Famed American boxer George Foreman, who has died, was also a committed Christian.
Known for his famous bout against Muhammad Ali in the so-called “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974, he subsequently became a church minister - retiring from boxing at just age 28.
“I found out there was more to life. I found God on the dressing room table, screaming, ‘Jesus Christ is coming alive in me’!” website Faithwire.com reports. “I didn’t find anything else worthy of my time, other than doing the work of evangelism."
He set up The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. His website details how the church came about: "(In the late 1970s) I had been preaching occasionally in the church, and I loved to preach, so I bought thirty minutes of radio time on a Houston station and continued preaching. On my show, I talked a little about boxing and a lot about the good Lord.
"I was living in Humble, a suburb of Houston, so when I went into the city to do my radio show, it wasn't unusual for several friends from my former church to ask me to lead a Bible study or to pray with them. Three or four of us met in various homes; soon there were six or eight, then ten people attending… Before long, the crowds became too large for most houses to accommodate."
