Who We Are

As Athletes in Action, we believe the Gospel can redeem the powerful yet broken influence of sport. To that end, we aim to build:

Multi-Ethnic, Multi-Sport

COMMUNITIES of Spiritual Multipliers

WHO FOLLOW JESUS IN ARIZONA & BEYOND.

As we serve as a trusted spiritual resource in the Pima Community College Athletic Department and the NCAA & Adaptive Athletic Departments at the U of A, we will pursue three core priorities:

ENGAGING the lost and marginalized,

EQUIPPING for growth & gospel impact, and

EMBRACING & DEVELOPING unity in diversity.

Staff

ELLIOT WNEK
email: elliot.wnek@athletesinaction.org

My story began when...

It was August of 1997. Training camp had just ended and I was three weeks into my freshman year at the University of Arizona. After practice one evening, my teammate Dave invited me to go with him to an Athletes in Action meeting. As Dave and I sat down on the locker room couch afterward, he shared with me about the good news of Jesus Christ, and that night I made a decision to follow Jesus. 

This began a journey and an adventure that has forever changed my life. God used the ministry of AIA during my college years to give me a foundation to launch into the real world. In 2014, God called my family and me back to Tucson to reach and impact the next generation of young men and women, and to expand AIA’s impact to all of Southern Arizona. It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to return to the place where it all began. 

AARON LEE
email: aaron.lee@athletesinaction.org

My story began when...

As a pastor’s son, church was a regular part of my life, and I never doubted that God was real. Yet the call to live a holy life created an air of impossibility in my understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus. That changed in the fall of 2000 during my freshman year of college, when God met me through the life of a close friend, Nate, whose love for Jesus was unmistakable. Through his example, I learned that grace is not a compromise of God’s standard, but the empowerment to grow and live into it. That summer, I committed my life to being a disciple of Christ.

That same season, I met my pastor and began discerning God’s call to ministry. In the fall of 2002, we moved to Tucson to plant a church that has experienced God’s blessing and favor for more than two decades. I was licensed and installed as an associate pastor in 2012. Through my service in the church, I met Elliot, and in early 2019 I began serving with Athletes in Action. It has been a joy to see God transform the lives of young adults in the same way He transformed mine.

CRYSTAL BENJAMIN
email: crystal.benjamin@athletesinaction.org

My story began when...

Growing up in church and with parents that are pastors allowed me to experience the love of God at a young age. There was never a doubt that God was real and worth living for. I accepted Jesus as my savior at the age of seven, but it wasn’t until I rededicated my life to the Lord in 2022 that I made a deeper, more intentional commitment to glorifying the Lord and making His name known.

During my sophomore year in college in 2021, the opportunity was presented to me to join the AIA team remotely. I was excited to come alongside a passionate leader and do what I could to use my communication skills to help us disciple athletes and meet our goals. I’ve been blessed to see the evolvement of the ministry since then!