Preaching with power

A group of four muscle-bound men breaking concrete blocks with their heads, ripping telephone books and license plates into shreds, and breaking baseball bats over their knees is bound to draw attention.

And once they have their audience's attention, the athletes and body builders of Power Team relate how their physical feats of strength translate into feats of emotional strength that life can demand.

The Power Team will be in the Cape Girardeau area Wednesday through March 11, talking at mostly parochial school assemblies during the day and speaking to the general public in the evenings. The team will also go to Marble Hill, Mo., and several schools from out of town are expected to send busloads to see the them. The team will also be available to the public Saturday afternoon at HealthPoint Fitness Center.

The Power Team breaks things to bring people closer together, said the Rev. Tom Rother, a pastor at Christian Faith Fellowship, which is bringing the group to the area.

Demolishing iron rods, ice blocks and concrete bricks barehanded is one way to make an impression.

"Typically, young people can be easily distracted as far as listening to anybody any length of time," Rother said.

Once the four men on the team, all of whom are licensed and ordained ministers, get the audience's attention, they hold it with their message of making good life choices.

Since 1976, team members in groups of four or five have visited 1,000 schools a year, as well as churches, jails and prisons, to connect with people who come to see their athletic prowess and hear what they have to say.

The Power Team was in Cape Girardeau once before, and some parents were upset because youngsters who heard the message in school assemblies wanted to go back to the sponsoring church in the evening to hear them again. The parents thought it was inappropriate for schools to host a religious program, but Rother says that the Power Team is not about proselytizing. The group is nondenominational, and when they're in public schools their message is about choices that youths face. At churches and in parochial schools, they can bring more religion into the program if that's what the administration wants.

"They talk about whatever the principal and superintendent would like them to speak on," he said.

Issues they talk about include suicide, cliques and gangs, abstinence from premarital sex, making choices about alcohol, drug and tobacco use, peer pressure -- issues that adults can also relate to, Rother said.

Power Team members know what they're talking about.

"Some of them had a rough upbringing," Rother said. "They have that extra compassion for kids in tough situations. They truly have a heart for reaching kids."

Locally more than 40 businesses have sponsored the team's visit. Some have donated the materials the team will use to demonstrate their feats of strength: iron bars, blocks of ice, concrete bricks and blocks.

"Over nine tons of bricks and ice are going to be broken, Rother said.

That should get some attention.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160