Ready to travel nearly 1,800 miles, Ernesto Escobar and his friend jumped in his truck with Oregon plates and road tripped to Des Moines. He took a leap of faith, following what he believed God wanted Him to do, asking God to take him wherever his faith would grow.
Ernie had just accepted an offer from Grand View University to join the wrestling team in the fall. They arrived in Iowa that May not knowing anyone. Ernie registered for classes and walked around campus, his new home. “I liked what I saw, and then we drove back,” he said.
Viking Victory
Grand View is coming off its third-straight team championship this fall. At the 2014 NAIA Wrestling National Championships, Grand View scored 193 total team points—a record 108.5 points more than the next team. Head Coach Nick Mitchell was also voted NAIA National Coach of the Year, his second honor in six years with the school.
“The records speak for themselves,” Ernie boasted about his Viking crew. This season’s roster lists 60 talented guys and a 10- person coaching staff.
Balancing the team, working as a Resident Assistant, and spending time with his Campus Fellowship Bible study makes for long days. After his morning classes, Ernie hits the gym for lifting. After a few more hours of class, the junior hits the gym again for practice. Rinse and repeat day after day for the entire season.
Practices consist of drills, technique instruction, and live wrestling. “It’s intense to say the least,” Ernie said. The high caliber of the wrestling program demands more than participation. Wrestlers are expected to give their mind and body to the sport. The season never really ends.
“Throughout the week I try to get extra workouts in,” Ernie said. “There are days where I work out as many as four times in one day, to lose weight, but also to get better because the mentality on our team at this level is that doing just practice is the bare minimum, and even then, you won’t be one of the guys that starts or even wins.”
Unlike football or soccer, wrestling is more about the individual’s performance than working together as a team. “Wrestling is a selfish sport, do whatever you got to do to beat whoever you got to beat,” Ernie said.
The Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 2:3-4 remind him to focus: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
God has used this passage to consistently shape Ernie’s faith. His move from Oregon to Iowa offered a chance to start over, but instead Ernie found himself questioning God, his salvation, and why being a wrestler mattered.
“When I first got here, I was confused with who I was and what I wanted to do. Should I live the party lifestyle? What should I do?” Ernie said.
West Coast Roots
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Ernie grew up attending church with his parents. His dad served as a worship leader and although their family struggled, they were happy. At first.
When Ernie was five years old, his dad steered away from the faith and began to abuse alcohol and drugs. After his dad left their family, Ernie turned against God. “During those years I was angry with God, not understanding why this happened to me. That was hard,” Ernie said. “But I didn’t know the message about what Christ had done.”
“During those years I was angry with God, not understanding why this happened to me. That was hard. But I didn’t know the message about what Christ had done.”
His family attended a few churches, without finding a permanent place to call home. While in junior high, God used the authentic message of the Gospel to draw Ernie’s family to a Hispanic church started by one of his mom’s friends. Within the first couple weeks of attending, Ernie heard the Good News again and again.
“God really softened my heart, and I realized what I had done. That I was a sinner in need of Christ. I needed to repent and serve Him,” Ernie said.
While Ernie began to take responsibility and help out with the services, running the media, and playing guitar in the band, his mom left the church. Every week the topic of church brought contention between Ernie and his mom as she asked him not to go. “But deep inside I knew I had to serve God, that this was a way that I was serving God,” Ernie said. Church and wrestling battled for his attention.
Facing the Mat
After a friend encouraged him to try out in seventh grade, Ernie gave wrestling a try. He was terrible at first. After training with some of the best guys on the team and getting his butt kicked, Ernie soon discovered he had a talent for this new hobby.
“Wrestling was almost everything to me in high school. Really looked forward to and idolized wrestling. Who doesn’t want to be the best athlete?” Ernie said.
With his collegiate future on the line, Ernie took fourth at state his senior year instead of winning the first place title he was banking on. “I was really bummed afterward, thinking, ‘What am I going to do with my life?’” he said.
One of his high school wrestling coaches contacted Grand View. The school wanted to offer him a spot on the team despite his loss at state. Ernie stayed at a friend’s house the last month of senior year, forgetting to check the mail.
“I called them, and I asked, ‘So did I get accepted.’ And they said, ‘Yes, haven’t you gotten the letter yet?’ I was pretty excited,” said Ernie, who ditched other options including culinary school and the Navy to accept Grand View’s offer. God wanted him to move to Iowa.
Before leaving Oregon that August, Ernie was baptized in a river, alongside his brother and sister, by the pastor of their Hispanic church. A few days later Ernie’s family helped move him into his new Grand View hall.
A Lone Ranger
Heeding advice of people from his home church to find good, Christian friends, Ernie checked out Roots, Campus Fellowship’s worship service, his first week of college. As Jon Schreiner of Walnut Creek South spoke that night, Ernie began to see how God was answering his prayer from months ago in real tangible ways.
