Australian Track and Field chaplain, Nett Knox will be taking the leap of her life today, leaving her position at Northern Beaches Christian School to take up her sporting ministry full time.
She hopes the decision to take her seven-year part-time position and turn it into a full-time commitment will address a serious imbalance in her ministry.
"I have for some time had a sense that God was calling me to be more involved in recruiting other female chaplains," she says.
There are 115 sports chaplains in Australia, but only four of them are women.
"There's not a lot of support out there, particularly for female athletes," she says.
"Women will be my primary focus."
The decision to leave behind paid coaching and teaching positions at the Northern Beaches Christian School for voluntary labour was not an easy one to make.
"I know [God] will provide the finances" and I am waiting excitedly to see just how he will do that," Mrs Knox says.
"But my family are also excited about this. They are looking forward to me being home more, especially in the afternoons when my two youngest arrive home from school."
“I am very excited to be involved in ministering to women involved in sport - Christian women and non-Christian - in a more active way,” she says.
“Previously I have been involved on my ‘days off’. With a family that has its difficulties and limitations.”
Top of Nett's "to do' list will be accepting an invitation to attend a forum run by the Australian Sports Commission involving more than a hundred of the nation's top coaches.
Mrs Knox will also be working as a Commonwealth Games chaplain in March 2006.
She says witnessing to top level athletes is as much about relationship building as it is preaching the gospel.
"There are a lot of people who spend ten years training for an event which is over in 20 seconds, who face a lot of emptiness and are very open to Christian counselling," she says.
Apart from more face to face time with athletes, the change means Mrs Knox will be able to take on a graduate diploma in career counselling for elite athletes through Victoria University.
She says its also important to her to keep contact with the rising stars of her sport.
From December 6-9 she will be a manager of the NSW team at the Australian All Schools Athletics Championships.
Mrs Knox will continue to be High Jump coach for St Aloysius College in the school athletic season, have her own squad of athletes and work one day a week for Pittwater Uniting Church Sport and Recreation Centre.
"I also hope to be able to still be Northern Beaches [Christian School's] athletics coach. It's enjoyed some success this year in the athletics and I want to continue to be a part of the school."
