Starting The Season 0-2

Yep, that's right. 0-2. Last night Southern Heights team 2 took the field with aspirations to win the church league ragball championship but were quickly deterred as Boyd Church and Bethel brought their A-games. I wasn't present for the game one, I was watching JP while Megan was directing VBS, but as I approached the field for game 2 (which started at 10:20 p.m.), I had high hopes. That was until I noticed everyone seemed to be injured. I have been fighting a high ankle sprain for 2 weeks now and Russell, our worship leader and player/coach seemed to have busted his knee pretty bad his first time in the box. Refusing to go away quietly I took the mound...and got roped!! They hit everything and we made error after error after error. We started rallying towards in the bottom of the 5th. I hit third that inning and bombed one to deep left center. When it left the bat, I was sure hoping it was gone just for the pure relief of being able to trot around the bases on a semi-hurt ankle. But just like everything else that night, it came up short. We play again tonight, but we will be missing tons since VBS is still going on. I'm hoping we can come away with a win tonight and then at least split Thursday night leaving us at 2-3 on the season. Then when VBS is over, we can play without other more important obligations. It was the most fun I have had in a long time though...win or lose.

Church League Sports

I'm pretty pumped about tonight because we have our first Church League Rag ball game. It's the same as softball but the ball is a little softer. We practiced last Thursday night and I'm thinking we are going to be tough to beat. We have two teams here at Southern Heights and we play each other in the late game. I'm still pretty banged up from the high ankle sprain, but I'm toughing it out and going to try and give my team a good night from the mound. The big story from the night will be our game against Freeman Heights at 8:30. For you guys who don't know Southern Heights is a...umm...unconventional mission of Freeman Heights(they split several years back). So I'm expecting a little tension during the game. Anyway, I thought I would give some predictions for the night:

• At least one person will wear a faded out beer shirt. Don't doubt me on this one, if it happened at practice it'll happen in the game.
• 3 obscenities yelled at the umpires, 1 at somebody on the other team, and 6 at somebody on the same team
• 6 dips of snuff
• 2 semi-serious injuries, 1 ambulance run
• 4 husbands sleeping on the couch
• 14 bloody knees
• and Southern Heights team 4 coming out undefeated...

Spandex, Track Meets, and Weird Weather

My life, here in the Ozark Mountains, has been extremely crazy. This past Sunday I had the oppurtunity to go and preach at New Hope in Omaha, Arkansas. This was a lot of fun. You should have seen their faces when I started talking about spandex. They were like, "Who is this weird freak in our pulpit??!!" And I can understand. They didn't know me and my weird personality. It ended up being a fantastic morning, where the Spirit really moved. I got to talk to them a lot about their faith and the evidences of it in someone's life.



Yesterday I drove half way around the world to Gravette, AR to go to the JUNIOR HIGH track meet. Never having been to one before, besides the one in Eureka I stayed a total of 10 minutes, I really enjoyed it. I never could have imagined the races being so exciting. Berryville guys were crushing when me and the family left, but the girls were behind just little. Just a few shout outs to some of my students: Destiny, dude you amaze me at how hard you run and I appreciate the laugh from the triple jump. Ellis, I missed the shotput but watching you do the long jump made me want to go and crush the opposition. Whitely, You hit like three hurdles but you looked good doing it. Micaela, You looked like you had been running hurdles forever. Grant, I missed the high jump, sorry. Emory, You are a machine.



The weather here is really aggravating. It can be so nice for two or three days, and then it is cold again. The wind NEVER stops blowing.

Waves and Wind

This morning I came into my office prepared to defend my beloved Tar Heels from you butchers (Phillip, Destiny, etc.) but I was sidetracked. But first I do feel the need to say...Kansas played outstanding. North Carolina came out flat and you could tell this as they were walking out as their names were called. I'm actually a little nervous about naming the winner of the championship, but I believe Memphis is going to be just too athletic.

Back to my sidetracked morning, the Apostle Paul says it best: 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.

A lot of us love the idea that we may know something that somebody else doesn't. It is the high of secrecy and knowledge that drives us to the point where when ANYONE who tells us ANYTHING that sounds a little different we jump on it with excitement instead of fleeing like James tells us. The bible is very clear. Don't just listen to anything and believe it without consulting the ultimate authority...higher than my views, Pastor Wes' views, David Bradshaw's views, or anyone else's views....God's Truth is the final stopping point to see if something is right or wrong. I hope this made some sense...if it didn't please comment, and I'll clarify. My heart this morning is this...That we may know Christ and that we will continue to grow in our faith and knowledge so we can be mature. Don't get pushed around by waves and wind...

HOLD UP...It's Bracket Time!!

I'm sitting here staring at the new NCAA tourney bracket. Partly excited, partly ticked off. Excited because this could possibly be my most favorite time of year, Ticked off because my stupid printer keeps cutting some of it off. Anyway, just glancing I would say the East has to be the toughest mainly because of the monster that is North Carolina. They are ridiculous, and I know they lost to Maryland and a very decent Duke, but with Lawson full strength they are a safe pick. Also the East has tough Butler, Tennessee, and Notre Dame teams. If you skip across the country and look at the West, from the very beginning I said UCLA was back in it's prime. With it's only real threats coming from Purdue and Duke. If you know me, you know I HATE Duke, but I'll be the first to admit if they are draining threes they're going to be umm...hard to beat. The South is my other argument for toughest region. With Memphis, Texas, Stanford, a hot Pitt team, and a well coached Kentucky team, this is all up to who is hotter on a particular night. And the Midwest, well, Kansas and Georgetown. My picks to win it all?? I have to do some serious praying about this. I hate picking the safe UNC, but hey, they are monsters. We'll see in a couple of days after I fill out 22 brackets.

Please leave some comments...who's in your Final 4???