenwhat's the oversight on that?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Yeah, so I wasn't allowed to get paid until I was
fully funded is the word, whichis just the first goal that you
set for yourself.
That first goal was $30,000 forme, which is 2,500 bucks a
month.
So my goal was to raise $2,500a month through annual donors
divided by 12 or throughcontinued monthly donors, and
(37:54):
all that money goes to FCA andthen FCA pays me as, like, a W2
employee.
Okay, if that answers yourquestion yeah, no, it does.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
It does so, um, if people want to uh contribute, I
think we're going to.
You gave us a QR code.
We're going to try to uh putthat in to uh this when it goes
out, for at least people thatare watching it.
Um, but if someone wants tocontribute to this ministry, how
(38:23):
would they do that?
Speaker 2 (38:24):
The best way would probably be to text or email me,
which I can give you my numbernow.
Yeah, go ahead and just say itCool 765-606-1443.
Or you can email me at cbloomB-L-O-O-M.
As in Mary at fcaorg.
I would love to share more indeep detail about the ministry
(38:46):
with any of them who reach out,but that would be the best way
because I could then send out alink to donate to my online page
.
Or you can also send a check.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah.
So if you're listening andwatching today and you're, you
know, really struck by whatCaleb does, uh, if you reach out
to him, um, he's uh very opento meeting with people.
I mean, we that's how we kindof got them cut to talk.
Initially, someone said, hey,you ought to talk to this guy,
and we just we came to ustalking here today but, um, uh,
(39:19):
appreciate uh what you're doingand and some of the sacrifices
that you make to serve, um, ouryouth in this community and uh,
so just wish you a continued, umsuccess in this ministry and
and just keep on touching liveslike you have.
So, thank you Very good.
So thank you, uh, we'll wrap itup with that.
(39:40):
Just ask if you are hearing usor watching us today.
Just share it out to otherpeople that you know that would
enjoy hearing about FCA andCaleb's ministry.
So thank you for joining ustoday on the Hub.
Michael Allen from Manpower.
We are a national brand, yetlocally owned franchise.
(40:03):
We are familiar with thechallenges businesses face.
It's tough recruiting andretaining qualified employees.
That's why working withManpower is a smart,
cost-effective solution.
Our entire focus is talentacquisition.
We'll manage your hiring andtraining and provide ongoing,
customized support.
Since 1966, we have been yourcommunity invested partner,
uniquely positioned to helpeliminate the hassles and save
(40:25):
you time and money.
Let us help contact Manpowertoday.
Michael Allen from Manpower.
We are a national brand, yetlocally owned franchise.
We are familiar with thechallenges businesses face.
It's tough recruiting andretaining qualified employees.
That's why working withManpower is a smart,
cost-effective solution.
Our entire focus is talentacquisition.
We'll manage your hiring andtraining and provide ongoing,
customized support.
Since 1966, we have been yourcommunity-invested partner,
(00:24):
uniquely positioned to helpeliminate the hassles and save
you time and money.
Let us help contact Manpowertoday.
Hello and welcome to the Hubpowered by Manpower of Richmond,
with offices also in Portlandand Newcastle.
I'm your host, michael Allen,and here on the Hub we interview
local businesses, communitypartners and various special
(00:44):
guests.
And our mission the hub.
We interview local businesses,community partners and various
special guests, and our missionis to share and spotlight unique
and untold stories of companies, organizations and people who
are making a difference in ourcommunity.
And today we are visiting withCaleb Bloom.
Caleb is the arearepresentative of East Central
Indiana South for Fellowship ofChristian Athletes, fca.
(01:07):
Caleb, welcome to the Hub,thank you, thanks for having me
Good to see you today.
It's great to meet with you andtalk about Fellowship of
Christian Athletes and before wedo that, a couple things I
wanted to talk about.
I mean, we're just a couple ofdays out from christmas and, uh,
(01:29):
I don't know, you're quite abit younger than me, but I don't
know if you've ever watched thecharlie brown christmas my
mom's obsessed with charliebrown and uh, so, uh.
Anyway, charlie brown's prettyfrustrated with what's going on
with the school productions andjust all the kids and stuff, and
he kind of has this meltdownand he really wants to
(01:50):
understand what the true meaningof Christmas is.
And so Linus takes the stage.
And I want to go through thispart that Linus quotes from the
Bible, out of Luke 2.
He says and in the same regionthere were shepherds out in the
field keeping watch over theirflock by night, and an angel of
the Lord appeared to them andthe glory of the Lord shone
(02:13):
around them and they were filledwith great fear.
