The Strength Team, a group of professional athletes who travel the world to bring a motivational and inspiration message to others, is coming to Minot.
The athletes perform incredible feats of strength during their programs, all in an effort to get the attention of the audience. Once they have the attention of the audience, then it's time to deliver a motivational message.
The feats include bending steel bars, ripping a phone book in half, crushing walls of concrete with a blow from their arm or head, snapping baseball bats in half, running through two by fours and blowing up hot water bottles until they explode.
Article Photos
Mike Hagen, founder of the Strength Team, rips a telephone book in half during one of the team’s programs.
Submitted photo
Mike Hagen, the leader and founder of the Strength Team, will be part of this particular tour. He has dedicated more than 25 years of his life to the mission to use the power of Jesus in reaching the lost by giving them eternal strength and hope for the future only through Jesus Christ.
"We're not here to show off. We're not here to brag about how tough we are. Big deal if you can break a brick. It doesn't matter how big a person's bicep is; God is only concerned with one muscle and that is a person's heart. God loves every person," Hagen said before he introduced William Green at one of the Strength Team's events.
Green grew up in Atlantic City, N.J., a community with housing projects, drugs and gangs. His mother died when he was 12 and his father died when he was 13. That very same summer his brother decided to take a pistol and rob a casino, that resulted in a woman being shot straight through her eye.
"I thank God to this day that she didn't lose her life," Green said. In a span of a year and a half, he had lost his mother, his father and a brother.
In his testimony, Green talks about how he felt lost and bitter. He was perplexed and wondered what he would do next.
Green tells how his mother had instilled the word of God in her children's lives yet witnessing the thing that had happened caused his to question the validity of a God.
"My mother instilled the Word of God in her children but things I had seen made me question the validity of a God," he said.
"I took my anger and I took my bitterness and applied it to football. Growing up for me that football fame was an answer to all my problems ... for a time," he added.
Green talks about how he had hoped the NFL and all the "glory" that came with it would make him happy, but it didn't. He still had concerns and wondered what life's deck of cards would deal to him next. Money and fame weren't the answer. He was still "lost."
What next?
He had given up all hope.
"Money, fame and possessions didn't make me happy," he said.
Green's wife challenged him to give faith a shot, to give it a try, one early morning when he had been out most of the night. She encourage him to read the Bible.
Once he started reading the Word of God, he repented and allowed God to come into his heart.
"I asked God to come into my heart. He began moving in my life," Green said. "Nothing can take the place of a relationship with Jesus Christ," he added.
Christ filled the void in my heart.
Hagen played professional football for the Michigan Panthers and Seattle Seahawks. He has also been featured on CNN, ESPN and the popular television show "Walker Texas Ranger."
Message
The Strength Team will present a program Monday, April 30, at 7 p.m. in First Baptist Church, 200-3rd St. SW. The team will also do presentations in several schools in Minot. Their message is to inspire and encourage students to reach for their goals and dreams in life. They emphasize the importance of education and hard work.
The Strength Team also addresses some of the possible "pitfalls" that can detour them from reaching their goals and dreams.
There is no charge to attend the program but a freewill offering will be received to help the Strength Team continue its mission.
For more information, contact Pastor Blake Everett at 852-4533 or visit (www.strengthteam.com).