Ivan Agyaakwah was a soccer prodigy as a child in England. His skill led him to Furman University, where he stars as a senior on the Paladins. But it was having his favorite sport temporarily taken away from him that focused Ivan on what really mattered - his relationship with Jesus Christ.
The Dan Scott Show Podcast
Dan Scott Show, Radio Episode 96 - Ivan Agyaakwah (11-10-24)
following program is a presentation of grand slam ministries. Hi again, everybody. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Depending on where and when you are listening to this program, welcome to the Dan Scott show. This is episode 96. Each and every one of them presented by our 501c three nonprofit organization grand slam ministries. How has your week been? I pray that it's been a good one. If it has, we'll try not to mess it up. If not, maybe you need a lift. I think today's program will give you one. And as always, by the time it's all said and done, we try to learn something we did not know. And that always starts in the host chair. On today's program, we have a shining example of the fact that I think sometimes we believe that the younger generation has abandoned Christ. Today we've got a shining example that that is 100% false. And I get discouraged. I really do. Although I do have to tell you what we are seeing in the church that I attend, what's happening with our youth in college ministry over the last, I don't know, year or so, it has just exploded the number of college students that we have living vibrant active lives in our church. It is so uplifting and so encouraging. And this is one of those stories, though, not from the church I attend, but from where I work at Furman University. Ivan Ajakwa is a young man from London, England, who came to play soccer at Furman. And when you hear him talk about his faith in Christ and what he believes his mission to be, your reaction is very likely going to be what mine was and that I articulate during the course of this interview that this young man is wise beyond his years. It's an amazing story of how God got his attention as a 17 year old. And then after he got on Furman's campus when his commitment to Christ, 100% solidified, Ivan Ajakwa is our guest today and we'll be back to get into that interview after you hear this from Grand Slam Ministries. Here at Grand Slam Ministries, our goal is to share the love of Jesus Christ through multiple platforms, while at the same time executing our core missions of mentorship and helping children in need. The primary way we can effectively do all of those things is through the Dan Scott Show, our weekly Christian radio show that airs in multiple markets around the nation and the world. We are asking you to partner with us to not only sustain what we are currently doing, but to grow both our on air, online presence and our ability to fund those core missions. Can you spare as little as $25 per month? How about $10 per month? If we can get 200 partners to join us at each of those small, sustainable levels, we can begin to accomplish everything we believe God has called us to do. So can you help us today with a donation of either $25 or $10 per month? Please go to www.grand slamministries.org for your donation to get more information or to ask questions. That's grand slamministries.org. And thank you for supporting the Dan Scott Show and Grand Slam Ministries. Follow us on social media, search Grand Slam Ministries on Facebook and Grand Slam for God on Twitter. And don't forget Dan's personal and public figure sites on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You're listening to the Dan Scott Show presented by Grand Slam Ministries. All right, we are back and ready to go headlong into this week's interview on the Dan Scott Show. Episode 96, you know, I get a chance and have for 14 years now to interview Furman University athletes as part of my job. And they're all so well spoken and great representatives of the university. And the other thing that I've come to find out in even a very liberal university is that many of the young people there have a strong faith in Christ. And I want to thank Furman soccer coach Doug Allison for putting me on to one of his players who is our guest today, Furman senior Ivan Ajagwa is from London. His roots are in Ghana. And he has just a remarkable story and a remarkable faith to go along with that. So we're going to jump right into it, talk about some other things at the end. But as is normally the case, I ask Ivan to begin just by introducing himself to our audience. My name is Ivan Ajagwa. I'm from London, England. I'm a senior here at Furman University. I play on a men's soccer program. And I call myself a believer and fellow of Jesus Christ, part of what I love and who I am. And that's where I'm at right now. And how old are you? I'm 23. And it's my birthday tomorrow. Really? So we were recording this on November 4th. So you're a November 5th baby, my youngest daughter's November 9th. So you you guys share a week. How about that? As I do these interviews, oftentimes, more often than not, I'm talking with someone close to my age. And then I get a chance to sit down with you. And I was thinking as as we were getting ready to do this right before you you walked into the studio, you're so young that you have never known life without the Internet. Mm, it's true. Have you? I don't know. Don't I remember anyway? I don't remember to. Oh, that just just I think I just felt a liver spot exploded on on my arm. There's so much that I want to get into over the next 35 or 40 minutes where your your life story is concerned because you and I have had a chance to talk before for an interview at Ferman where I work and where you go to school and play soccer. And that interview almost turned into a church service, which I absolutely loved. But but let's let's start by talking about what life was like for you growing up in