West Cocoa Chat

The "Rockledge karma" continues as we lost to Rockledge in the Class 4A, District 13 semi-final game, 7 to 3. The game followed the typical script of the last few years. We banged out 12 hits to Rockledge’s 5 but we stranded 11 runners on base. Rockledge committed no errors while we committed 4 and 2 costly base running errors on the same play. It was the last high school baseball game that our 9 seniors will ever play.

The game ended at 6:15 and the next game was scheduled to start at 7pm. My partner announced the first game and I was busy getting ready to announce the second game. My tasks consisted of filling out the “State mandated” lineup card and announcer’s sheet. Our press box is fairly large for a high school field, capable of holding around 20 to 30 people. A large table contained food and drink for coaches and officials.

A few minutes earlier, I had asked one of our parents if they could give Steven a ride to church. I didn’t think I would see him as I was back in the press box getting ready for the next game. Steven rarely came up to the press box usually choosing to hang out with his buddies or to go home to finish some homework.

In the hustle and bustle of all my activity, I suddenly realized that my soon to be 16 year old son was standing in front of me. He’s at that point in his life where when we’re in public; about all he’ll tolerate is a sideways, half-hug from me. When we’re at home, praying at night, he still gets a hug and kiss from Barb and me. But this time was different. Despite the fact that our press box was filled with coaches and game officials, his body language was strangely different.

I tried to console him by telling him that I was proud of what he had accomplished this year as a sophomore. He had scored one of our 3 runs from second base. I told him that I was proud of the team scoring 3 straight runs in the 7th to avoid a shut out on our home field. And then came my son’s reaction.

With tears welling up in his eyes he said, “Dad, there was a lot of crying in our dugout tonight.” We both fell into each other’s arms and embraced. For a moment he was my 6 year old again who on Opening Day broke his arm on the Monkey Bars. I remember those same eyes with those same tears asking me if his season was over?

Gotta wipe some tears. Have a good day family.

My son has a big game tonight at our field, Cocoa Tiger Stadium. It is the Class 4A, District 13 Semi-Final game between us and the Rockledge Raiders. The winner is guaranteed 2 things:

1. They will advance into the Regional Tournament. The first and second place teams from each district advance.
2. They will play in all likelihood, the Merritt Island Mustangs for the Championship of District 13 tomorrow at 6pm. The Mustangs will most likely beat their semi-final opponent, the Titusville Terriers tonight.

Back to our game with Rockledge. Rockledge has been our nemesis since my son Steven was 12. That year we had arguably the best Major All Star Team in Central Florida, top to bottom. Unfortunately that was the first year that Florida Little League went to a pool play format instead of double elimination as it had always been. This meant the championship game was a one game, winner take all event. We ended up playing one of our worst games and lost to Rockledge 3 to 2.

Two years ago, our High School Baseball team was 26 and 1 while Rockledge finished with 13 and 14 record. We ended up facing them in the Regional final and lost by a walk off homerun in the bottom of the 7th. Rockledge went on to win the Class 4A State Championship proving that it didn’t matter what your regular season record was, just get hot at the end of the season which they did.

So, is tonight our turn? I certainly hope so. One thing is certain, when our Heavenly Father knew that His Son had a big “game,” to step willing towards a cruel cross, He knew the outcome. He knew that ultimately the victory would be in our favor.

Regardless of what happens tonight, I feel like a “champion.”

God bless all of you.

Previous Blog Update:

At the moment, Sue plans on making the trip to the Pepperdine Bible Lectures even if she has to stay in her dorm room to rest from her battle with Lupus. Please continue to pray that Sue is able to make the trip and is able to be out and about to enjoy and feast on the Pepperdine Bible Lectures.

Good morning family.
I stated in my last blog that I’m looking forward to my annual “pilgrimage” to Greg’s and the Pepperdine Bible Lectures. Another reason I’m looking forward to the Lectures is the fact that a sister church just north of us in Titusville, is sending 6 of their members, an elder and his wife, the minister and youth minister and their wives for the very first time to the Pepperdine Bible Lectures. This is a huge step for this church and we’re greatly encouraged by this but there is a problem.

One of the ladies, Sue, the wife of Mike, the pulpit minister, is battling lupus. In the last few days her health has begun to fail. Sue and her husband Mike are becoming increasingly distressed as they were both looking forward to feasting on the fellowship and the teaching of the Word at the Lectures.

Please life up Sue and her husband Mike in prayer. They really want to make the journey to Pepperdine as they endeavor to take their church on the journey towards growing in Knowledge and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanks again.