And the angel said to them fearnot, for behold, I bring you
good news of great joy that willbe for all people, you good
news of great joy that will befor all people, for unto you is
born this day, in the city ofDavid, a savior who is Christ,
the Lord, and this will be asign to you.
And you will find a babywrapped in swaddling clothes and
(02:35):
lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was, therewas, with the angel, a multitude
of heavenly hosts praising Godand saying Glory to God in the
highest and on earth, peaceamong those whom he has pleased.
And you know, jesus came tothis world for a particular
(02:56):
reason and he said it himselflater in the same chapter, same
book Luke 19.
He said For the Son of man cameto seek and save the lost.
And FCA's vision, from ourdiscussions before, is to see
the world transformed by JesusChrist through the influence of
(03:17):
coaches and athletes.
And so it's just takingsomething that happened
thousands of years ago andsharing that story with with
others.
And what FCA does that isthrough, uh, the influence of
coaches and athletes and otherindividuals in the school system
Is that fair to say, yeah.
(03:37):
Yeah, excellent, so, uh, butwe're, we're gonna, uh, so we're
going to talk about that today.
One thing that we do here onthe Hub is because of our
association with manpower.
We put people to work and welike to talk about jobs.
So the question I have for youand this is a real enjoyable
(03:59):
part for me is what was yourfirst job that you ever had?
Do you remember what that was?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, for me is what was your first job that you ever
had?
Do you remember what that was?
Yeah, my first job.
My dad owned a restaurant inEdgewood a restaurant and, golf
course okay, and my first job.
I started working when I was 14, I think.
Bus boy doing dishes, workingin the kitchen, whatever, just
walked in and helped out however, edgewood yeah, and where was
this located at?
Just outside of Anderson on theLaPel side?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Okay, yeah, all right .
So is that place still aroundto this day?
It's still there.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
My dad doesn't own it anymore.
He got rid of it right beforeCOVID hit.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
But we had it for about four or five years.
It's still there, edgewood GolfCourse and Restaurant, I think
is the name of it.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
All right.
So a little nine hole 10, 18hole course 18, 18 hole.
All right, so you didn't get todo the golf stuff.
You were me.
Golf course, You're morehelping in the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I did some golf course stuff where I was like
weed eating or edge and bunkersand stuff like that.
But my dad's passion was thegolf course and I loved the
restaurant.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
Great.
Well, that's interesting.
That's uh lots of people have.
People have, you know, hadtheir first jobs, and really
even at that stage in theirlives, so, yeah, it was fun.
Next, I'd like to ask you, Imean, uh, share with our
followers a little bit aboutyourself, kind of where you grew
up, your education, some ofyour previous vocational
(05:23):
pursuits, your family, wife, anychildren that you may or may
not have.
So tell us a little bit aboutthat.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah Well, like you said earlier, I'm Caleb Bloom.
I grew up in LaPelle, indiana.
I'm 25 years old now.
Lapelle is kind of sandwichedbetween Noblesville and Anderson
, but that's where I grew up, mywhole life, played football and
basketball, went and playedcollege football for two years
before I ended up getting hurt.
So I came back home in 2020 andstarted working and my first
(05:58):
job coming back then was helpingopen up a restaurant in
Anderson not Edgewood, my dad'sprevious one, but Grandview,
also in Anderson.
So helped open that up, workedthere for a while as a server
and then went out and sold cars.
Sold cars for nine, 10 months.
I think it was okay, didn't loveit and then went out and
started doing mortgages and wasdoing mortgages for about two
(06:18):
and a half years, all right, andthat was a pretty tough market,
pretty tough industry.
And then, while doing mortgages, my current or my wife and I
got married.
Uh, we've been married for overtwo years now.
Um, she does cardiac rehab indowntown Indy.
Uh, we do not have a baby.
We have a fur baby.
We have a little golden doodlethat we spoil like a kid.
(06:39):
Um, and then, shortly aftermortgages is when I started
pursuing FCA fellowship ofChristian athletes.
I started with them in 2023, uhSeptember.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
So you made a transition from uh sit from uh
car salesman to doing mortgagesto, and now you're uh involved
in a pretty well-known ministry.
Has it's been around, I think,since the 50s?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Long time.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, FCA has been so I don't know probably heading
around getting close to 75 years.
What kind of led you in thatdirection?
I mean, did you know about FCAfrom the time when you were in
school?
Was that something that youwere exposed to then, or is that
something that kind of postschool that you found out about
(07:31):
and eventually became involved?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
in?
Yeah, I was exposed to it inhigh school.
My dad was actually the FCAlike school sponsor for my high
school and he was doing thatever since I was in elementary
school.
