CO-ED "Seminary" Softball

TEAM NOCHE... Saturday June 21, 2008 was the beginning of a dynasty of sorts for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary... It was the first day of CO-ED "seminary" softball. I just want to remind everyone that the softball is intramural and its a bunch of "seminary" students. I would also like to point out that, this is my first time in all the years of furthering my education have I played an intramural sport... During undergrad, I just played college football, a real sport. Needless to say, I think we are going to have a great time playing... Wanna hear about the game??????? ok. Our team consists of people from Pecan Manor "Presidents Home" aka "PP's Crib" The Housing Office, and HR... if anyone else works somewhere else, sorry. I meet some for the very first time on Saturday, so no practice before, just warming up our arms before we hit the field. I have to admit, warming up, we looked good. All wearing our red jersey with the logo of Noche holding a softball.... Noche... oh yea... He is Dr. Paterson's, dog. Noche is a black retriever (?) I am pretty confident that is right. I would like to say a thank you to our CEO, Miss April, for organizing and purchasing the jersey and putting that wonderful logo on. (Miss April, is the director of Pecan Manor, so she is really great at stuff like this) We hit the field and began the inaugural season of co-ed intramural "seminary" softball. We fell behind in 2-0, but quickly scored 4 to take the lead.... Next, what happened was complete and total shock... They jumped all over us. They were hitting the ball, advancing runners and scoring runs... I mean they hit a inside the park grand slam. (no fences, so if you can hit it out there and run around, HR) It was getting late in the game and we were losing 12-5... I was playing first base, and that feeling deep inside of me came to my attention. Its that feeling of pure, with no doubt, competitiveness... I stood there in pure shock at the score and was like, "HEFTY...this is co-ed "seminary" softball... But I could not tell myself to listen to that.... We get up to bat for our last time, and Angela (our coach, slash Catcher) made the first out. So its the last inning and we have one out... Well yours truly gets up to bat.... I stand in there, align my knuckles, hold my elbows down, and wait on a pitch... First one is a ball... second... it looks like a beach ball.... I swing... and SMACK... a line drive down the third base line... (third basemen... did not even move) probably cause I drilled him before in the leg I think.... So, one on, one out, last inning. Preston hits the ball and moves me to second, followed by a walk, and so its bases loaded, one out and the next batter smacks the ball and we score... WE bat through the order twice, I got up again and knock a two run single to left field... I tore up the left side. WE SCORE 11 RUNS to WIN THE GAME 16-12.... After the game I just sat there and shook my head and was like... Hefty, you never give up on yourself or your team... and that's the story of my life... I thanked God for giving me athletic abilities, for passion to perform well, and this time a good attitude. I also got home and while I was resting, I prayed and said....God, give me that passion for people, your people... That desire deep inside that hungers for the lost, the hurting, the searching.... So if your reading this, pray with me for that, pray God will give everyone a hunger for the gospel, a hunger for truth, a hunger for sharing, a hunger for Christ... When the season comes to an end, or in 5 years from now, no one will remember the score of this game. You wanna know what will be remembered??? How many names are added to the Lambs Book of Life... Let's Do It...

FUN

SATURDAY NIGHT: Lastnight, Travis, John-David, Matt Tober, and I went to watch the movie Kungfu Panda. This movie was one of the best animation movies I have ever seen. I sat through it laughing the entire time....How exciting. We actually went to three movies theaters, the first two were sold out. We ended up seeing it at the Rave Motion Picture Company. They are in the business of showing movies, that's for sure. I remember going to a movie theater and seeing picture posters with the new up-coming movies. Well lastnight, they had an actually Incredible Hulk Statue. It was absolutely massive and green. Adam Sandler's new movie, I think he is some secret agent from the middle east who moves to America and cuts hair... well they had a poster of the movie, and a real chair you set in at the haircut place. They probably had 15-20 screens, showing just about every new movie out these days. Highschool for the most part got out this Friday, so their were kids everywhere.

