Auburn’s Evans bold in sharing his faith on and off field

Before each Auburn football game, fullback Heath Evans walks slowly down the field, praying from one end zone to the other.
   
“I pray over each five-yard segment, basically saying, ‘Lord, help both teams to honor You in everything we do on this five-yard segment,’” he said. “‘Keep both teams safe and for me personally, let Your will be done.’ I’ve been doing that since high school.” Evans, a junior from West Palm Beach, Fla., has emerged as a spiritual leader on the Auburn football team, serving as president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and frequently praying over his teammates for healing.
   
Raised in First Baptist Church, West Palm Beach, he accepted Jesus as his Savior at the age of four while sitting in the floorboard of his mom’s Cadillac. “We were waiting on my sister to get out of piano lessons,” Evans said. “And I told my mom I wanted to go to heaven and be with Jesus.”
   
Candy Evans led her son to the Lord. Since then his life has been a steady walk of faith, for which Candy and her husband, Bryan, say they thank the Lord.
   
“If there is any good in Heath, it’s because we’ve prayed, not because we’ve done everything right,” Mrs. Evans said. “We’re so proud of him for all he has accomplished, but most of all we’re just so grateful. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t ask the Lord to give Heath a heart that loves Him, and to not let him get comfortable in sin.”
   
Mr. Evans, owner of Creative Construction Company in West Palm Beach, fasts and prays twice a week, one day for each of his children. During football games, he raises his right hand when his son is on the field. “Heath can look up into the stands and know that I’m praying for God to protect and bless him,” he said.
   
Evans signed with Auburn in 1997 and started three times as a redshirt freshman before breaking his ankle against LSU. He had surgery and sat out six games before returning to score a touchdown against Alabama.
   
Almost immediately, Auburn fans fell in love with the 6-foot, 250-pound blond fullback. Even when he wasn’t playing, they chanted his name during games.
   
Most say they admire his strength and toughness: He can bench a team-high 450 pounds, and when he broke his ankle, he shrugged off assistance and jogged off the field.
   
Last year, frustrated fans complained when Auburn used a one-back set and Evans wasn’t getting any playing time. The coaches even practiced him on defense before finally letting him run at tailback late in the season. He responded by becoming the team’s leading rusher with 330 yards. Last spring, however, the Tigers signed junior college transfer Rudi Johnson at tailback, moving Evans back to a blocking fullback. Though he’s had only a limited number of carries this season, he has no negative yardage. Somehow, he bulldozes his way through would-be tacklers every time he gets the ball.
   
“That’s not me, that’s the anointing of the Holy Spirit,” he said. “I definitely think that my strength and power out there on that field is the Holy Spirit.” Evans said the ups and downs in his football career have strengthened his faith and deepened his love for the Lord.
   
“The last four years, the Lord has been taking me from a boy to a man, to someone that wants to draw closer to Him,” he said. “My freshman year when I broke my ankle I really had to go through a lot those five and a half weeks. It’s been a lot of mountains and valleys. I was dealing with a lot more than not playing football. There was a lot of stuff I was trying to get right spiritually in my life. The Lord was trying to get my attention through that. And He got it.”
   
Evidence of Evans’ spiritual leadership can be seen in the team’s Friday night prayer meeting.
   
Last year, while the Tigers were limping through their second straight losing season, Evans called for a special prayer meeting the Friday night before the Central Florida game. The team was disjointed and dysfunctional. Still recovering from losing head coach Terry Bowden midseason the year before, the team was struggling to learn a new system under new head coach Tommy Tuberville.
   
The team has continued the meetings, with Evans at the helm. Each Friday night before game day, almost every member of the team and most of the coaches meet to pray, read Scripture and listen to personal testimonies.
   
Players gather in small groups around each coach, lay hands on him and pray. If a player is hurt or sick, they are prayed for, as well.
   
“Forgiveness of sins, financial problems, family members who are sick, you name it and we talk about it at those meetings,” said senior linebacker Rob Pate. “There are no holds barred, we talk about everything. Grown men are in there crying. Guys are in there pouring their hearts out, telling you things that are hurting them. You’re sitting there listening to it and when you line up on Saturdays it makes it that much more precious to you and you know that that person’s going to get the job done.”
   
Evans, who has never tried alcohol or drugs and believes in sexual abstinence outside of marriage, said he falls more in love with Jesus each day.
   
“He shows me more of His face every day,” he said. “It’s a daily walk, and a daily stepping aside and saying I surrender a little bit more every day. I finally came to the point last season where I just got on my face every day and said, ‘Lord, I can’t even ask You for anything anymore. I just want to know You. I want to be in Your presence.’ It’s an awesome thing to be in His presence. I don’t want to ever get outside His will. I mean, what else is there?”