So I was exposed to it throughhim, but I didn't know how big
of a corporation company like itactually was.
I thought it was just a thingthat my dad did at lapel and we
had donuts every Wednesdaymorning, talked about Jesus and
(07:54):
went to school.
But I sat down with my dad againFebruary of 2023.
So almost two years ago now andbasically just asked him how I
could find my calling that Jesushad for me, cause I didn't feel
like it was that doingmortgages Like I enjoyed
mortgages, but I wasn't likefeeling fulfilled, um, doing it.
(08:15):
And dad said that I would begreat ministry and great with
kids and great with sports.
So see if you can figuresomething out.
I'm like ministry now, but I'llfigure out something with
sports and kids.
Yeah, so I thought I was goingto be a coach and a teacher or
(08:36):
something like that.
Go back to school, finish up mydegree so I could become a
weights teacher or something andthen a football or basketball
coach.
Followed that conversation withmy dad to where seven people in
about a two week time span allasked me if I ever considered
pursuing ministry, and each timeI told them no, no, no, no.
And then the sixth and seventhone happened and me and my wife
were like maybe this is Godtrying to talk to me, not just
random events of people askingme if I would pursue ministry,
(09:01):
but kind of the icing on thecake for me was my wife and I
were wondering what brought usto Hagerstown, because
Hagerstown is not close toanything except her parents and
a couple of relatives.
It was far away from both of ourjobs, far away from my family,
far away from our church, andthe job that FCA was looking to
hire for was an area rep in theexact county that my wife and I
(09:21):
were living in and surroundingcounties.
So you're like, okay, maybethat's why we were called to
move out here two years inadvance before this ministry
started.
And then I sat down and talkedwith my aunt and basically told
her the whole story of all thesepeople coming into my life
leading me to ministry.
And for two months, before anyof those signs or conversations
(09:42):
even happened, she was prayingfor somebody to come into my
life and lead me in thedirection towards my calling.
So for two months before any ofthe things even started
happening, she was prayingconstantly, every single morning
for two months straight, ofsomebody to lead me towards my
calling.
So that was the icing on thecake for me was that she was
praying for that for that long.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, it's cliche cliche, but you know things
happen for a reason, right, yeah, and you get all these
indicators and it's just keepcoming back into your, your
pathway.
You know kind of getting yourattention about, about maybe
getting involved in ministry and, specifically today, fca.
Let me just backtrack a littlebit.
Tell me, uh, you playedbasketball and and football.
(10:25):
So, between it looks like youwent later and played college
football, and that was atnorthwestern st paul,
northwestern, and uh, so in highschool, though, what was kind
of more of your passion?
Was it basketball or football?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
yeah, so I obviously am built like a football player,
not built like a basketballplayer.
Um, but basketball at lapel hada little bit more like
excitement and stuff behind it.
Um, so basketball was probably.
I had more fun playingbasketball, but I was better and
enjoyed football more, if thatmakes any sense.
Yeah, um, it's good, I loveboth, but I wasn't built to play
(11:01):
basketball for much longerafter high school, so I went
with football and didn't regretit Were you 6'4 then in high
school.
I've been this tall since aboutseventh grade.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Okay.
So I mean there's definitelysome advantages in basketball,
so were you coordinated enoughto take advantage of that height
?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I was actually a perimeter player.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I had two guys on my high school team that were
bigger than me wow, um, andreally skilled post players.
You guys have a pretty goodbasketball team those years.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, yeah, one sectionals a couple times and
won the state championship in2016 okay, awesome, yeah, that's
great.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
and then, uh, what position did you play in
football?
I was a tight end, tight end,so Mm-hmm, so what's like your
best game?
How many catches did you havein a game?
Or do you name success by that?
I mean, are you wanting theball?
Tight end is not just areceiver, you're a blocker,
right, but I mean, what part didyou enjoy about that position?
(12:02):
Or I mean, what do you thinkback of that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, it was funny.
I caught my first varsitytouchdown in a game my junior
year and my dad came up to meand he's like dude, you caught
your first touchdown.
Was that your favorite play ofthe game?
I'm like, no, my favorite playof the game was a pancake block
I had in the second quarter.
So I did a little bit of both.
Catching was always fun my bestgame.
I think I had seven catches ina game at one point, which was
(12:28):
fun.
But I enjoyed the dirty worktoo of blocking and things like
that.
So it was just a fun sport.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, absolutely Well , thanks for sharing that.
So let's go back and talk alittle bit about what Fellowship
of Christian Athletes is kindof review and tell us a little
bit about what Fellowship ofChristian Athletes is this kind
of review, and tell us a littlebit about what it is.