London. And I guess first of all, your family roots go back to Ghana, correct? Yes, back to Ghana. My mom is German. My dad is Ghanaian. So my dad moved to Germany when he was really young, 17 years of age, met my mother, had me in Germany. We moved to London and I call myself an Englishman because that's why I grew up. That's why I'm cultured. I my family of Christians, I was born into that and growing up in London, that was just part of my life. It was part of my weekends, part of my Sundays, part of my weekly routine because my dad was part of the protocol. My mom was part Sunday school. So it's always part of my life. I have three brothers too. So that was a big part of it too with talking with them, speaking with them, fighting with them, bullying them and being also being bullied as well. So that's part of the part of the life. Yeah, sure. It sounds like you and I almost have something in common from from the standpoint. My dad was a preacher and a pastor for 54 years. And I it's the old preacher son joke. I tell people I had a drug problem growing up that every time the church doors are open, I was drug inside. Were you made to go to church or did you want to go to church as a as a youngster? There was some days where I was definitely made to go to church. It was more like drilled into me, military staff, I want to say that is Sunday you are going to church. And so that's how it was for me. So it just became what I knew. So it didn't feel like either way, but it was definitely someone and I just want to stay in mom. I just have I just had practice. I just had a game. Do I have to go? Do I have to go? But yeah, definitely more on the side of had to go rather than wanted to go for sure. And we're going to again kind of delve into that aspect because I know it was something that took place when you got to Furman that really allowed you to embrace your own relationship with Christ. What we'll get there growing up in England all across Europe really all across the world soccer is is huge. Yes, sir. So what was there? Was there any other sport that ever caught your imagination or was it soccer from the time you were young? Tennis. Tennis was that for me. But to be honest, it wasn't more like any opportunity to want to play because soccer had already swarmed my life by the time I was seven years old. And tennis was one I just found interesting. I love the mental side of tennis. I've watched tennis till now. I love the way the games played. I speak to the tennis guys here at Furman about their mental side of their game. So it's nothing I'm really like. I have a pursued by the sport I'm saying I'm most interested in aside from soccer. So what was there ever anything? Did you play tennis as a youngster? Yeah, so in secondary school, which is equivalent like middle school here, I would play and joined a little club, but never nothing serious, more just swinging the racket around and having some fun. Like what people do these days with pickleball, you know? So it sounds to me like tennis was maybe a hobby or a release, but soccer became your all consuming passion. That's the best way to play everywhere else calls it football. We call it soccer here because we have our own version of football. But it became your passion? Yes, so football was my passion from the probably five, six years old. When we moved to England, it became my passion. When you realize you're good at something, everyone is telling you around you're good at something. It becomes your passion to I think that helped as well because I was decent at what I did. Didn't you tell me the last time we talked though that you also have something of an affinity for cricket? Oh, so I see cricket is one of those where I would watch it and when England are doing well, it's nice to watch, but I wouldn't got my way to watch tennis. I like seeing anyone do well because I just like watching good tennis. It's one of those ones like when the American National Soccer Team are doing well, the whole country wants to watch soccer, but other than no one watches it. Right, yeah, I mean I will watch the World Cup and won't watch soccer unless Doug Allison drags me out to one of the Furman soccer matches Ivan's coach. But do you remember at what age you were first introduced to the sport and what was it that captivated you? I think he was around five, six years old. My dad was a huge Chelsea fan because Michael Ession was on the Chelsea team at that time and he would just take me Saturday mornings to a team called Quay Rungers, which was a two-minute walk from my house and we'd go there and we'd play, we'd play and the head coach there was a Chelsea scout at the time and I didn't even know. So very quickly after that, I was seven, eight, I was put into the Chelsea system. So it started from my dad being a huge fan of Chelsea to two years down the line. His son was now in an academy and he was able to meet Michael Ession through that. So he met his idol. I was now playing in the Chelsea academy and then from there I really was cultivated and was drilled in that this could be a career path for you, you know. So did he, your dad I'm talking about, I don't want to be careful how I asked this, but did he force you to play soccer? Did he support your decision to play soccer? In other words have you had you gotten involved and after a year or two said I don't want any part of this, what would his reaction have been? It was never, I would never say it was a force. I was so cultivated by the sport and like apparently my mom used to tell me stories that I'd be waking up in the middle of the night looking on the door saying it's a time to go to training yet, it's a time to go to training yet. So it was definitely something I've always loved and even when I felt like I'd lost love for the game, I was always drawn back to the game like later down the line, which made me realise how much I did actually love the