Leisure: Sports & Play As Spiritual Formation

Jasmin Biggs is a writer, editor, and apologist with a Master of Arts in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Christian University. She is the Editor in Chief at An Unexpected Journal; she is also a Bluestocking In Residence with the Society for Women of Letters. She enjoys reading and writing in her local independent bookstore over a cup of espresso. More of her writing may be found at her personal Substack, A Pilgrim’s Campfire: pilgrimscampfire.substack.com.

Anna Beresford holds a Masters Degree in Theology, and works as a clinical chaplain in a psychiatric hospital. She is the author of Before You Were Born, I Anointed You: Uncovering Scripture’s ‘Hidden’ Female Prophets, and lives with her husband, Tom, in Sydney, Australia.

Zachary Biggs is a meteorological software programmer, photographer, husband, and father. He enjoys living in the storm-chasing capital of the world, the great city of Oklahoma City. With a Bachelor’s in Meteorology, he vocationally programs weather radar for the National Weather Service, while doing storm chasing and photography on the side. He loves chocolate but is not entirely sure it loves him back. You can find more of his art at www.pursuingthetempest.com.

Annie Crawford lives in Austin, Texas with her husband and three teenage daughters. She currently homeschools, teaches humanities courses, and serves on the Faith & Culture team at Christ Church Anglican while working to complete a Masters of Apologetics at Houston Baptist University.

Sandra unashamedly prefers minor league baseball over major, but would not turn down MLB tickets if offered. Her current writing projects are child-focused, and include a nature book series in rhyming couplets, a series on British saints, and a kid’s citizenship curriculum.

She currently resides with her husband of 41 years just east of Austin on a small horse ranch, not too far from the Dell Diamond ballpark.

Matt Hill is a married father of five living and working in the Twin Cities area. He is finishing his Master of Arts in Philosophical Apologetics at Houston Christian University. Matt works for the Department of the Air Force as a civilian and recently retired after a twenty-year career in the Minnesota Air National Guard. Matt teaches theology and apologetics at a homeschool coop and has an apologetics speaking ministry. He serves as a student pastor at his local church and is a Ratio Christi College Prep chapter director.

Molly Hopkins is a feisty individual driven to write due to a severe chronic illness. She won three short story contests through Johnson County Library and Tulsa County Library. Molly is a freelance editor, game scriptwriter, and budding novelist. For more essays and short fiction, visit http://www.goldinthegray.com.

Founder of The Bell House, Rachel Bruce Johnson has worked as a performer, choreographer, educator, and curator for various companies and universities across the U.S. and abroad. Now transitioning in career/life, she is studying apologetics and moving in her tiny studio to holistically cultivate a faithful, creative, and generative life. She occasionally writes at www.fireandmud.org. However, her culminating choreographic work is as a wife and a mother of three adventurous children.

Tiffany Kavedzic is a wife, mother, teacher, and avid coffee drinker who lived in Europe for 12 years before returning to her native Oklahoma. When she’s not checking airline ticket prices for hopeful vacation travel, she can be found reading or listening to podcasts. She enjoys Bible study and fellowship at her local church in Oklahoma City.

Alex Markos is part of the Humanities faculty at the Geneva School of Boerne, TX, where he teaches history for the juniors and a class on virtue for the freshmen. He previously taught 3rd-5th grade Latin for six years at Geneva. He holds a B.A. in History and Classics from Hope College and an M.A. in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University (now Houston Christian University). He has spoken three years in a row for the nationwide Society for Classical Learning summer conference on topics including Greek mythology, The Chronicles of Narnia, and incorporating leisure in the classroom. He has a passion for classical Christian education and aims to inspire his students to love learning and to grow in virtue.

Seth Myers completed his MA in Cultural Apologetics from Houston Baptist University in 2017. As a power systems engineer, he has been involved with transformer diagnostics and rural electrification projects by partnering with NGOs in West Africa. A volunteer with international students through local churches, he enjoys conversations with friends from all cultures. He considers himself rich in friendships across time and space, including but not limited to C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Bede the Venerable, Augustine, Ravi Zacharias & friends, and many student friends (chess-playing when possible, but not required) typically from throughout Asia. He has recently begun taking online courses in Faulkner University’s Doctor of Humanities program.

Annie Nardone is Director of Visual Artists and contributing author for Cultivating Magazine, travel blogger for Clarendon Press U.K., and Issue Editor and author for An Unexpected Journal. Her published poems can be found at Calla Press and Clarendon Press. She collaborated on books published by Square Halo Press and Rabbit Room Press. Annie holds a Master of Arts in Cultural Apologetics and feels passionate about the integration of the arts, humanities, and the Christian imagination.

Megan Joy Rials holds her Juris Doctor and Graduate Diploma in Comparative Law from the Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center and works as a research attorney in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She is currently working toward an online Master of Arts in Apologetics (cultural track) from Houston Christian University. She is a Board member of and regular contributor to An Unexpected Journal, and she also serves as Scholar and Residence and Content Editor for the Leadership Council of the Society for Women of Letters. Her work has also been published in the Worldview Bulletin, Mere Orthodoxy, Perichoresis, and the Louisiana Law Review, where she served as Production Editor for Volume 77. She attends Jefferson Baptist Church with her family, and her main apologetics interests lie in storytelling of all mediums, fantasy literature, the theology of suffering, the function of memory in spiritual development, and the work of the Inklings, particularly C. S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers.

Zachary D. Schmoll earned his Ph.D. in Humanities at Faulkner University and his M.A. in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. He serves as the Managing Editor of An Unexpected Journal, a quarterly publication of cultural and imaginative apologetics. His academic work has been published in Christianity & Literature, Mythlore, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Faith and the Academy, and Fourth World Journal. His essays have also been featured at Public Discourse, Front Porch Republic, and The Federalist.

During twenty years of ministry, the scripture joyfully steeped into the creative fibers of Dwayne, leading to him communicating biblical truth and emotion through musical endeavors, the spoken and written word, and visual manifestations.

An apologist and writer, as well as a father of four, Jim lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife, Cristi, two golden retrievers, and two formerly-feral cats. He read Philosophy and English as an undergrad at SMU and obtained a graduate degree in Apologetics from Houston Baptist University. A frequent blogger, Jim travels the United States giving lectures on all things related to C.S. Lewis. For the past few years he has led a popular reading and discussion group called "The Inklings." In his spare time, he likes to fly fish and drink Oregon Pinot noir (though not at the same time).

James L. Underwood completed his Bachelor of Arts (Biblical Studies) and Bachelor of Science in Education (Mathematics) through Blue Mountain Christian University and his Master of Arts (Theological Studies) through Liberty University. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate (Major: Humanities, Concentration: History) at Faulkner University and is working on his dissertation, in which he seeks to develop a universal aesthetic of death for the Ante-Nicene Christian church. Underwood heads the Bible Department at Tupelo Christian Preparatory School in Tupelo, Mississippi, where he is blessed to teach with his wife (Cristy) and teach his teenage son (Trey). Underwood and his family attend The Church at Trace Crossing in Tupelo, where he plays drums in the worship band and leads the church’s mental health support group.