I talked a little bit about thevision, but maybe explain it a
little bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, so, like you said, the vision is to impact
the world, like get coaches andathletes into a growing
relationship with Jesus Christand his church.
Like we don't just stop once hegets into a relationship with
Jesus.
Like FCA is more than Tuesdaymornings, church is more than
Sunday mornings and Wednesdaynights.
So we're trying to get them ina growing relationship with
Christ and then the church.
(13:11):
That way they can do more thanjust 25 minutes on Tuesday
mornings before school.
And our first goal is huddlesgetting campus huddles started,
which is basically just like asmall group for kids at their
campus.
And the way we go about that,without getting thrown off
campus, with us being areligious group, is finding a
(13:32):
student leader that initiatesall of it.
He initiates the time thatwe're meeting.
The room that we're meeting ingives a piece of paper to the
principal or superintendent orwhoever, and it's during
non-instructional school hourswith a school representative
present, a teacher, coach,whoever.
So we try to get huddlesstarted and then try to get
those kids to go to camp to tryto teach them more like
(13:55):
leadership skills and what it'slike to lead a huddle, like
biblically, and not just gettingtogether and doing motivational
speaking for 25 minutes in themorning.
So our ultimate goal is justhuddles and getting a huddle
active in every single school,just a safe place for kids to
gather, hang out, learn a littlebit about Jesus.
(14:15):
And then the next step that Ihave taken this year was we got
every high school in my area Iserve Wayne, fayette, franklin,
rush and Union counties sogetting a high school huddle
started in every single highschool, which happened last year
Um, we were 10 for 10.
That's awesome, yeah,incredible.
And then, after all the highschools huddles were started, I
(14:36):
wanted to start team huddles.
So having a active FCA huddlefor every single team at every
single school like that's goingto take a very long time.
Yeah, pretty lofty goal, yeahNoble.
Yeah, it's been a fun start.
This year we have seven huddlesactive at Hagerstown from
athletic teams.
We're with the men's andwomen's basketball team, the
(14:58):
wrestling team, swimming team,track baseball and softball, and
then we have a second huddle orsorry, first girls basketball
huddle at Northeastern.
So that's been a lot of fun.
Team huddles has probably beenmy favorite part of the job so
far because I'm obsessed withsports.
So it gives me an excuse to goin and watch a little bit of
(15:20):
practice and hang out with someathletes afterwards.
Kind of takes me back a littlebit to my high school days where
I'm sitting in a gym for acouple hours at a time.
Except this time I get to talkabout jesus afterwards to kids
who may have not heard of himbefore yes, I, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
It talks a little bit about a question that, when
they ask you, is like I mean,you're organizing these huddles.
You have all these differentschools and different times.
I mean, how much connection doyou have with the students on a
regular basis?
You know you get this studentorganizer that kind of gets the
(16:01):
uh, the classroom use setups andthen come and they meet.
But how?
I mean, what's your role inmore of the from the interaction
standpoint?
Yeah, how does that work?
Speaker 2 (16:13):
for you.
So the student leaders,especially at new huddles,
because when I came in Iinherited a couple pretty
successful huddles already.
So my interaction with students, especially at huddles that are
new, is weekly and almost daily, is just in communication with
them.
How can we make fca better?
How can I help you?
What do you?
Interaction with students,especially at huddles that are
new, is weekly and almost daily.
It's just in communication withthem.
How can we make FCA better?
How can I help you?
What do you need from me?
What training resources do youneed?
Do you need me to come in andspeak?
(16:33):
Do you need food?
Which is always a yes, but myinteraction with especially
Hagerstown, northeastern andRichmond are pretty daily, for
sure weekly, but sometimes daily, just because they're new.
They've only been doing it forabout a year.
Connersville started up theirhuddle about a couple months ago
(16:54):
first high school huddle thereas well, and my interaction with
them is also weekly, justbecause they're new.
They haven't led an FCA before.
With my other huddles it's, Iwould say, monthly active
communications and stuff withthem the sign of led an FCA
before.
With my other huddles it's, Iwould say, monthly active
communications and stuff withthem the sign of a successful
FCA huddle is when they don'tneed me anymore.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So how many kids or young adults are part of this,
of the program?
I mean, like I don't know ifyou have an exact number or not,
but how many kids are wetalking about?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah.
So CU at the Pole gives us kindof our best estimate of how
many kids we have because we getpictures from every huddle.
So at CU at the Pole this yearwe had 615 kids roughly across
17 different schools.
So I would say CU at the Poleis always an increase in kids
that are there because it's aspecial, different annual event.
