Jen Shinn (Price)  |  Santa Barbara FCA staff began in 2001

When I arrived in Santa Barbara in 2001, there had never been an FCA staff member in the area. I was the only staff member serving San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties. The work was new in one sense, but FCA and the good news of Jesus were already present through people who had been faithfully serving athletes for years.

The Southern California FCA girls’ summer camp was held at UCSB, and I had coached there for several years. Greg Wilson, the UCSB men’s and women’s swimming coach, had served at camp for many years. Mike Friesen, then an assistant coach for UCSB women’s soccer, and Cori Close, then an assistant coach for UCSB women’s basketball, had also been part of that camp community. They were loving athletes and sharing Jesus through their work long before I arrived.

Those coaches helped establish FCA at UCSB in my first year on staff. We saw athletes come to know Jesus, and I could see how much groundwork had already been laid through their steady care.

I also remember Dick Dixon, who lived in Lompoc and loved Jesus and FCA. Soon after I arrived, he sent me a long letter welcoming me and letting me know he was praying for me. Years later, I learned he was the father of Rich Dixon, one of my future husband’s best friends. Rich eventually served on the local FCA board.

Looking back, I’m grateful that I didn’t arrive to an empty field. Coaches, volunteers, and friends had already been planting seeds. I was welcomed into a story God had been writing for years.