West Cocoa Chat

My 15-year-old drove for the first time today on I-95 (the 95 for you big city folks) with my wife and me. He actually drove quite well but to say that his mother and I were on pins, needles, and the floorboard with the "imaginary passenger brake" would be an understatement. We made it safely to the local mall and he parked our Honda Accord beautifully.
It was when we were leaving that I almost had both a heart attack and a flashback. As my son was backing out of the parking space he turned the steering wheel. As he continued to back up I realized that he wasn’t paying attention to the front of the car which was now on a collision course with the parked car to our right. As any patient, caring, up-standing parent would do I yelled, "Brake!!" Steven avoided his first accident and I was able to avoid my first cardiac episode and use the moment to further school my son on the fine art of backing out of a parking space.
Steven later asked me why I was so "uptight" when he was backing up. I told him besides having visions of my insurance deductible I had a flashback to my beginning days of driving. I was backing out of a parking spot at my high school with a beautiful young lady in tow. For some reason I had come to the conclusion that to impress this vision of beauty I needed to exit my parking space as quickly as possible. Yes, you guess it; I forgot to take into account the front of my car and the vehicle parked on my right and I slammed right into it, neither impressing my girlfriend or my parents.
Is that the part that scares us about our kids driving or doing anything else on their own; the knowledge of our own mistakes in the past? I think it was mine today.

When my son (now 15) was 2, we made a trip to North Alabama with the England’s. My son was in to a cartoon called "Power Rangers" and swords. Some how he discovered a sword that Muz had in a closet in her home. It looked like an Officer’s sword from the Civil War era. He wanted to take it home but Muz wisely told him that he was a bit too young to handle such a sword. The sword itself was old and dull but never the less in a 2 year olds’ hands it could have done some damage or bodily harm. She promised Steven that when she passed on he could have that sword.
Muz passed from this life last week. Greg remembered her promise and presented the sword to Barbara and me to give to Steven upon our return home. Steven didn’t make the trip due to being at "Teen Week" at the Central Florida Bible Camp. When we came back home and gave the sword to Steven his face lit up. It was almost as if he was two again standing on a chair in Muz’s kitchen "helping" her to make biscuits.
Steven asked me how much this antique sword was worth and I told him I didn’t know. He looked at the sword, smiled, and said, "If Muz’s sword is worth a million dollars I’ll order $500,000 worth of flowers for her grave." This was his tribute to Muz having not made the trip himself. One thing for sure, it almost seemed as if there were a $1,000,000 worth of flowers at Muz’s funeral. A fitting tribute to a woman who lived a life that was as fragrant and any earthly rose. We love you Muz. Steven says thanks.

My friendship with Greg and the England Family began with a question and has been a series of questions (I didn't say "questionable") ever since. When Greg tried out to be the "preacher" at our church in Rockledge, we were asked to vote on calling him. I voted "no" and ended up with a man closer to me than any "blood" brother. When he Greg came to Rockledge we asked him, Jan, and the young kiddos out to eat. In the course of our getting to know one another we asked Greg and his family to practice the fine southern tradition of just dropping by our trailer unannounced. They did and we weren't home. Greg wrote a note asking why we weren't home when they choose to excersise this practice. Greg asked me to go to Bible Camp and I did and haven't stopped for over 20 years. Greg asked me to attend the Pepperdine Bible Lectures and I did and haven't stopped for 14 years. When Greg went home one summer to visit Muz he asked us to come with them and I gained a second saint for a Mother. My son Steven gained a sword but that's another blog. When Greg moved to SoCal he asked us to visit and we did and gained a second church family, the Long Beach Church. My mother gained a group of elders that would anoint her with oil and pray over her as she battled cancer. I asked Greg to preach funerals for my Mother and Father and he did. Greg asked me to attend his Father's funeral in North Alabama and I didn't. That was a bad decision that the Lord gave me a chance to learn from when Muz passed away. Thank you God.
On a final note to lighten things up, one time Greg asked me a question at Yosemite. He wanted to know if I would go rafting on the Merced about one hour before dinner. I accepted and he got in trouble and I didn't!

In my last email from my friend Greg, he told me about a statement that was at the bottom of a manual that was sent to him by our good friend Randy Wray. The manual is being used by the good folks from Virginia and Long Beach that are going to Mexico to build a home. The statement read, "Don’t bunt with two strikes."
That statement took me back to the summer of 2000. My son Steven was 10 years old and his All-Star Team had made to the Florida State Finals as one of 4 teams. We arguably had the best 9 and 10 year old team in the state that year but sometimes the best team doesn’t always win as was the case with us.
We lost our first game of the State Tournament 6 to 5 after being up 5 to 0 in the 3rd inning. In the loser bracket game, we were down 3 to 2 with 2 outs in the top of the last inning. We had runners on 2nd and 3rd and my son Steven was up to bat. The pitcher got 2 quick strikes on Steven and it looked like our State Tournament was over. On the next pitch with the infield playing back since everyone knows that you "don’t bunt with 2 strikes, Steven squared around to bunt! It surprised me, his mother, everyone in the stands, and most importantly, the team in the field. Steven laid down this bunt from "Hades" down the 3rd base line and legs out an infield single bringing in the tying run.
We couldn’t push another run across and in the bottom of the last inning our opponent drove in the winning run thus ending our State Tournament. After the game I asked the Manager who was coaching 3rd, what possessed him to bunt Steven with 2 outs and 2 strikes? I’ll never forget what he said to me. He said, "I knew it was "Hero or Zero" time so I decided to roll the dice." For a while he and Steven were "heroes" and not "zeroes." I guess you sometimes have to "bunt with 2 strikes" in life.