game aside from just even playing, so my dad definitely definitely had an impact on it, but it was never just his doing, it was definitely my passion alongside his direction. Let me play that way. You know this is really kind of surreal for me because normally when I'm talking to somebody about developing a passion for a sport as a child, it may have, for them, have come somewhere between the 60s and the 1980s because of their age, but we're talking the early 2000s for you, you're born in 2000, right? Yeah, so I was born in 2000, so I'm talking 2005, 6, 7, that just really became a big part of my life, yep. Visiting with Ivan Ajagwa, who is a senior soccer player at Furman University and a young man with an incredible love not only for the sport, but more importantly for Christ and we're gonna get into that in just a moment. As you moved upward in the Chelsea system, when did you begin to think that, hey, I might be able to play this game at another level? So I would say at 9, 10 years old, at the church, in the community, at your primary school, which is like elementary school, I'd say middle school age, everyone knows, because Chelsea Football Club's the biggest academy in the world. Everyone knows you're playing at this club and everyone knows that you are have this possibility and when you hear that from everyone around you, oh, he's the footballer, he's the footballer, he's the footballer at that age, it did get into my head and I'd say it did get onto my shoulders a bit as well, even at that young age and so at that point I realized this could be, this could be, I kind of believed that already, I thought I was already there, I thought I was already, even at that young age I thought, just keep doing what you're doing and you have this opportunity because that's all I was hearing around me and very quickly I realized because a year later I was told that I was not going to get an extension on my academy contract at Chelsea, so I was hit with immediate adversity, I aged 12 and so you from here in every minute that this could be your path and this is you, you're already that guy, you're already the guy that's going to get everyone, take your family to the next level, etc, etc, a year and a half later, Chelsea are not extending your contract and you suddenly go crashing down to the ground. At age 12, we tend to think of that kind of thing as unique to American sports where it's overzealous parents or coaches who are trying to, you know, whatever you, however you want to look at it, trying to live out there, frustrated sports dreams through their children or they're trying to find a way to to get a college scholarship and they're pushing their kids and pushing their kids. I guess because I'm not an international soccer fan, I would not have really thought kind of the same thing, but that is a huge burden to be bearing at ages 10, 11 and 12, isn't it? Oh yeah, definitely. Just even on that, like me and my brother spoke about a year and a half ago and he would say to me like, "I haven't ever told you this," but growing up, people would always come to me and be like, "Are you the guy that plays football at Chelsea?" speaking to my brother and my brothers began to have resentment for me because everybody would always ask me about me rather than even have taken any interest in them and I was on the outside of that, didn't even realize it, didn't even know and so when that was impacting my family in ways I didn't even realize and that was just on me trying to play the sport I just loved and now it was like if I haven't just keeps doing what he's doing, it will be all right and that comes crashing down. There's so many stories in England that have players who get released from academies, just two years ago a player got released from Manchester City Academy at age 16 and committed suicide so this stuff happens and there's a lot of awareness being raised around it right now in England about how they deal with when players get released because that was my first experience of being released from academy. I have three other experiences of me hearing the same news as I kept getting older and older and the same news have been released and released and released and that's a big part of where faith helped me, that's a big part of where I give a lot of credit to the support system around me, my brothers, my family to helping me and how to deal with that so it was a big way to carry without the correct support system and my faith in Jesus Christ I don't know how I could have got through it but I haven't here I am. So you're released out of the Chelsea program at age 12? Yeah 12/13. Okay so what happens next? So you got I went back to the Quay Rondres team I mentioned earlier where the guy was who was the guy that took me to Chelsea initially then I joined a Norwich City Academy, another academy who played in the second division they were in the first division at the time now playing the second division I was there for a few months and then I signed for another team after that they actually gave me a contract at this age I'm now 15 and then at 16 they offered you a thing called like a scholarship slash pre-professional contract where you actually start getting paid to play so you're there full-time one day through Sunday pretty much you do school once a week and the rest of the time is just you around the professional environment and literally preparing you to become a professional footballer and that's like a two-year vendetta from age 16 to 18. So when when you had signed these previous contracts as a child basically what did those until obviously you weren't getting paid no but but if you were quote-unquote under contract what was your obligation to the organization what was the organization's obligation to you? It was more like we went for a signing day of the holder family with the family they were now allowed to use your pictures for their