(17:45):
So I would say we serve about550 kids on a weekly basis.
Uh, not just at CU at the pole,but on a weekly basis.
Just cover what.
Cu at the pole?
Yeah, cu at the pole it's notan FCA thing, it's a country
wide thing.
It's just a national day ofprayer.
I don't know exactly whostarted it country-wide thing,
it's just a national day ofprayer.
(18:06):
I don't know exactly whostarted it, but it is a thing
that FCA helps with.
It's you circle around the poll, a flagpole on your campus,
with whoever wants to come andjust pray.
It's a student-led thing.
This year we had again 615 kids,which was up from last year and
Franklin County High School.
It's my favorite story.
One of my favorite stories tosee at the poll this year was
they had 25 kids roughly attheir CU at the poll last year
(18:30):
and this year there was aseventh-grade girl that said I
want this to be the biggest,best CU at the poll that
Franklin County has ever seen.
And she talked to her teacherhigh school teachers, like
middle school principal, highschool principal, like got an
article in, like a newspaper,was going all out for this and
they went from 25 to about 150in just one year.
That's amazing.
This seventh grade girl justspread the word.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
She had a passion for it.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yeah, just spread the word to everybody and it was
awesome.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
How do you you talked about it a little bit, but
navigating through, I I mean Idon't think, trying to think
about how I want to say this thecoming in to the schools.
I guess there's a certainconcern, but because there's no
(19:20):
religious affiliation, they,they don't want maybe perceived
in and I'm maybe speakingignorantly about it some type of
people coming in andindoctrinating people or
whatever.
I mean, is it tough to kind ofget this set up?
I mean obviously to, I'm maybecontradicting myself.
It's not that tough because youdo have some people.
(19:40):
But what?
Where does the pushback comefrom sometimes?
Or or is it more open than whatpeople would think?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, it's very open.
I haven't had at least in myyear and a half of doing this,
I've had no pushback from anyschool or any teacher or
anything like that.
Most of the pushback normallycomes from anybody with a
leadership position in school.
But the ones that I've ran intoto try to start huddles or
continue huddles or grow huddlesare like I love what you're
(20:09):
doing.
I don't know, I might not be areligious person, but I just
want my kids to gather in a safespace.
So I haven't personally had anypushback.
Fca has had pushback before,but as long as it's student led,
student initiated with theschool supervisor and
non-instructional school hour.
Like you can't have FCA duringEnglish period as much as I
would have liked to, but youhave to have it before school or
(20:31):
after school or during like astudy hall period or lunch
period or something.
And as long as we do it duringthat, then we can't have
pushback because it's legal forus to meet.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
All right, okay, all right, uh, uh, okay, all right.
Part of some of my notes hereis that are you giving out
Bibles or Bible study?
(21:02):
Resources and discipleship ispart of what we're doing here.
Um, you also have a field.
Did I say that right?
I mean, am I accurate in mynotes there?
And then fields of faith.
Tell us a little bit aboutabout that fields of faith is
incredible.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Um, I'll tie that in with the bible handouts that we
do, cause our biggestevangelical event of the year is
fields of faith, and this yearfields of faith is just a
student led worship night.
Basically, it's gap or puttogether by FCA leaders across
the state to come in and lead inworship.
(21:42):
We had a whole band this yearthat was made up of FCA kids and
our entire um speaking team wasmade up of five current high
school FCA students and they arethemed this year.
Was ID, please?
Talking about how your identityis not in your sports, it's not
in your girlfriend, it's not inyour job, it's not in the money
that you have, but youridentity, true identity lies in
(22:03):
Christ, and Christ calls youlike his child, his son or his
daughter.
So your true identity lies inthat, none of this other worldly
stuff that a lot of us put ouridentities in, oh for sure.
So that was our theme this yearand a lot of kids just came in
and shared their testimoniesabout how they found their true
identity or one of the mostinfluential people in their life
(22:26):
who wasn't a Christian, howthat was affecting like this
person's identity and thingslike that.
And then afterwards if abaseball analogy we have a
closing pitcher he's just aclosing speaker that comes in,
he's a pastor or somebody localin that area that comes in and
kind of wraps up everything thatwe talked about and just closes
(22:46):
out the night, and thenafterwards we open up the altars
to anybody who wants to receiveprayer or even receive Christ
for the first time, give theirlife back to Christ.
We open up the altars forwhoever wants to do that.
And then this year had about130 kids come up and do that and
one of them was a mom who'sbeen a drug addict and alcoholic
for 15 years and she felt thecall to come up and give her
(23:09):
life to Christ at a studentevent, which was incredible, and
that night we handed out about170 Bibles and that's our
biggest like Bible distributionnight.