It's Friday family and I'm looking ahead. BTW, the above picture isn't a current (or past) one of yours truly but I have a hat like the one he is wearing.

I am looking ahead to several upcoming events. Tomorrow our youth guy is borrowing our home to host a “Youth Group Open House.” This is mainly for the incoming sixth-soon-to-be seventh graders at our church. It’s kind of the Youth Group’s way of saying “Welcome” to the Youth Group. Because I have “last period planning” I’ll be leaving school early to tackle the job of cleaning our pool and patio.

On Sunday we’ll resume meeting with our Life Group. We cancelled last week’s meeting due to family gatherings for Easter. I love the intimacy of our small group.

Monday starts the Class 4A – District 13 High School Baseball Tournament. We’re hosting the tournament which means I’ll be back in the Announcer’s Chair for most of next week. My son, Steven, plays in the first game on Monday vs. Cocoa Beach High. We have to win that game and then one on Wednesday to make it to the Championship game.

Next week will be busy for me as I get ready to do the dreaded task that Randy talked about in his post (http://randywray.blogspot.com/) from yesterday; getting ready to leave home for an extended period of time. For the 15th year in a row, I’ll be flying out on Saturday to hang out with Greg and attend the Pepperdine Bible Lectures. This annual migration to the left coast has been a Godsend in many ways for me and my family over the years.

First, I love Greg and his family. They are closer to me than any “blood” family that I have. As Mike Cope said one year, “Water is thicker than blood.” I’ve always told Greg that although the Lectures have been a blessing to me, the time I’ve gotten to spend with Greg, Jan, Josh, and Jessica (O.K. – I’ll throw in Cujo, I mean Chipper) has always been the highlight of my year. I thank God that He has made this possible for the last 15 (thank you Delta Pilots for settling with the company) years as well as having an understanding and loving wife.

I do want to thank Jerry Rushford for putting together the Bible Lectures. For years they were my Oasis as I floundered at a church that was given a steady diet of sermons on such meaningful topics as “The False Teaching in the song, “Just A Little Talk With Jesus Makes Me Whole”” and “The Sin of Clapping.” It was the “Grace-Oriented / Jesus Focused” classes and lectures at the Pepperdine Lectures that kept me going throughout the year. Thankfully God opened a door at another church and I was able to get away from that environment but I continue to feast at the Pepperdine Lectures.

So I’m looking forward family. I’m looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Is there anything you’re looking forward to in the coming days?

Have a good weekend.

I took my son Steven, to his 7:10am orthodontist appointment this morning. Although we had to be on the road by 6:45am to make it in time, the serendipity of this early a.m. excursion was to be able to eat breakfast at a local BBQ place with the crew that cuts the Church’s grass. This group is an eclectic bunch comprised of a former “Sgt. Major of “the” Army, an off duty fireman, and a retired engineer with a local defense company.

In the course of our conversation I asked one of the crew if they had any insight into the recent disappearance of a husband and wife that are members of our church. At one time this couple had been very active members of our church family but had stopped coming for a period of time. After several calls and visits, the couple came back and stated that they were back for “good.”

As it turned out, “good” only lasted a couple of weeks. I had tried to call them several times to no avail. As our conversation continued I found myself “becoming” my mother. No, I didn’t get a wax job on my body. My flashback consisted of a memory of a saying that my mother used to say that as a teen, drove me crazy. My mother used to say that “going to church is a habit and it’s very easy to fall out of the habit of going to church if one isn’t careful.”

As I thought about this wayward couple, a couple who at one time appeared “healthy” spiritually, I couldn’t help but think, Mom, you’re right! Now perhaps the word “habit” isn’t the best word to use. The “habit” must consist of relationships with fellow members as well as with Jesus. But, nevertheless, this couple had fallen out of the habit of coming to church which meant they had fallen away from some relationships. It seemed to me that this made it all the more easier for them to stop coming the second time.

O.K. bloggers, do you agree with my dear Mother or not? Is going to church somewhat of a “habit?”

Have a good day family.

We attended the wedding of close friend’s (J) daughter this past Saturday. I ended up being tagged to be the “M.C.” for the Reception. One of my duties was to announce the first dance for the Bride and Groom. When I said, “Ladies and gentleman, I now present to you the first dance of Mr. and Mrs. S,” to say that I was a bit nervous would be an understatement. For some reason I was flashing back to my day’s in elementary school when I tried to pull the old “dancing is against my (Baptist) religion” argument to try and get out of square dancing in P.E. In addition, the newlyweds enjoyed their first dance in our church’s fellowship room. Don (our preacher) told me later this was going to be a change, the members coming to him to complain about the elders!