SUNDAY SCHOOL: This morning I taught Sunday School for the first time at First Baptist Euless. Their student ministry is absolutely amazing. They are averaging like 300 on Sunday's. I will be teaching the 7th graders, ( I think I mentioned that before) Lastweek, we had around 45 7th graders... Today, the numbers were a little down, I think we had around 25-30. I'm guessing people went on vacation now that school is out. Today's lesson was on Looking Both Ways. Main idea was that Friends go out of their way for each other. The church has some really great material for me to teach from. I really enjoyed studying and preparing for this lesson. The story I taught from was Luke 10:25-37 "The Good Samaritan" a famous parable taught by Jesus, during his earthly ministry. I have never taught 7th graders before, so I was a little nervous, I mean, they have an attention span of less that 20 minutes, and that's all the time I had to teach. I am a talker when I preach or teach, so I was a little nervous about the whole time thing, but it went great. My goal is to teach the lesson, than the large group brakes into smaller groups, and their team leaders go into more detail. I must admit something, it was pretty humbling to stand in front of them and share with them, this amazing story. I do know one thing, I need to brush up on my 7th grade humor.... I mean, some laughed at my jokes, but all the older people that help and the team leaders did, so. What I am trying to ask, if you have a 7th grader, or have experience teaching this age.... CONTACT ME.... I would love to hear from you and learn from you.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON: Oh yea, I picked up Justin and Amy from the airport after big church, they got in around 11:45, i got there at 12:10, so they only had to wait around a little while. We than headed back to campus, tried to go eat at this pizza joint in downtown Ft. Worth, but it was closed on Sundays. We settled for Chili's (yes John-David, went with out you, sorry) I dropped them off at their place and I came back to the dorm and took a nap :) Woke up around 7, started studying for my test that will be on Thursday. I listened to a little scripture online (http://www.biblegateway.com/) and than got a phone call. One of my best bud's in the whole world called me and we got to talk, we talked for almost an hour and a half.

Thank you for stopping in and checking in on my life. I know I'm probably pretty boring, but I do appreciate it. I think of all of you, I pray even more for you. God be with you, may he give you the joy!!!! :)

Night at the Ball Park

FRIDAY NIGHT IN TEXAS: So tonight my friends Travis and John-David took a new guy to the seminary to the Rangers game. I actually got free tickets from Justin and Amy, and we got their tickets for half off. We sat up in the upper deck on the third base line. It was great out tonight, up there with the wind blowing. The Rangers got their butt's handed to them, when we left it was 12-2.Hear I go again, going to tell you about evangelizing. Travis and I went to get a drink, and our nice lady (Shakeria) was very polite to us, and I was wanting Travis to share with her. Well he walked away and it was just me, so I asked her if she know Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior? She said, what? I repeated myself... She said, I think so... So I asked her, if she were to drive home tonight and get into a car accident, and died, would she go to heaven? She again said, i think so. She must of said this ten times in a three minute time frame. I honestly don't believe she was a believer, she said yes after I gave her a brief gospel presentation, but I was not convinced. I handed her a gospel booklet and said, Shakeria...please read that.... God only knows. So Travis and I continued to walk, close to the smokers sections... Waiting to strike up a conversation with someone. And a girl that works for the ballpark, you know they camera kids that take pictures... Well I noticed her name was Aeron.... I was thinking, hey that's my name.... So of course she came up and said, wanna take a picture for the website....SURE.... So we got to talking and again I wanted Travis to share with her... (Travis is a little shy I think when it comes to presenting the gospel... I mean he kind of stumbles into it) It was cool, Since she took my picture and gave me this ticket to go find my picture, I was like hey may I give you something, she was like yes. I handed her a gospel booklet, and asked if she believed in Jesus, she said yes, so I asked more questions... she was only 16 years old, and If I do not get what I want to hear, than I share. So Travis and I were kind of talking to her at the same time.... Just to warn you, I had 2 cd's in my cargo pocket, a bible, the wordless book, bracelets, and around 15 gospel booklets. I was prepared to share tonight. So Travis was sharing with her, and he was kind of all over the place.... So I pulled out my wordless book, and went through it with her. I again asked her if I could give something to her, she said yes. I handed her a bible, a cd, and a bracelet. During this time, Travis was telling her about church, our church, our youth stuff. We were pretty confident that she was a believer. But she indicated that she does not go to church... so that worried us. I just wanted to provide her with some stuff to help her along the way. She did mentioned that we were so much better than this other guy that tried to share with her one night. That comment did not effect my thinking, I was concerned about this girl and if she would be joining us in Heaven.