Um, we do it throughout schoolsand stuff like that too, like
Richmond high school.
Uh, last year we let them in amessage of Romans road, because
there are a lot of new kids inthere that don't know anything
(23:32):
about the Bible or walk withJesus or anything.
And basically a summary ofRomans road is we're all centers
.
Jesus died on the cross.
For us, we can't earn Jesus'slove but, like, his grace is
given to us anyway because heloves us.
So if we just put our faith inhim and trust him and have a
relationship with him and giveour life over to him, then we
(23:52):
could spend forever with him.
And we had 10 kids come up tous.
That was our biggest FCA of theyear.
Last year was that Romans roadmessage that we had about 35
there and 10 kids came up to usafterwards and said I want to
give my life to Christ.
I don't know what that lookslike, but I what you said.
I felt something in me thatI've never felt before.
(24:13):
So how do I give my life toChrist?
How do I get a Bible?
Where do I start going tochurch?
How, how do I do this?
So the next week we handed out24 Bibles at Richmond's FCA to
all the kids who did not have aBible, and my wife and I went
through the week before andhighlighted 35 verses in the
Bible or the Bibles, just togive them a place to start Cause
(24:35):
that's great.
We.
When we talked about the Biblewith them previously, they
didn't know how to open theBible to John three, 16, which
is a verse that evennon-believers know.
But these kids, who have neverowned a Bible, never opened a
Bible.
I said open to John 3, 16, andthey looked at me like I was
speaking French.
So we had a Bible 101 kind ofday with them.
(24:57):
What's a chapter, what's averse?
What's a book of the Bible?
Where do I start?
And I told them that they don'thave to read it front to back
and it just blew their mindwhere do you point for a kid or
young adult that hasn't reallybeen exposed to that, to the
scriptures?
Speaker 1 (25:15):
where are some of the places you tend to lead them to
?
Speaker 2 (25:17):
first, because I mean , there's a lot there and
there's some.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
You go into some books of the bible and they it's
just like.
I mean it's not boring, but itcan come off like I don't even
understand what I'm reading here.
The begats begat you know, andcertain things could be a little
confusing.
So I mean, where do you tend tokind of direct kids?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
initially.
I always point to Matthew, mark, luke or John when kids are
first starting, first four booksof the New Testament, the
gospels, where it just talksabout Jesus's life from four
different perspectives.
That's where I always point to.
I tell some kids like kind ofmake a joke of it, I'm like who
thinks they're the smartestperson in the room?
And some kids raise their hand.
I'm like go read Proverbs, andProverbs is just a whole book of
(26:04):
wisdom and then you'll see somestuff in there and it'll kind
of humble you, because ithumbled me when I read Proverbs
all the way through for thefirst time.
And then if there's like choirpeople or band people, music
lovers in the room, then I tellthem to go to the book of Psalms
, because a lot of our currentworship music is written from
verses in Psalms.
(26:24):
So those are kind of the sixverses that I always go to, or,
sorry, six books of the Biblethat I always go to.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
It's called Fellowship of Christian Athletes
and is it?
I mean it seems like it's isthe athletes a part of it?
I mean, is that through theteams, that's just kind of the
conduit that kind of helps youget groups together, or is it
really?
I mean, when it started I guessit was probably more geared
(26:57):
toward athletic teams, whatever,but it sounds like it's really
much bigger than that now.
I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
So when fca first started, um, it was started by,
I believe, branch ricky of thebrooklyn dodgers, and carl
erskine was one of the foundingfathers of fca as well, who's a
big anderson guy, um, and hegoes up to branch and is like I
love sports and I love jesus,how do I put it together?
And that's where fca started.
(27:25):
So fellowship of christianathletes was started by athletes
originally intended forathletes, but I like having a
sign that's like fellowship ofchristian anybody's and has
athletes marked out andanybody's can come um.
The reason that it's calledagain fellowship of Christian
athletes was because it startedfrom an athlete and athletes
typically have like leadershipprinciples and like leadership
(27:48):
attributes that other I don'twant to say other kids don't
have, but athletes are just bornnatural leaders and as an
athlete, especially a goodathlete on a high school team,
you're kind of like the popularkid of school and they would
have the most pull.
And my favorite story, kind oflike backing that is Pendleton
Heights High School.
(28:08):
Right when they were leavingfor COVID, there was a sophomore
on the football team, reallygood player, that was leading
FCA and they had about 20 kidsand then COVID happened so they
couldn't meet anymore.
They did online school for therest of the year.
Then August comes around andhe's nervous that nobody's going
to show up for FCA.