promotions and stuff like that I'm not allowed to go and now train with Arsenal Football Club if I wanted to on a on a given day they can't they owe me the the privilege of using their facilities their coaching staff for a set period of time which at the time was like a free ideal so at the end of that time I can now they're basically saying I can now go and train for another team or we don't we don't owe you our facilities or our coaching stuff anymore there's more just agreement of rights pretty much if you want to put it that way okay so by the time you get to be 16 years old that's when you can actually start making money yeah if if you're good enough yeah and you were good enough you could say so well no I mean it's not false modesty did you get paid yeah I was being paid well then you then you were good enough yeah yeah it was I can they call it an education payment sort of things stipend whatever you want to call it scholarship scholarship yeah scholarship payment with that they give you like some housing for the players who are really far away and allowances for travel food it was like minimum wage so nothing nothing right nothing amazing but it did give you that feeling of your becoming a professional right give you a like a professional player in the team to become your mentor he teaches you through you clean his boots he gets you he gets you Christmas gift cards and rewards so it was a good time of my life to really see what the professional life entails for sure and and you mentioned a moment ago that that when you got released at age 12 that happened to you what three other times yeah so as I mentioned Norwich City was released from there then born in football club where I did my scholarship pre-professional contract was released from there age 18 then Crystal Palace was released from there and then I came here so when when they release you are they telling you they don't think you're good enough or they telling you that they've done everything they can do for you and you need to go to a higher level I mean what are they telling you in that system when they release you I've always taken it as they don't think I'm good enough because any other thing for me is an excuse because they want to sound nice or they maybe they found someone else you can do the job better than you and they no longer require your service it's like any professional thing you know it's a business if they've seen it like a team like Chelsea they have resources all over the world if they've seen a kid in the middle of Brazil who can do a better job than Ivan in London who's currently with us they will politely tell you maybe any other reason to release you and then go get the kid from Brazil to come and do the job so it's a brutal world it's a it's a cutthroat business which I know and I love to be honest but it's more of a message of we found someone bad or you're not good enough it's normally one of those two it's just interesting to hear that from from a sport obviously that I'm not familiar with in a in a region of the world that I'm not familiar with but to hear how similar it is to to what does go on here it's not as as perhaps overtly cutthroat but there are college coaches here for instance in in every sport who will sign a kid to a scholarship and then after a year or two if he needs a scholarship for another player he will encourage that player to go find another opportunity somewhere else because he needs that scholarship went I think the misnomer that a lot of fans I don't know if they they have it anymore but they used to have about college athletics here in this country and of course NIL and transfer portal has has blown all that up but previously we'll say is the misnomer was if you signed a scholarship you were guaranteed guaranteed to be there for four or five years and what people don't realize is those scholarships technically are one year yeah and you have to sign a new scholarship agreement every year yeah so so there are some similarities I guess but I what what strikes me is it was happening to you at age 12 yeah as opposed to age 18 or or whatever it might be yeah see I do love the english system but one thing I will say the american system has done so much better than english system is that it's allowed players to still focus on their school alongside their passion for their sport but because there's so many of my friends age 16 who were in the same program as me and I'm lucky that I had my parents who will continue to push me to focus in my one day of class a week age 16 to get the grades to help me to eventually three years four years later to get into Furman University because if I didn't apply myself like so many of my teammates did didn't at that time and didn't get the grades when they get released at 18 they have nowhere to go whereas here I know you say it's cop throat but there's good cultures out there like Doug Allison for example who even if you are injured he will hold you down for that four years right even if you don't perform he has given you a four-year agreement and that was one of the first things he told me so that was a big deal for me because I know how cop throat of business can be so there are cultures out there that do hold that traditional form of doing it right you know Ivan Adjagua is our guest on this week's edition of the dance cat shows we are talking about for me it's usually baseball and faith but we're talking soccer and faith today want to pause your your your soccer journey there for a moment we'll talk about how you got to Furman because I think that's an intriguing story in and of itself let's go back to your faith journey you you you talked about growing up in a Christian home mother father going to church all the time but we all know that God doesn't have any grandchildren he only has children so when did you make your profession of faith in Christ at what age how did all of that happen