Hockey Ministries International Chaplain Newsletter

1. “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him
the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his
kingdom will never end.quot; Luke 1: 31-33
HOCKEY CHAPEL ROUNDTABLE Q & A
Jim Cunningham Matt Vacaro David Mayich
(Chaplain Trenton - ECHL) (Chaplain Lowell – AHL) (Chaplain, Halifax - QMJHL)
Andrew Devries Bruce Mackay
(Co-Chaplain, Belleville – OHL) (Co-Chaplain, Belleville – OHL)

2. Have you done or are you doing anything
special for the players and or families for
Christmas?
JIM CUNNINGHAM: “No, not yet. I'd love to get some suggestions!”
MATT VACARO: “Around Christmas I always try and arrange a special Christmas
message at Chapel and encourage players to invite other players who might not normally
attend Chapel to attend. This year it will probably be on December 19th.”
DAVID MAYICH:
“I believe for Christmas this year we will watch a video from the ‘That the World May
Know’ series and then we’ll head out to a local restaurant for a meal. Christmas cards
will be sent to all the players and coaches which will include an HMI Bible offer.”
DEVRIES & MACKAY: “We will be giving Christmas cards to the players and
presenting a bible/book offer to them. Our next chapel will have a Christmas theme and
we will order Swiss Chalet dinner for each player. We will share the Christmas story
with them.”
What was a valuable tip a fellow chaplain or
pastor has given to you?
JIM CUNNINGHAM: “I don't remember if this was from Tim Donelli or from the
chaplain manual, but hanging around after chapel to see if there might be a guy who
wants to talk privately (like Nicodemus in John 3) is a great idea. I have had a couple of
instances where a guy hung back to talk. Once, this led to a couple hours in a
diner talking about some of a player's real personal concerns over coffee after a game.”
MATT VACARO: “This is God's work - If it is meant to be, God will allow it. Be
careful not to push boundaries.”
DAVID MAYICH: “If I had to boil it down to one it would be the few calls I made to
Bruce Smith. He would remind me that I had to have patience and let things unfold. I can
remember feeling discouraged after a chapel had been cancelled. I had this incredible
sense of ‘What am I doing here? My presence here is accomplishing nothing, but after
some conversations with Bruce and my wife I was encouraged to persevere and to wait
patiently on the Lord for His time with His Chapel here in Halifax , and now we have an
established and respected chapel program with the team.”

3. Share an encouraging highlight from a
recent chapel.
JIM CUNNINGHAM: “Recently I shared a funny story about a guy
who had a series of crazy accidents and was reporting them to the insurance company.
We then talked about why it is that we are surprised when sometimes things don't go the
way we would like them to - a losing streak in hockey, a tough streak without a goal,
even an illness, injury or family tragedy. Why does God allow such things in our lives?
We looked at the story of John the Baptist in Matthew 11:2-6 and his imprisonment - he
clearly knew who Jesus was, but in the midst of a tough situation he sent his disciples to
Jesus to ask him if he truly was the Messiah. John's circumstances had caused him to
doubt Jesus. We ended up talking about the fact that there is little difference between a
Christian and a non-Christian in terms of the things we may experience in life. The real
difference is that for the Christian, those difficulties may be faced with Jesus in our
corner, and those difficulties have purpose in our lives to make us what God wants us to
be
MATT VACARO: “At last Chapel I did a mock tape recording of trying to reach
President Bush at the White House about some things I needed help with - impossible,
right? (I mentioned that I could have been trying to call Stephen Harper as well). Not
with God, through His Son we have 24/7 access to the almighty creator of the heavens
and earth. He is always there, available, waiting on hearing from us and loving us more
than we can imagine.”
DAVID MAYICH: “One young player has been so encouraged in his faith this season
that his billet family is being convicted to get back to church. He is praying before games,
something he has never done or considered doing.”
DEVRIES & MACKAY: “After our last chapel, I had a player approach me; he said he
sincerely repeated the sinners' prayer after me and wanted to start with a clean slate. I
will be meeting him for lunch this week.”
CHRISTMAS CHAPEL TIPS
by Doug Halcomb, HMI U.S. Chapel Development Coordinator
Christmas holidays are key times for ministry. Here are some ideas for serving your team
during the holiday season:
1. Let guys know about any special church services or programs at your church or other
churches around the holidays. Some guys will say quot;yesquot; to a church invite for a
Christmas eve service who might normally not be interested.
2. Also, Try doing a special Christmas Chapel the week of Christmas. Same principle
applies: some guys will come to a Christmas Chapel who might not normally attend.
3. Arrange for a home cooked holiday meal for the team and bring it in after practice.

4. Hockey Chapels 2006-2007 MJHL
QMJHL
MB
AJHL SJHL MIDGET
WHL
ACAC CIS AAA
DEL
BCHL
USHL
NAHL
NCAA
UHL The Chapel
program in
Geneva will
continue for its
4th season.
CHL ECHL AHL
OHL/OHA
NHL

5. HMI CHAPEL SNAPSHOT 2003-2006
20
18
16
14
12
Leagues
10
Chaplains
8
6
4
2
0
2003 2004 2005 2006