So he's going door knockingjust around Pendleton and
inviting as many people as hecan and he shows up to their
(28:31):
little classroom that they haveit in and has two dozen donuts
and a gallon of chocolate milkand then 110 kids walk through
the door and again I think therewould have been a lot of kids
still if anybody would have goneand door knocked.
But that's one of the bestplayers on the pendleton
football team.
That's inviting you tosomething, and if a really good
athlete from your high schoolinvites you to something, people
(28:54):
tend to go right uh, I bet a.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I mean I bet kids were just wanting to be together
and that was such a rough timefor kids in the schools at that
time.
And coming back and what agreat way to start it.
Come back and meet togetherwith something like FCA would be
a real great start to bringingkids back together again and
(29:22):
bringing in some good focustoward what Christ can mean in
their lives.
Anything else that maybe wehaven't talked about that's
important to share about FCA andthe work that you do.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
That's really the gist of it.
I can sit here for anothercouple hours and just share a
bunch of stories that havehappened forever.
But, um, the big thing ishuddles and then leadership camp
that we have once a year wherethat's the only FCA thing that
is not student led.
That's the staff just pouringback into them and that's where
we find a lot of leaders for ourhuddles.
But really the only thing wehaven't really touched on is
(30:04):
small groups too.
Like with FCA is something newthat I don't know if it's been a
thing before, but I had a groupof kids that came up to me and
said, hey, I, I want to have asmall group with other FCA
huddles.
Like I love my school huddlebut I want to get to know other
FCA kids too.
So kind of what you weretalking about during the COVID
time, how kids just want to betogether.
(30:25):
That hasn't really stopped.
Like kids still want to betogether and meet other kids.
And we just started a Biblestudy on Monday nights now where
five different schools we'veonly had it four times and five
different schools are presentthere and just kids coming from
all over this side of indiana tocome to a bible study and just
hang out with kids their age forour followers.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
kind of explain a little bit like I hosted a small
group at my home twice a monthand explain for those who are
watching or listening what asmall group is.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, so this small group is a little different than
your typical small group.
The typical small group atleast the ones that I've been a
part of is you get together insomebody's house, at a Starbucks
, at a restaurant, wherever, andyou just gather and talk about
Jesus, and it can be Biblestories, it can be life stuff
that you're going through, thatyou want to gather around and
(31:20):
just talk to people about andget biblical advice from.
Um.
Small groups that I've been apart of recently is a discovery
Bible study, where we just reada quick passage in the Bible and
what does this passage sayabout God, what does it say
about people and how are wegoing to let this change our
life?
Um, the main Bible studies insmall groups that I've been a
part of, though, have been Biblestudies.
(31:47):
This um Monday night service,though, is more of like a youth
night, a small group where wehave somebody come in and lead
us in worship.
We sing two or three songsevery week, and then, after the
songs are over, we do prayer.
Either one person comes in andpraise over the group as a whole
, and I'm going to go off on alittle side road here, but one
of the most incredible thingsthat I've ever been a part of
happened last Monday, where wedecided to break off and pray
(32:09):
over each other individually andI got up in front of him and
said if you are facing somethingwhere you need specific prayer
right now, sit down and those ofyou who are still standing go
lay a hand on everybody who issitting down and pray over them.
Pray over them silently, prayover them out loud, pray over
them quickly or shortly, likelong, doesn't matter, just go
(32:29):
pray over them.
And if you feel led to stand upand go pray with the rest of
the group, then stand up and gopray.
Long story short, that turnedinto what was a silent prayer to
the whole room, crying andhugging and praying with each
other so loudly to where youcouldn't even hear the worship
music that was playing in thebackground.
Just a group of kids sharingtheir high school stuff that
they're going through with otherbelievers and just praying.
(32:53):
So prayer is a huge thing withthis small group.
And then a message where astudent comes in and just shares
a brief 10 minute message andthe student that prepares the
message also comes up withquestions for the small group.
So what we just talked aboutrecently is finding your purpose
.
A senior from Northeastern camein and shared how to find your
(33:14):
purpose, and then all fourquestions that she came up with
was basically talking about yourpurpose.
How do I find my purpose?
How do I hear from God what mypurpose is?
And then the groups gettogether and talk about it.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
FCA is prime.
I mean you've got it inelementary or middle schools
middle schools middle schoolsand high schools, and then
you're working to have some incollege.
But wouldn't you say that thehigh school group is is maybe is
it fair to say the target groupor the biggest group of of the
(33:48):
participants in fca?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
it's been my target group for sure, um, just because
of my testimony and some of thethings that I went through in
high school were some thingsthat I don't wish other kids to
ever go through.