I would say at age 17 I we went to like a youth camp kind of would a youth in our church went off to a separate camp and then you guys have those kind of right things here in America but that was where I really had the first encounter of saying I'm professing my faith but then I quickly realized that after that there is a work that needs to be done within you it's not just boom and everything's gonna be rosy I'm I'm no longer a grandchild I'm a son and so I didn't realize that at the time and so from there there's a long journey from where I'm now that I would still say I was not a Christian as I would now define it so I would change my answer to my beginning of my sophomore year here at Feynman which which is the story that I that I want to get to in a moment but you know I understand where you're coming from because I went forward at a a regular youth church meeting at age 14 and my dad baptized me a week later and all I got was wet because there was no there was no change there was no you know I just did it I don't know if I did it out of obligation because my dad was the the pastor and he was also teaching the class that night or or whatever my conversion actual conversion didn't come until I was 45 years old so I understand a bit of what you're talking about but at the very least the groundwork was laid definitely by going to church from the time you were a youngster the groundwork was laid did did that have any effect on your conscience as you got older and you started wanting to maybe do some of the things that your friends were doing and it was there that little voice in the back of your head saying I don't think so yeah yeah I think you know there was I don't I think that's a question you know the answer to yep my parents never ask a question they didn't know the answer to yeah definitely conviction with everything and it gets stronger and stronger even now you know that conviction keeps growing and growing and growing and so it's it's a privilege it's a privilege to have that voice but sometimes you do fight it as you probably know as well you defy it just because of the way we are but that voice is definitely there definitely so that happened at age 17 yeah um we would we would call that your initial encounter with with Christ your your life just went on basically after that was there a noticeable change in who you were after that or and what was your support system like at that time from a from a faith standpoint yeah so I had a similar support system with the youth leaders the obviously my parents and and but I didn't have that you know wake up read my bible on my own mm-hmm want to listen to worship music on my own want to take time out of my day specifically and give that to the holy spirit to teach me about who Jesus Christ was right and there's only I believe there's only so much that can come through someone there's an individual experience has to happen when you open up his word and he reveals things to you himself and I think that part of it I didn't have at that time and if you remember my soccer story that was when I was being paid to play football around professional footballers who are in the world and are mentoring you and you want to be like them and want to please them and so are you living a life according to what you've just declared outside of that influence you are in a professional soccer environment right and most listeners will know what a professional sport and environment entails and the kind of pressures and influences you can have and I would say I fell into those things at that time what was your Christian life church something you did on Sunday and then you were this other guy the rest of the week precisely precisely it was I know whatever I do I have Sunday to resurrect my faith right and then I would pray before a game or know that doesn't matter God's got me anyway but then did my rest of my life reflect the light of Jesus Christ did people see me and know there was something different about me that should be attractive to them did my life look different and was it labeled by his mark at that time I would say no apart from maybe love works that were inside of me that were instilled through into me through my parents the basics of how to be kind how to be loving how to want to be a good teammate but does that really does that fully mark who Christ was no because a lot of who Christ was would be rebellious in those environments and was I rebellious in those environments in respects to me opposing what they would want to do on certain things no it wasn't and so I would say it was definitely what you said as I'm listening to you talk and and I would imagine our listeners are getting the same vibe that I am for a guy who by the time this airs will have just turned 24 years old there seems to be a remarkable maturity about you not just in in your overall life but already in in your faith do you feel a do you feel a maturity um you're not the first person to say that to me but I don't see it in my self because at the further I walk with Christ I think the more he reveals how much I need him and the more I get the more my sin gets amplified and so when I'm dealing with that so much and given that to him it's sometimes it's hard to realize the good stuff that he's doing inside of me and transforming me so I've definitely heard that being said to me before but sometimes I do struggle with that to really see that in myself well first first things first as the the old saying goes you're never going to arrive until you arrive you know I've been my next day yeah we're you're you're never going to fully get there until we're in heaven one day so so just understanding that I think is a mark it is a mark of maturity but but also knowing that that they're on a daily basis is work that needs to be done um that that's that's encouraging to me that that that you sense that already and I hope you never lose