While he has spent time in this area before, Marcellus Casey had never really seen Danville.
But the chaplain for the Kansas City Chiefs saw a lot of the city this weekend and received a lot of love.
“Danville is such a strong community with great leaders, so we are trying to build on that and I want to help when I can,” Casey said. “I felt the love here from people who are committed to the youth and to the community.
“It’s been great, You can feel the love. It’s been great and everyone has been hospitable.”
Casey has been the guest of Mosaic City Church Pastor LeStan Hoskins with the help of New Life Church of Faith Pastor Thomas Miller. There was a youth event on Friday and a men’s conference Saturday that was hosted at New Life before Casey wrapped up his weekend Sunday in a Mosaic City service.
“We connected again when he joined the Chiefs. I reached out to him and talked about him coming to Danville and we made it a reality,” Hoskins said. “We are excited about it. It is something new and something fresh. We just want to encourage students and other men to hear the word of God.”
“It was a blessing to have Pastor Hoskins reach out to me and giving us the opportunity to host,” Miller said. “Anytime I can help the youth and men in the area, I am all for it.”
Casey’s message at the men’s conference was focused on two things: Stick Together and Courage for the Climb. He used verses from chapter five of First Peter and Psalm 133 as the basis for his speech, which is to be humble because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Casey has been ready to be a chaplain since he was a child seeing his father minister to Olympic athletes, but didn’t go fully into following his father’s footsteps until his junior year at Northwest Missouri State University.
“He was the chaplain in the 1988 Olympic games,” Casey said. “I really feel that God called me to be a chaplain, so in my junior year, I quit the team and became a chaplain for the team.”
He would go on to be a chaplain for the University of Illinois for six years, before ending with the Chiefs — where he has been for close to eight years.
“It is great to get someone that is on the spiritual side of things for a team because a lot of people get to the professional level and question ‘This is it?’” Miller said. “So they need someone to say that it is going to be OK and from sharing to us, you can see how strong in faith that he has in helping the athletes and it has been a pleasure to meet him and hear from him.”
It was during Casey’s time at Illinois that he had a chance to meet up with Hoskins at an Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp.
“Pastor Hoskins was a college athlete and I used to run college camps for athletes in their walk with Jesus,” Casey said. “I met him 15 years ago and we have been rocking together since.”
“I met Marcellus when I was an undergrad and I was in FCA,” Hoskins said. “He was the MC there and he was engaging and funny and we started our relationship from there.”
For Hoskins, this was a chance to continue his outreach to the community. Mosaic City has put on events like movie showings to offering free meals.
“It’s been a love of community. There are so many needs in the community and we want to be a blessing to our community,” Hoskins said. “I believe the church is here to help the people, so if there is a way to help people be better, if we can make the small change that lead to bigger ones, then that is what we want to do. We want to partner with not just New Life, but other churches because we all want the same thing and we are better together.
“If we work together, things can only get better.”