May 29 2010
Meeting with Alex and how God provides
This week has been fairly nice on many levels. I was able to spend a fair amount of time this the week with my friend Alex from Columbia. It has been such a blessing watching him grow as a person and in his knowledge of God these last few weeks as he prepares to return home to his wife and son this weekend. We went over many of the basics of the faith. I could see a zeal for the Lord and his word developing in him. It is very exciting. We hope to continue to meet via Skype after he leaves.
We also were part of a pilot program to preview a bunch of videos called “God Provides” produced by Crown Financial Ministries. These are really first rate videos that explores what real faith looks like from many angles through key Bible stories. The ones called “Lifted Up” and “Abraham and Isaac” were tear-jerkers for me.
Another interesting thing happened this week. My son T-10 was part of the awards ceremony for his 4th grade class. It was really cool. He won a bunch of academic awards including getting the high score for the math Olympiads, being part of the 4th grade Battle of the Books team which got a silver metal and he was chosen as the student of the year for his home room. We were so excited. Anyway, it was kind of interesting. We had to go up for the final award because they honor the parents as well as the students for that particular award. Of course I forgot and wore the rattiest pair of shorts and polo shirt I had that morning (almost didn’t take a shower) because it was fairly early in the morning and we usually don’t have to do much at these events. Anyway, during the ceremony I was feeling some discomfort in my knee. Not too bad but it was getting progressively worse. By the time it was time for us to go up, I could barely put weight on it. It was scary. I managed to get up there with Lisa because I didn’t want to ruin this special day for my son. Anyway, after getting home, the situation got progressively worse. By the evening, I could barely walk. I borrowed a colleagues crutches. It made it hard to sit for a ministry meeting, etc. It was difficult. It was a struggle to even get from my office to the kitchen at home. I was thinking it seemed like swelling and inflammation and didn’t feel any structural damage so I decided to wait till the next day. Well the next day, while weak, I was able to walk and everything was slowly getting back to normal.
God really reminded me of something yesterday. It takes so little time for a situation to go from great to bad to great again. It takes very little for that to happen. This reminded me of how fragile we are and how much we depend on God to keep us doing the things that we do. Pray as I send Alex off on Sunday and as we welcome several students from the airport this week.
Many of you may remember this but perhaps not. There was a time when there was nothing I loved more than strapping on some roller blades, putting on some pads and going to the local tennis court to play some hockey. I used to love the game… actually I still do. I was reminded of that when I was caught up in the hockey at the Olympics this winter in Vancouver. It is a really fun sport to watch and definitely to play. I honestly still have a thing for the Anaheim Ducks but the Dallas Stars are a close second.
Well, imagine my surprise to find that one of our students, one from Colombia of all places also loves hockey and plays a lot in his home country. Julian must be very good. He has traveled to the U.S. in the past for international tournaments with players who play pro roller hockey in the states. One Friday night, this game me the opportunity to take out the old blades, my skates and pads. (They really smell after being in storage for so long) It was really fun. I even let him use my old practice skates while he is here.
Well in talking with him, I found out that he had never been to a real life ice hockey game. God placed it in my heart to take him and I prayed that the opportunity might come up. When it rains it pours when we take things to the Lord. First, my colleague, Jason and I jumped online and were able to get $99 tickets right next to the ice for a fraction of the price. Then, a member of our church said she had some free tickets that she wanted to share with us. You should have seen Julian’s face when we shared the opportunity with him: the chance to go to two games in one week. The smile was bigger than the smile of the Cheshire cat. He wanted to go to both.
Tonight was the first of these games. It was truly amazing! We sat right up on the action, so close we could see everything – from faces pressed up against the glass during a fight to pucks scooting around the boards right in front of us. It was an exciting game AND the Stars played well for once. Julian and our other friend Alex, also from Columbia seemed like they were in heaven. We saw big hits, goals galore and interestingly, right before the end of the game there was a fight right in front of us. Yikes!
I know both of our friends from Colombia were blessed greatly, both in different ways. On the way up and back we had some great conversations about life, about Columbia, the USA, about things even deeper too. Most of all, we truly enjoyed each other’s company. I know we will never forget this experience and it will forever knit us as friends and hopefully allow us to share even more deeply all in the context of a couple of guys enjoying time together watching a common sport that they love. Praise the Lord for His goodness.
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