My friend Randy and Greg are getting ready to go to Mexico to build houses. A sister in Christ reminded me of one benefit of such a trip. She went to the Mid-Ohio Valley Work Camp (MOVWC) as a fellow chaperone with our youth group. I love everything about MOVWC from the worship times with 600 young people to serving those who can't help themselves by painting their home in four days. You really grow close to the Lord as you "work out" your faith.
Just a few days after we arrived back in Florida, this Sister in Christ found out that her husband had been carrying on an affair for the past year. And as anyone would be she was devastated but she told me that the "spiritual high" she came back on from MOVWC helped her to weather this storm a little better than she would have thought possible.
I blog about this event to say to my good friends Greg and Randy, enjoy your mission trip to Mexico and soak up all the spiritual benefits one receives from "working out your faith." We never know what storm of life lies around the corner.

I’ve lived on the "Space Coast" for almost forty years. So the space program occupies a special place in my heart. I remember being in Boy Scouts and going out to the Space Center for once of the Apollo liftoffs. My Dad was the First Sargent of the local National Guard unit and he was able to procure one of the transport trucks to take our troop out to the Cape for the launch.
Tomorrow is the third "return to flight" launches that I have experienced here on the Space Coast. The first was after the Apollo One accident in the early 1960’s in which three astronauts burned up inside their command module during a pre-flight test.
The second was after the Challenger accident and the third will be tomorrow, two years following Columbia being incinerated as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. We have many people at our church that work on the Space Shuttle. For them tomorrow will be an emotional moment as well as a technical challenge. I covet your prayers for the brave men and women that will be aboard Discovery as America returns to space. God-speed Discovery.

My son is a fifteen-year-old teenager and today I’m proud of him. I love him every minute of every day and most days I’m proud of him (I’m sure he could make the same statement about me and insert the number 46.) but he is a typical 15-year-old.
Steven has been playing 18 and Under AAU Baseball with his high school team this summer when we haven’t been at Bible Camp or the OVC Work-camp. He is one of 20 kids on the team as well as being one of the youngest. For most of the summer, he has been coming in for 2 to 3 innings and playing third base. This past Friday he started and played the entire game going 1 for 3 at the plate and contributing several put outs from third base.
Steven’s next game was yesterday, a Sunday. Initially Barbara and I told him he couldn’t play. In a display of maturity (in the way he presented "his case") Steven asked us to reconsider saying that the coaches were finally starting to notice him. In a rare decision for our family, we allowed Steven to play in the game and miss church. He ended up starting again and playing the whole game going 1 for 3 again with a RBI.
Although we’re proud of Steven’s accomplishments on the ball field, this isn’t the reason why I’m blogging about Steven today.
Steven beat us home from lunch after church. When we arrived home we discovered Steven had cleaned our home. I know, any 15 year old allowed to skip church to play baseball might react the same way. And once again, this isn’t why I’m proud of Steven.
We had to have Steven at our church building at 5:30 that day. Our youth minister (Chad) took our youth group to the North Brevard Church of Christ to support a fellow youth minister and his fledgling youth group. Chad told us that our youth group made up half of the church’s attendance that night. On the way home our 15-year-old son called us to ask if every boy in the youth group (ended up with 8 that night) could spend the night at our home.
Above all of his baseball accomplishments I was most proud of my son for taking a leadership role in his youth group. He wanted to include every boy on the bus that night and yes, they had a lot of fun at our home. But they also took the time to hold a devotional with each other. So forgive me if I take the time to glow in this moment. I just pray that the Lord will allow moments like these to encourage Steven to be an encourager to a group of special boys.

It's been over a month since my last Blog entry. The month of June was taken up with Bible Camp and then 5 days later, our trip to the Mid-Ohio Valley Workcamp in beautiful Parkersburg, WV.

I wanted to say thanks for all of you that prayed for my son Steven during are recent version hear in Florida of high stakes testing known as the FCAT. I must admit that in light of the bombings in London and the on-coming of Hurricane Dennis that my prayer request seems trivial.

My son Steven isn't the best test-taker. That particular weakness in Florida can have some devastating effects for young people. Students in grades 3-10 who score a Level One on either the reading or the math portion on the FCAT must attend summer school that lasts the entire month of June. In addition, they must take a 2 hour block class during the school year in the subject they scored Level One. For a middle or high school student this means they lose an elective. If they have the misfortune of scoring a level one in both reading and math, then they must take a 2 hour block of reading and a 2 hour block of math thus eliminating all of their electives.

And for Steven being a Christian teenager, this would have knocked him out of going to Bible Camp and the OVC Workcamp. Thanks be to God that he improved his score for a second straight year. Thank you for your prayers on his behalf from a grateful father. Through the grace of God we didn't have to leave Steven "behind."

Please continue to pray for the kids in our youth group that were "left behind" because they were attending summer school.