Ernie and his roommate Reese Kling were placed on Alex Wesdorf’s floor. As their Resident Assistant, Alex shared truth with Ernie and Reese and introduced them to people from Campus Fellowship, including Caleb Thompson, who challenged both roommates in their faith.
As Ernie began to read the Bible and meet Christians his own age, he saw how different Des Moines and Portland were. “That’s when I began to see fruit and see how God had been working in my life,” Ernie said. “I questioned my faith initially because it’s not just about saying a prayer, getting your card punched, and being free to go. That’s not biblical. God really wants us to repent and believe.”
While Ernie was growing closer to the Lord, Reese was, too. Coming into freshmen year, Reese was content living an unsatisfied life. He thought his relationship with God was fine, and he was excited to be independent. Throughout the first few months of the semester, late night conversations with Ernie, Caleb, and other Campus Fellowship friends helped Reese realize he didn’t actually know God.
“God really used a few people to lead me to Himself, to protect me from sin, and to soften my heart for His truth. Ernesto was one of those influential people in my life,” Reese said. “He was always eager to share the Gospel and was persistent in love showing the immensity of the decision to follow Jesus.”
Reese made a decision to give his life to Christ in September of their freshman year. God gave Ernie a friend and brother to labor with. “As a lone ranger Christian, it’s so hard and basically impossible. That’s one of the downfalls back home. There were older people but no one my age I could relate to and grow with,” Ernie said.
Takedown Season
After red shirting freshmen year due to the large size of the team, Ernie wrestled at 125 all of last season. In the first home match last year, as many of his friends watched, an opponent caught Ernie in a weak moment and pinned him.
After a rough beginning, Ernie has proved himself to be a fighter. At one of the last tournaments of the season, he had a rematch against the same opponent and scored sweet redemption. “I was able to beat him pretty good,” he said.
For the 17th-consecutive time, Grand View received the No. 1 ranking in the NAIA coaches’ wrestling preseason poll last month. Ernie will wrestle at 133 this season, traveling with the team all over Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota, among other places. The team’s goal is to win a fourth straight national championship in March. Ernie’s goal is to work as though working for the Lord.
“I pondered quitting because I thought I could serve God more if I did. I just wanted to glorify God, and I thought I could do that by serving more, doing other things,” Ernie said. “God changed my heart. My motivation went from wrestling for myself to wrestling for God’s glory.”
“God changed my heart. My motivation went from wrestling for myself to wrestling for God’s glory.”
The four-a-day practices and long weekends traveling are worth it. “I try really hard because I need to be an example,” Ernie said. “I want to be the best not for my glory’s sake but to influence people.”
Last year, Ernie knew God wanted him to work as a RA for His glory. After wrestling with God about the decision, Ernie was reminded again about Philippians 2 and how much God values people.
“I recognize my Christian life is not my own. Our greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,” Ernie said. “And how do we love God? Love his people.”
Ernie applied and earned a spot as a RA last year and again for this school year. Now he is an RA in Knudsen Hall, a freshmen residence hall. Half of his all male floor is on the wrestling team, while the other half is on the football team, including his roommate, Robert Secrets. Robert, a sophomore, came to Des Moines from Oklahoma on a football scholarship.
Three of the first people Robert met at Grand View were: Ernie, Reese, and Caleb. Ernie shared the Gospel with Robert, the first time he had ever heard the message about Jesus.
Like Ernie, Robert grew up in a mainly single parent home, leading him to question God's goodness. Searching for genuine love, he was drawn to the friendship between Ernie, Reese, and Caleb.
“I was always trying to fill my life with many temporary joys, but after I would always feel alone and empty,” Robert said. “It was not like they were trying to be good and trying to be better people, but it seemed like they were different because of something else that I did not have. They loved one another.”
Robert knew what he was missing. Humbling himself, Robert gave his life to the Lord last August. “Being friends with Ernie has really changed my life,” Robert said. “He was one of the guys that led me to the Lord. He challenged me and encouraged me.”
This past summer Ernie spent two months with his family in Oregon, the longest amount of time he’s been home since coming to Des Moines nearly two years ago. Reconnecting with his old church affirmed his decision to follow God’s leading to Iowa.
“[I] was able to go back and see where I started and how far God’s brought me. Saw the sadness of people who don’t take God seriously,” Ernie said. “I love Walnut Creek because of the way that we love and serve one another.”
Ernie says God has consistently answered his small road trip prayer by providing friends like Reese and Robert to strengthen his faith, encourage him, and labor alongside. He is no longer a lone ranger.
“Friendship is one of the best things to have. I really appreciate the body of Christ now and recognize that it’s in the context of community that God wants to use us,” Ernie said. “Something special happens when we love each other. Jesus said, ‘You will know my disciples by the way they love one another.’”