AFTER GAME: Tonight was a really great night, we ended the night over at John-David's and did some guy stuff, play video games, and watch the beginning of the movie tremors. Travis and I came back over to the dorms and updated our strategy game we play online. While sitting around we sat here until about 3 talking about stuff. After we called it a night, I sat up and wrote a couple of messages to some people on facebook and read. I usually am the guy who goes to bed way before 4 am, but for some reasons, I was just not wanting to sleep. Tonight simply was an amazing night. This week has been an amazing week, for many reasons.

SOFTBALL: (yes they play it out here in Texas) Jonathan (my boss) and I are going to start playing softball this summer at the seminary. It is Co-ed intramural softball, and we will be playing with some people from pecan manor (presidents house) and from HR (human resources) It is pretty cool that it is set up co-ed, I think it will be a great way to just relax and have fun. I am so very competitive, especially when I start sweating. I am praying that, that will not be the case this time.

Well I am off for today, I am truly trying to keep this updated more. My plans for today are to go to JCPenny's (father's day sale) and pick up some new clothes. Travis and I are going to go out and get amongst the people, and share the great news about Jesus. Please continue to pray for me. I will begin teaching Sunday school to 50+ 7th graders at church. I have looked over the material and its good. Pray that God is glorified period. That the kids will hear the words of God and begin to have a passion for Christ.

Again, I would love to hear from you all, if you ever need anything, contact me, I promise I will get ahold of you. You all remain in my prayers,

Common Ground

TODAY: I woke up around 8am and got started. I spent the first hour doing my quiet time and praying for some very special people in my life. I than got my books together and put them in my book bag and took my bike and rode over to the world missions center. Bike? its actually Brandon's, but he is in Michigan all summer working at a camp. I helped him move out his stuff the other night and he let me barrow it. I was able to complete half of my reading this morning before I went to work. I read about Amos, and Hosea. We are focusing on two of the minor prophets right now in class. Oh yea, CLASS.... Class on Tuesday was great. I have my old professor from Hermeneutics and let's put it this way, if I don't get an A, I will be pretty disappointed. I went into work for a little bit, today is my short day. I had to catch up on the filing and folders. When ever we get a new resident in student housing, we give them a folder with some great information, and when I am not out inspecting, I make sure we have enough folders. After work, I again, put on some work out clothes and biked over to the Missions center and sat there for 2 hours and finished my readings for class tomorrow... I am up to date :) Wow, I am really going to try my hardest to remain that way for this class. Once finished with reading, I biked over to my truck and placed my book bag in it and than biked over to one of our housing sites. "Carroll Park" it is actually down the street about a mile or two. (maybe) Justin and Amy are in Florida for the week, and I was by there place yesterday and noticed that their nice plants out front were not so nice. (they were dying or dead) I quick put some water on them, and I wanted to go back tonight and water them again. They didn't look all that better, but with some more water and time, who knows. I am listening to my ipod right now and its on shuffle and mercy me is singing silent night to me....LOL.... (son of God loves pure light...) Nice. After my bike ride back to campus, I got cleaned up, ate some chicken, yogurt, and drank some cold water. I am seriously going to diet and get back into shape. because....

TUESDAY: Last night on our way to eat at Rosa's a ladies car lady died on her and this poor guy was trying to push it all by himself, but he was struggling.... I jumped out of the car and took control (jk) I really did though. We got her off the big road and up a hill and to a safe spot. I wanted so bad to talk with her and the guys who helped, but I could not talk. So with that event, I was like, I am going to get back on the diet and getting in shape deal.

