The Blindside meets Friday Night Lights in Keanon Lowe's Hometown Victory when an NFL coach returns home after losing a friend to coach a team of struggling high school kids on a 23-game losing streak. Keanon Lowe was working as an offensive analyst for the San Francisco 49ers when his childhood friend and former high school teammate suddenly died from an opioid overdose. Keanon dropped everything––including the plum NFL job he had been working towards since childhood––leading him to a position as football coach at a struggling high school back in his hometown. At the time, Parkrose High School was in the middle of a 23-game losing streak--they were the ultimate underdogs. In many ways, the road to Parkrose was paved by Keanon's life-defining experiences––from a childhood spent dodging racist bullies and finding the support and mentorship he craved on the football team, to an NFL season where he worked closely with Colin Kaepernick as he evolved his sideline protest. Keanon was drawn to the young men on the Parkrose team, and to the school itself. After two years, he pushed them to become conference champions, mentoring countless players along the way. But still, there was that nagging sense that his calling wasn't meant to stop there. He was at that school for a reason. In May 2019, he got his answer when a 19-year-old student entered a Parkrose classroom with a trench coat and shotgun. Keanon disarmed him and pulled the boy into a hug, telling him he cared. In the boy, Keanon saw himself, and the young men he grew up with or mentored along the way––and weren't so many of them just looking for acceptance, for comfort, for love? With the heart of favorite football classics––The Blindside, Friday Night Lights, Remember the Titans––Keanon’s journey at Parkrose is the true account of a life spent striving forward, even when faced with the unimaginable. Hometown Victory is a story about gratitude, service, and most of all, hope.

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Are you preparing to take the gospel to the nations? You’ve said “yes” to God’s call to go, and now you will pack up your things and step into the unknown of a new location, people, and culture. The following years will likely include great joy, frustration, homesickness, difficulty, and excitement. In this book, ten men who have served in missions in various ways share what they wish they had known before they began. This book is a handbook for entering the mission field, including essays on: Discerning Your Calling Leaving What You Love Identity and Task Integrity and Accountability Serving Well as a Team Prayer and Evangelism Going Single Family & Mission The Fellowship of the Suffering Spiritual Patterns of a Missionary

The Forgotten Marlins pays tribute to the original Miami Marlins of the AAA International League, bringing to life one of the most colorful and flamboyant teams to play in baseball’s minor leagues. During their five years of existence, the Marlins featured prominent personalities such as eccentric manager Pepper Martin, zany Mickey McDermott, and maverick promoter Bill Veeck. Including rarely-heard stories about baseball icon and Hall-of-Famer Satchel Paige’s years in Miami, and containing interviews between the author and several of the surviving ballplayers, this book is a unique and comprehensive account of a truly original baseball team. The Forgotten Marlins is an entertaining and engaging read for all baseball fans and historians.

What does it really mean for Christians to live as faithful kingdom citizens in today’s world? Bitter partisan conflict. State-sanctioned torture. Economic injustice. Ethical corruption. Even a cursory glance over daily news headlines shows a stark contrast between the American political state and the kingdom of heaven. Where, then, does the Christian’s ultimate allegiance lie? In I Pledge Allegiance David Crump issues a clarion call to Jesus’s twenty-first-century disciples, stirring them up to heed God's word and live out their kingdom citizenship here on earth. Closely examining the ethical teachings of Jesus and his apostles in the New Testament and using real-world examples to illustrate the vital issues at stake, Crump challenges Christians to embrace the radical, counterintuitive, upside-down way of Jesus—a way of living and thinking that turns the world’s values on their head, smashes through stale political and cultural conventions, and welcomes God’s kingdom into the very heart of our shared society.

Until 2004, when the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series Championship in 86 years, the team had been plagued by the Curse of the Bambino, a mythical drought attributed to the team's loss of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Though Ruth was a star pitcher in Boston, he was merely continuing a 14-year tradition of the club's strong arms and bats. With rosters that included Cy Young, Jimmy Collins, Jesse Burkett, Jack Chesbro, Big Bill Dinneen, Smoky Joe Wood and Tris Speaker, among others, the young franchise powered its way to three pennants and a couple of world championships before Babe arrived in Beantown. This book covers the team's early years from the diamond to the executive offices.

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