It was their time of the week.

They were both students at Western Seminary in Portland, Ore., but after church and lunch on Sundays, they would meet on a field, pick sides and play touch football until they were exhausted.

On one team was Bob Tebow, whose team was always the Florida Gators.

On the other team was Robert Lewis, who was always the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Tebow g raduated from Florida and Lewis from Arkansas, where he was on a football scholarship and figured heavily into the future until he broke his neck, which eventually led him to the ministry.

The two have remained close friends, visiting often by phone.

Tebow became well known in ministry circles for his raw courage. He started a mission on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. That island is a stronghold for Muslims and communist rebels, who held him at gunpoint at least once.

Lewis became well known for his numerous Christian bestsellers and his “Quest for Authentic Manhood” study, which is still an international ministry.

Bob Tebow is also known now as the father of Tim Tebow, Florida’s starting quarterback and last year’s Heisman Trophy winner.

Bob Tebow was in town Monday to address the Little Rock Touchdown Club, and as you would expect from a minister, he came armed — with his Bible.

However, he didn’t so much preach as teach.

He gave his four eternals — God, his word, people and reward — and talked openly about parenthood.

Tebow stressed that parents make mistakes and should readily admit them and ask for forgiveness from the family.

Probably the most interesting part of his talk came when he was asked that if he could have his desires, what would Tim Tebow being doing 12 or 15 years from now.

“I was preaching on a mountain in Mindanao, and I prayed that if God wanted one more preacher, he would be Timmy,” Tebow said, referring to the child that his wife was pregnant with at the time.

It was a tough pregnancy — four times they almost lost Tim — and doctors advised them to abort the pregnancy.

“I told my wife about my prayer, she started praying, and then others did and Tim was born,” he said. “He wasn’t growing, so we started praying about that. Two months later, he started growing. He did that really well [he’s 6-3, 240 pounds now ].

“ That’s still my prayer, that some day Timmy will be a preacher. Of course, he wants to play in the NFL and I want him to be happy, but we know he can’t do that forever.” Of the entire 30-minute speech, Tebow spent less than 30 seconds on his son’s feats on the field, and that was limited to his freshman year, when he came off the bench to help the Gators beat LSU. That was to illustrate a different side of the Florida quarterback.

“We all went to eat — there was about 20 of us — and a little boy came up behind Tim and just stood there,” he said. “He was so shy he couldn’t say a word, but Tim sensed he was back there and turned around and finally got his name out of him.

“ Tim asked him if he had something for him to sign and the boy said no. So Tim said, let’s fix that, found something, signed it and gave it to the boy.

“ When the boy was back with his family, I looked at Tim and told him that was his best play of the day.” Tebow also knew his son was down after losing to Ole Miss on Saturday and told him after the game that “I love you, win or lose, it doesn’t matter to me.” Sunday, he left him a message.

“I told him to go visit a hospital, which he does regularly [he also regularly goes on mission trips with his dad ], but what I didn’t know was a lady had called his mom about a 14-yearold boy who was going into a Jacksonville [Fla. ] hospital with a brain tumor,” Tebow said. “The prognosis was not good, but by the time Timmy got my message, he had already called and talked to the boy.

“ That’s how you get out of difficult times, by serving others.” Bob Tebow had more feelgood stories, and he shared them with dignity and a sense of humor.

Monday, he was a teacher, not a preacher, and a dad who is more proud of his son off the field than on it.