RIGHT NOW: I just got an instant message from a guy I played football with in high school. I will try and share it with you if we keep talking... The first part went something like... I am living in Texas, in Ft Worth going to seminary. He responded by saying "can you lay hands on me" I was like, sure man, whats going on? He said just stacking my deck, that he lived out here for a couple of years... (he played pro ball for the cowboys) I responded by saying, yea when we became friends on facebook, I was wondering what you were up to, life? He said just trying to stay balanced.... He asked me if I was married, kids? No. than I asked him if he was living in atl?.....that's where were are holding at... waiting for him to reply....
He replied, we made small talk, could never get him to open up. So I wrote him a very long message on facebook, and told him to read it and get back to me if he did not understand anything. Wow, God, thank you for the opportunity. I did my best to share with him. I praying now that if he is not a believer that God's grace with shine again, for the glory of Him.

I would like to encourage all of you, who ever you are, that God created you in his image. Sin enter the world, thus breaking the connection (the easy connection to heaven) He sent his son, Jesus, to bare our iniquities, he was pierced, died, and rose on the third day. Conquering sin, and death. All we have to do is confess that with your mouths, believe it in our hearts, and we too shall be saved. Free from the bondage of sin, free from eternal death, but alive for eternity.

I am so open to questions or comments or anything. If you need anything, please contact me.

360 Ministry

WHATS HAPPENING: I was contacted two weeks ago by our youth ministry at FBC Euless about opportunities to serve. I had just finished praying that now that I was finished with my first semester that I wanted to get involved with my church. I mean seriously, I wanted to come here and be a student, a church member during my first semester. Finals were complete, God knows our thoughts and our hearts desires, so the whole time he was preparing me for what he wanted me to do. I simply prayed one night, said God, you know what I said, well the semester is over, I would so much like to serve you within my church. The very next morning, I am not lying about this at all. I receive an email from Josh Merriott, the junior high pastor at FBCE. I smiled and kind of shook my head, but was like.. ok God, I hear ya man. I wanted to share this story with you, cause I wanted you to see that God has truly been so great to me. Ever since I surrendered to him and his call, he has provided for me, opened and closed all the appropriate doors. I wanted to share with you the joy that I have in my life, I joy that God will work out all things for those who are in Christ Jesus.

CHURCH: This morning we had a registration for new 7th grade kids. We meet in a large room and broke the students into 6 groups, 3 for girls, and 3 for boys. Once the Sunday school started, we introduced the kids to the large group. We had them all come in one group at a time, I was responsible for lining up the kids and opening the door when Josh announced them. After the introductions we broke up into the smaller groups, all 7th grade students meet in the red room. I liked that, since red is one of my favorite colors and the whole uga football thing.

This morning Josh introduced me to Kent, He is our Youth Pastor. While the kids were filling out their information cards, Josh asked me about doing a certain thing. Earlier in the week, Josh called and we talked about possibilities within the 7th grade ministry. He asked me to he wanted me to be a "Coach" "Teacher" So after all the kids break up from the big group, I will be teaching them in the red room, for probably about 20-25 minutes, than they will break up into their smaller groups and have further discussion time with their group leaders. I am totally stoked about this opportunity to teach again. It has been awhile since I have taught a group, so it will be absolutely fun studying up and preparing for it. I can't wait.

AFTER CHURCH: I ate lunch with our seminary connection class, we went and ate at Rio Mambo it is located close to church in Colleyville. I noticed that on the menu, on the back at the bottom, they had scripture. I also noticed that they were playing Christan music. It was a pleasant feeling to see them so willing to share their beliefs with their customers. I only had one thing, was it genuine, or a cover? I will only pray that it was genuine.

After lunch, I came home and found a website that you can listen to this guy with a great speaking voice read the bible. I start class this week, so I wanted to get ahead in my bible reading, so I read along while listening to this guy talk. I actually really enjoyed this. I will use it a lot. If you want to know how you can do this, contact me.