that that perspective that's one of my prayers every day because I think once you think you've arrived you've missed the train and you've there's something that's happened inside of you you might have been deceived in some kind of way but you said it perfectly you don't arrive to you arrive right so let's let's go back because I want to get to this watershed spiritual spiritual moment that came at Furman but before that we've got to get you to Furman okay um you you are obviously at some stage looking at continuing your career either professionally or going to school somewhere um and all of this is also beginning to take place about the time that COVID shut the world down yep so where where were you mentally when you got to that that decision point that fork in the road did you want to go play professionally did you want to go someplace to continue your education I wanted to pay professionally I wanted to be professionally definitely at age 19 was when I was at Crystal Palace a professional Premier League team and being told no from there was I know you asked me a question about my story but this is important because at that time I felt betrayed by by God that that didn't work out and I quickly realized how subject my football career was to my faith and so at that point it was a spiral for me not only in what I thought I wanted because I thought I knew God's plan for sure that this was going to work out in this way at this team for me to do what I thought what he wanted me to do at the time little did I know that I now know that me being here at this place was his plan right and that didn't work out because of his plan and so at that time it was still how do I play professionally how do I play professionally and through wise accounts for my parents they knew I'd had good grades in school and they knew about this American opportunity and one of my closest friends had just left to go as well because he had a similar story to me where he got released at the same age so he went right before covid and he went through a company called Vertex Soccer who take people who have been in professional environments they advertise them to American cultures and bring them out to America and Doug Allison has a good relationship with Sam Craven who's head of Vertex Soccer there was a few players from Vertex Soccer here at Furman so as soon as my portfolio went up on their site he saw that he spoke to some of the guys here I spoke to some of the guys here he spoke to Sam who I'm still good friends with now we communicate a lot and it was just a good fit and I ended up here by the time I knew it the intriguing part of this story as you and I have talked and I've since talked to Doug Allison because of covid recruiting internationally is difficult enough and full disclosure Doug is English or I think technically Scottish but so he has that toe in the international waters he brings players over all the time and in that I'm assuming there is usually a campus visit that that's involved if logistically can be worked out but with covid that wasn't on the table so you had to make a leap of faith with Doug Allison and with Furman and he had to take a leap of faith with someone that he has only seen play on video he had never seen you play live exactly before you got here and yet by the providence of God you both took that step of faith right yeah yeah death that was exactly what happened and how eager he was to have me I was even surprised that someone who has never met me never seen me play in person was so eager and sure of me wanting to come and that was a big part of it for me because other cultures were like can you send more film can you send this can you send that we're not sure we're not but for some reason Doug from the moment he we went on zoom and he watched my highlight tape in one game he was so sure and so eager until now I don't know why that was I don't know why that was and I believe that he was a helper for me at the time well I think I know why it was and and we're getting to that part of the story that's coming up here in a moment you know because I think if you look at it now in hindsight you can see God moving all the chess pieces in place to bring Ivan to a point where Ivan needed to recognize what was really important who was really in charge and what his life really needed to be again we're we're coming to that folks I I promise but I see you made the decision yeah you got here what what was it like when you walked on to Furman's campus I mean you're coming out of out of London right yes sir to Greenville South Carolina and technically travelers rest yeah South Carolina never heard of it right so so how much culture shock was there for you it was a definitely a huge culture shock definitely a huge culture shock like I'm used to urban city life where everywhere you look you see someone from someone from a different life style than you and it was definitely huge difference coming here obviously it's beautiful and you can see that but people who speak differently to you think differently to you understand things differently to you but at the same time the one thing that was still here was a faith in Jesus Christ that I didn't even realize was a global phenomenon I was so locked into my church and I thought there was a church here to come in here and see all these differences but there was still Jesus it that actually meant something to me that although we were so different in so many ways for some reason that there was that commonality you know and it's that commonality again that God is using to maneuver you to get you to a place where he was going to get your full attention so we've been teasing it long enough tell us the story about the moment or the circumstances that led to the moment where you threw all pretense away and you fully committed your life to Christ and it happened here on this campus yes sir so again it isn't an