For Such a Time As This

I am a teacher…in a public school….where they say God is not allowed.  But, ask any God loving public school teacher and I feel certain they will disagree.   It is true that we are not allowed to “force” our beliefs on our students….but we are allowed to share our beliefs.  We are allowed to live out God’s calling in our lives.  We are allowed to live a Godly life and we are allowed to show Christ through our words and actions.

Three years ago I began mentoring a fifth grader.  Jamari was a tough kid, with a lot of attitude.  The first day I met him, I observed him in his classroom when he walked over to me and said “You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”  Wow!  I had my work cut out for me. 

Our story continues far beyond the school house walls.  Throughout the year, Jamari became more than “just a kid I mentored.”   As I got to know Jamari better, I got to know a very smart and funny, but very angry young man.  Most of our staff knew Jamari in some capacity...and that’s not usually a good thing.   

For the year I worked with him, he became “one of my own.”  I talked to Jamari a lot about my own two boys, and I talked to my own two boys a lot about Jamari.  Without knowing each other, they had become brothers. 

As you have probably heard (or at least figured out while reading this magazine), our church is a Worship Plus 3 church.  That means we are called to Worship Plus 3 (that is, Worship plus Grow, Serve and Invite).  Being a large, very active church, it is easy to find places to worship, grow and serve on any given day.  While my husband and I worship and serve in the Contemporary Service, our boys worship in Sunday school.  I am part of a women’s Bible study, which allows me an opportunity to grow in my faith.  Our boys attend SPLASH on Sunday nights, which gives them an opportunity to grow and serve.  While we were very good at worshiping, growing and serving, we weren’t doing our part for inviting.

This was almost too convenient and completely obvious.  Without reservation, I invited Jamari to join my boys at SPLASH one Sunday night.  Knowing that his mother had no transportation, I also invited to pick him up “on the way.”  As the word traveled throughout the staff at my school, I was met with questions, like “Don’t you know where he lives?” and “You’re not going out there by yourself, are you?”  Fortunately, I work with a staff where I heard more of “That’s awesome!”  and “Ohmygosh, he will love it!”

As my family and I drove out to pick Jamari up, my (then) four-year old son asked me why we had to pick him up.  I explained that not everyone has a car, but we were lucky enough to have one, so “it would be nice if we could pick Jamari up.”  We talked for a few minutes about thanking God for giving us jobs so that we can make money to buy things like our car.  As we turned into Jamari’s neighborhood, kids came from all over to see who we were; many of whom I recognized from my school.  Jamari climbed in our car and I was finally able to introduce him to my two boys. 

Jamari had a great time at SPLASH and asked to go back.  After taking him several times, it dawned on me…instead of enduring all the stares every time we pulled into his neighborhood, why not invite them to come with us?  So, we did.  We ended up taking three of those boys several times to SPLASH.  They loved it!  They loved getting to know my boys and my boys loved getting to know them. 

As they spoke about it at SPLASH, Jamari started asking me about camp.  I talked it over with his mom and decided to invite him to go to camp.  We were able to offer him a scholarship to cover part of the cost; and many of my school staff members donated money to help offset the cost as well.

I met Jamari’s mom and dad at our Fellowship Center to see him off.  After camp, I heard from him frequently the rest of that summer.  His mother told me he had the time of his life, experienced things he would never otherwise have experienced, and almost immediately asked to go back next year. 

I wish I could tell you that Jamari and I have remained close.  Unfortunately we lost contact after he started middle school.  Sometimes God does that.  He puts people in our lives for “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).  My time with Jamari was meant to invite him to experience God’s love.  Had I not met Jamari, I never would have met the other boys who were also invited. 

I pray that Jamari and his friends have a place of worship, are surrounded by others who will help their faith grow, are encouraged to serve and yet others who will invite them to experience that which he experienced here…even if “for such a time as this.”

News from the Ball Park

Just a quick update from the ball park:  We survived our first week of games and both boys seem to really have fun playing!  Harper played his first game Monday night, Warren followed Tuesday night...and both boys had games Thursday night.

And, just in case keeping up with two boys wasn't enough, my long-lost sister's two boys also had games...and she was out of town, which meant I was mom-on-duty trying to video everyone.  Luckily, her youngest is on Harper's team...and her oldest was playing against Warren.  So, although it was four boys, at least it was only two fields.

Warren is doing great!  He seems to be a strong hitter, a super fast runner and is....getting better in the out field.  After watching him turn around during the first game, I quickly realized we needed to have a little chat about paying attention when you're in the outfield.  The good news is that he has been "on the ball" every since.  He has his little ready stance, with his glove up every time now!

And Harper is really making progress.  He's not quite as into the game as Warren, and doesn't really seem to enjoy practicing....but he is all about putting on that uniform and playing the game!  The biggest problem he has right now is that he very easily switches from left hand to right.  He seems to be more comfortable batting left handed, but throwing right.  We're still working on which direction to run after you hit the ball....that'll come, right?   

Play Ball!

Well, we finally decided this was the year to take the plunge!  We decided this was the season to try baseball.  So, we are jumping in with both feet.  That is....with both boys!  While we made Warren wait until he was at least of school age, we decided the exercise might be good for Harper and it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and let him try.  Warren is trying his hand at coach pitch, while Harper is tearing it up with t-ball.

Before we registered, of course I did my research, spoke with lots of parents and decided we would start with Lakeland City Baseball.  I checked the website and found the date registration opened and marked it on my calendar.  When it was finally time to register, I jumped online and signed the boys up.  Shortly after, I received a phone call from the President of the league congratulating me on being the first person to register this season.  (Those who know me are probably not at all surprised.)

Those who know me, also know that I live in a pretty happy little bubble.  When we decided to register both boys, it never crossed my mind that maybe, just maybe they would have differing game and practice schedules.  And so begins spending my days at the ball park. 
 

We started the morning off with Harper's first practice at 9am.  Oh boy!  Let me preface this by saying that when we play at home, we literally have to drag him outside to play with us.  He would much prefer sitting and playing with Legos.  But, the good news is that he seemed to enjoy it today.  One of his buddies is playing on his team, so he was looking forward to that.  He hasn't realized that his good buddy is a really good little player.  So, while Harper tries to figure out the game, Hunter just blows on by (see the video below).

Warren, on the other hand, is definitely hooked and seems to be doing really well.  He practiced last evening at 5:30 and again today at 1:30...and wanted to get there early today to get a few hits in before practice started.  While he was a good little hitter and runner, playing the outfield was another story.  I still can't figure out who else was out there with him....but clearly someone was, because he was carrying on deep conversations with this "person."  So deep, in fact, that the coach had to call him back to reality to get him to field the ball.

He has also very quickly caught on to the phenomenon of sliding!  I don't know anything about baseball, but I just always assumed the players slid to narrowly escape getting out.  After this weekend, I have realized that the players (mine, at least) slide just because they can.  Because it is a lot more fun than running over a base.  Because you can slide on your knees and really mess up your pants, or you can slide on your bottom and mess up the backside, but it is especially cool if you slide on one knee and side leg.  It seems you can cover more area with clay that way.

But, despite scrubbing and washing the white pants three times in two days times two boys, we are excited to finally join the ranks of our other baseball playing friends.  We haven't hung up the gymnastics suit just yet, but we have high hopes of at least getting our cute t-ball and baseball pictures!