So that's been my target group.
Just because that was my mostlike adversity faced four years,
I would say so that's been mytarget group.
(34:12):
Just because I've that was myhardest four years, I would say.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I think being a teenager is some of the most
enjoyable part of of your lifeand memories, but it's, I think,
one of the most challengingperiods in your life, just that,
transitioning from being achild to an adult, and you want
to, and just you're in thislimbo and there's so many things
(34:40):
coming at you in life at thatage.
That's where I believe yourfaith can really give you
stability in your life when allthese challenges come.
There's a sense of hope there,through the relationship with
(35:01):
Christ that is is unparalleledwith anything else you know, and
so I I I can see where you knowthe ministry can do so many
good things in that age groupjust because it's such a
challenging periodin people's lives.
You know we, I mean there'schapters of life, life, you know
(35:21):
there's all kinds of things,but I, just when I look back, I
think that is a tough period.
Yeah, so well.
Uh, one thing I wanted to talkabout before we maybe kind of
wrap things up, is that so thisis your full-time job, but part
of being representative for FCAis you kind of have to raise
(35:46):
your support money.
It's kind of like you're amissionary on the ground, in the
schools and with those kids.
So how does that work, tryingto support?
I mean you have Bibles thatyou're giving out.
There's a cost associated withthat, but then you know you're
you're sacrificing a careerdoing something else by doing
(36:06):
this ministry.
So I mean you need to be ableto, you know, support yourself
and help support your wife.
I mean she works but, um, sohow does, how does that all work
?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Yeah, so, like you said, I am a missionary.
Part of my job is activelyfundraising monthly donors,
annual donors, talking toindividuals, churches,
businesses and sharing my visionwith them and then asking them
to go home and pray aboutsupport Right.
Part of that support goestowards my salary.
A lot of that support goestowards food because these kids
(36:39):
love to eat.
Of that support goes towards mysalary.
A lot of that support goestowards food because these kids
love to eat.
Right now, bibles is providedfrom my boss.
That will eventually end upbeing an expense that I carry.
And then the rest of the moneythat I fundraise kind of goes
towards savings as a backup planin case some donors fall off.
And then out of that savings Ican also give out scholarships
(37:00):
for kids to go to camp, becausecamp is expensive and some kids
do need financial support forcamp as well.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
so this is all of the funding stuff that you've gone
out and raised, or do you haveany money coming in through any
other conduits at all?
Speaker 2 (37:15):
I I have a side job on wednesdays that I work, but
all of the money coming inthrough FCA is money that I have
raised.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
But people can donate to that, and then that's a
check payable to FCA, and thenwhat's the oversight on that?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Yeah, so I wasn't allowed to get paid until I was
fully funded is the word, whichis just the first goal that you
set for yourself.
That first goal was $30,000 forme, which is 2,500 bucks a
month.
So my goal was to raise $2,500a month through annual donors
divided by 12 or throughcontinued monthly donors, and
(37:54):
all that money goes to FCA andthen FCA pays me as, like, a W2
employee.
Okay, if that answers yourquestion yeah, no, it does.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
It does so, um, if people want to uh contribute, I
think we're going to.
You gave us a QR code.
We're going to try to uh putthat in to uh this when it goes
out, for at least people thatare watching it.
Um, but if someone wants tocontribute to this ministry, how
(38:23):
would they do that?
Speaker 2 (38:24):
The best way would probably be to text or email me,
which I can give you my numbernow.
Yeah, go ahead and just say itCool 765-606-1443.
Or you can email me at cbloomB-L-O-O-M.
As in Mary at fcaorg.
I would love to share more indeep detail about the ministry
(38:46):
with any of them who reach out,but that would be the best way
because I could then send out alink to donate to my online page
.
Or you can also send a check.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah.
So if you're listening andwatching today and you're, you
know, really struck by whatCaleb does, uh, if you reach out
to him, um, he's uh very opento meeting with people.
I mean, we that's how we kindof got them cut to talk.
Initially, someone said, hey,you ought to talk to this guy,
and we just we came to ustalking here today but, um, uh,
(39:19):
appreciate uh what you're doingand and some of the sacrifices
that you make to serve, um, ouryouth in this community and uh,
so just wish you a continued, umsuccess in this ministry and
and just keep on touching liveslike you have.
So, thank you Very good.
So thank you, uh, we'll wrap itup with that.
(39:40):
Just ask if you are hearing usor watching us today.
Just share it out to otherpeople that you know that would
enjoy hearing about FCA andCaleb's ministry.
So thank you for joining ustoday on the Hub.
Michael Allen from Manpower.
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