instant day or right like my story is not one where it was one specific day where I know the date but it was the intentional devotion of people around me who kept pursuing me and kept pushing me towards understanding truth and truth to its fullest that led me by the time I'd finished my sophomore year and then my meniscus injury and then my brother come in here alongside Calla Mallison who I mentioned in the last interview who I for the first time saw somebody who didn't just talk the talk about walk the walk every single day and he did an impeccable job to show me what it's like to live a Christ-like life alongside other other players like Denison Jones the Hobbards two brothers Jacob Garzon which I hadn't seen before and it was attractive to me that I professed Christianity but did my life like I mentioned earlier in this in this interview did my life look different to everyone else but but God had to at least momentarily take soccer away from you to get your attention didn't he you kind of glossed over the the knee injury the meniscus injury so see this is where we okay maybe I do have a specific moment yeah because when I did that so my my brother had left and and your brother's in the ministry yeah my okay I didn't mention that my older brother is in seminary at Spurgeon's college in London the famous Charles Spurgeon Charles Haddensburg yes and he'd come my sophomore year my junior year at the end of my junior the end of my sophomore year and that's when he came we would spend time together in the world every single day go to church we do Bible study every day answer the tough questions talk about the tough things that I'd been struggling with all kind of things of my college experience for the first two years and it was after that I felt like my passion for football came back soccer came back understanding that this could be something I should be focused on and not focused on all the other things and I was full of this fire to chase Christ and chase football and then my brother leaves and in the next game as I'm with this full flame and full fire to go and do this again because at that point honestly I'd given up on a lot of my football aspirations I was turning away from the faith and then that time where Callum Glenn my older brother and a lot of the guys had seen this fire ignite in me and both of those things and then the next time I step on the pitch and preseason that year against UNF in the first 30 minutes I tear my meniscus and I'm now a week later in surgery and I'm suddenly not playing the game I love and I'm now stuck with continuing my daily devotion reading scripture seeing how much scripture is about times like this but in that time Jesus did what he wanted to do to me when I was 17 and changed my heart and align it to him and not be subject to what I was doing on the pitch of soca it sounds like and you can correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like even when that fire was reignited in you that soccer and Jesus were on the same level in your life and you needed to be reminded that nothing should be at or above Christ in your life am I accurate you are definitely a hundred and accurate and I asked that question at the time to a lot of the people I trusted that why when I feel so good about soccer do I want to chase Christ why is that a parallel and then I realized that God gives us talents and when we want to be devoted to him he would direct us into where he wants to use our talents so of course if you are devoting your heart to him he would direct you to what he's giving your talents to which for me is soccer and so at the same time and this is why I battle with again it's one of those daily things I make sure I'm in tune with is that people could see what I was doing right now Christ is up here and football is not at the same level it's below because as soon as it goes together or football goes above becomes an idol your endangered territory becomes an idol yeah and God is so good that he will want to be on the throne and can sometimes temporarily take that away and that sometimes that's what happened to me in that moment I think and now since your priorities have been readjusted your soccer career has taken off again by the time this show airs I'm hoping that you have advanced in the in the southern conference tournament yeah by the time it airs but your college career is winding down and I know you still have professional aspirations but when we talked the last time you told me that unless God does something completely different to change your mind that you see your future as using your talent and knowledge in the sport of soccer as a way to get into some kind of ministry that brings Christ and sport together yes sir what what what what does that in Ivan's perfect world what what would that look like I think it goes back to one of your statements you made earlier and I do recognize a spiritual network I have around me and an access to a maturity that has allowed me to mature and so with my talents in soccer I realized the platform that I have through that too and the ability to speak the good news of Jesus Christ and the gospel and the things I've gone through tribulations to help other people who are in my shoes will one day be in my shoes or I've been in my shoes and I have no idea how that looks like yet because I've realized when I over plan it's not normal you're gonna happen that way so I'm gonna kind of deflect the question because I don't know how that's gonna be but I know that's where God wants to take me because I know God's purpose it's always to grow his kingdom and he's gonna use me and I know he's gonna use me and my talents that he's given me to do that and I just want to be a vessel that he kind of used to do that are you sure that you're only 24 years old 23 I've got one day left well by the time this airs 24 24 are you sure because I'm telling you it again there there