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For almost three decades now, Ken and Mary Lea Marks have offered up a fun-loving mix of sports, food, and fellowship in Jesus Christ to the area’s youth. As district team leaders for Fellowship of Christian Athletes and through Ken’s service as team leader for the Midland Rockhounds Baseball Chapel, the Marks’s have touched literally thousands of lives in their tireless dedication to Jesus Christ and their calling to “share the adventure” with the students and professional athletes of West Texas. The year of 2010 provided just such an adventure. The Rockhounds’ banner 2010 season included playing in the Texas League Championship series and a national award for the general manager, Monty Hoppel. Then just when things could not get much better, the Rockhounds received Baseball Chapel’s celebrated Bowie Kuhn Award.

Presented during the Baseball Winter Meeting in Orlando, Florida, the award was accepted by general manager Monty Hoppel and Ken Marks, who served as Baseball Chapel team leader for the club for two decades. Established in 1973, Baseball Chapel serves “those in professional baseball who care to deepen their Christian faith, but who are unable to attend Church.” The program ministers to nearly 3,000 people every week during the baseball season, beginning with spring training. Hoppel commented, “What an honor to receive the Bowie Kuhn Baseball Chapel award. Only one team in minor leagues wins this award each year and, it is

For Ken, it is the fruit of the spirit that he enjoys so much. “Those that graduate from high school, apply to come back as Huddle Leaders for the junior high age kids. They stay in touch, so we hear that this one has started a street ministry, and that the next is a youth minister and yet another has started a new FCA Huddle. We’ve begun to see the second generation attend FCA, and we are blessed”, said Ken. Mary Lea, known simply as “Momma” to countless area athletes, said it best, “We have a heart for these young people.”