seems to be a wisdom and a maturity to you that's beyond your years and I hope that that stays with you I hope that you're always chasing more godly wisdom more godly maturity but I would I would have to say at the risk of inflating your ego I'd have to say that you're off to a pretty good start I appreciate you saying that it's only by God's grace and his mercy for bringing me to where I am it's been a long journey and there's a longer journey to go as Paul says like I've run a good race I've still got a lot of race to run ahead of me hopefully and so I know I'm at now and I hope that race can continue to go and I never stop sprinting I don't want to be walking did I tell you before the interview started that the young man has a wisdom beyond his years just an impressive impressive young man Ivan Ajagua thank you so much for your time and again thank you to Furman soccer coach Doug Allison for hooking me up with this young man I believe the future is very very bright for him and I just praise god that his mindset his focus is on what he can do with the talents god has given him for the kingdom Ivan Ajagua thank you very much we'll step aside take a break come back and get into wrap-up mode on this 96th edition of the dance god show right after this every day there are children who leave school on Friday and eat little and sometimes nothing until they come back to school on Monday it happens in every community including yours many of these children live in circumstances that deprive them of basic needs necessary for a quality life at grand slam ministries we want to change that we want to invest in our children giving them hope for the future that investment includes necessities such as food clothing school supplies and a safe environment to play to study to live please visit our website grand slam ministries dot org to find out more about our ministry and how you can help we're just getting started will you come alongside us for the children's sake again that's grand slam ministries dot org teenage boys and young men today are in crisis statistics show that a home without a father or male role model present is the single biggest indicator of poverty behavior issues drug and alcohol abuse criminal activity and yes imprisonment at grand slam ministries one of our core missions is developing a mentorship program to teach boys how to become strong Christian men and then teach those men to be the biblical husband's fathers and church and community leaders the bible calls us to be we need your prayers we need your ideas and we need your support visit our website grand slam ministries dot org to find out more about our mentorship mission and prayerfully consider how you may be able to assist us again that website is grand slam ministries dot org like what you hear have a question or comment maybe a guest suggestion drop us an email and let us know dan at danscottshow dot org and now back to the dan scott show presented by grand slam ministries final segment of the show as we wrap up episode 96 our thanks again to i've been a jaguar for being our guest this week hey if you want to find out more about what we do who we are and the kind of help that we need you can visit our website danscottshow dot org grand slam ministries dot org is a page at that site so you can get to either place either way and at grand slam ministries the page you'll find an explanation of what our core missions are and why we do what we do talking about mentorship talking about helping children and talking about spreading the fact that god is still on the throne and still doing remarkable miraculous works in people's lives through this radio show and our new uh commercial sports show that we have that airs in the upstate of south carolina and in western north carolina all of that is at danscottshow dot org and uh there's also a way that you can contact us there either through the uh the contact form or you can simply email dan at danscottshow dot org and uh we would love to hear comments we love reading the emails from our listeners or if you want to send us a voice recording off your phone to that email address we'll play some of those in a future show dan at danscottshow dot org and as always i just remind you that we can use your help we uh you know radio airtime cost we would love to be able to get the other core missions fully funded and we do what we can as we go along and god has been faithful there's no question about that but i am just convinced that there's someone or multiple someones listening to the sound of my voice right now who can make a significant immediate difference and impact in what we are trying to do here and god is working on your hearts out there i hope that you will listen to that calling anybody and everybody listening can pray you can go to the website you can make a donation of any kind any amount we would greatly appreciate it one time or monthly it's all there for you at danscottshow dot org and uh it'll automatically generate a tax receipt if you need one if you'd like to help us out the old-fashioned way then you can uh send a check to grand slam ministries p-o-box 35 central south carolina two nine six three zero p-o-box 35 central south carolina two nine six three zero but as i said everybody can pray continue to pray for us continue to pray for our mission continue to pray most of all that we will be faithful to follow what god has us to do and not get ahead of him we'll be back again next week with another all new edition of the danscott show until then i'm dan god bless you and so long everybody thank you for listening to this week's danscott show to hear it again catch up on past shows or find out more about grand slam ministries please visit our website danscottshow.org and while they're perfectly consider making a gift to help us in our mission to share the love of Jesus Christ that's the danscottshow.org [BLANK_AUDIO]