To sum it all up very few people danced. Nobody complained and the young couple really enjoyed their moment together and yet, my “baggage” still made me nervous. Maybe it’s a southern thing?
Next, do you love Raymond? I hope everyone loves "our" Raymond. We finally installed a third shepherd (I didn't use the "E - word" Randy) this past Sunday. Ray brings some great qualities to us. His "Sgt. Major / Military" attributes make him very missional in his approach. Ray mixes well with our members from kids to senior saints. He is currenlty teaching our new College Age Class that has really filled a hole in our educational program. He has had the experience of fighting for our country in Afghanistan and to top it all off, Ray is a close and dear friend of mine. So I ask that you pray for Ray as he begins this new phase of his spiritual walk with the Lord.

BTW, less I forget, thank you God from Jeff and me for bringing on Ray to help us shepherd this church.

Have a good day bloggers.

I think from the time of 4th grade, I’ve known that I wanted to be a teacher. I loved the relationships and the discourse I had with my teachers and I still love them, now that I’m on the other side of the “overhead.” Yet, as with all jobs this one has it’s frustrations. The level of those frustrations have risen with the age of “accountability” brought on by various factions within Federal and State Governments who have seen fit to “right” educational institutions. It seems as if with each year, each day, each governmental bill, and each court decision, the level of documentation has risen exponentially.

With all of this demand on my time apart from teaching my students, I’m finding it harder and harder to get away for just the basic necessities. That is until now due to a wonderful innovation. You see, to the untrained person, the time spent away from the classroom or the classroom’s computer may not be a big deal but to trained (for you Greg) professionals such as Steve and I, we know the serious impact to the educational process if we’re out of the classroom for any length of time for even the basic of needs.

Well ladies and (line stolen from M.A.S.H.) germs, the time away from all of this necessary documentation to ensure that all teachers and their students are held accountable has been greatly decreased by a new and wonderful innovation. I give (Christmas Vacation drum roll please) you:



Please, no applause. Just send any money you can spare for my toilet paper fund. I thank you and my students thank you.

Don's lesson came out of Mark 2 (2:22 "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; 31 otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.") where Jesus talks about putting new wine into old wineskins. One of the questions in our small group that afternoon was, "What is the "new wine" in your life?" Some of the answers were very encouraging.

"L" in our group stated that her "new wine" was believing that God actually hears our prayers for healing and answers them according to His Will. L has been dealing with a series of health problems for a number of years. That fact that she made it to our small group meeting was an answer to prayer.

"R" is a former minister who now teaches for a "living." "R" has had a couple of bad experiences when he was in full-time ministry. R said his "new wine" was belonging to a church that preached, believed, and practiced the grace of God.

I'm thankful that we've moved into small group ministry for it affords times like these when we can hear what someone is thinking about our church environment. Speaking of "environment," I'm going to post some pictures of the environment our small group enjoyed when we met this past Sunday.

When you have a small group in Florida what better place to go for a meeting than the beach. Of course I'm sure all of you recognize Cocoa Beach, the home of the “I Dream of Jeannie Show.” From the right/ front is my wife Barbara and yours truly.

This is my wife Barb and one of our group members, Gail, grilling the customary small group hamburgers after a small group meeting.

This is my son Steven, performing the obligatory teen rite of filling “thy face” with food.

I was able to get a picture of my ball-playing son surfing after our meeting.

This is Steven's friend Kyle and yes, even in Florida we have to wear full wet suits at certain times of the year.

Best picture I could get of Matthew (another friend of Steven's in the foreground) and Kyle competing with a wind-surfer for some waves. Have a good day my fellow bloggers.

I was proud of my boy last night but don't stop here. Please read on. Steven was a bit frustrated last night at our game against Palm Bay. It was the third game that he did not get to play other than pinch-run. But what a pinch-runner he was as Steven, my son, my boy, scored the game winning run in our come-back win against Palm Bay! We were down 9 to 4 in the bottom of the 7th and rallied back to win 10 to 9. A freshman got the game winning hit and Steven slid head first across homeplate. Both the boys were picked up by the rest of the team and carried around the field. It was a heart-warming sight. I was proud of my boy.

Later that evening, around 10:30pm, my wife came into the living room and motioned for me to come into Steven’s room. We always pray with Steven at night and I thought this was my obligatory summons. Then I realized that she was giving me the sign for “come over here quietly and peek in his room.”

What did we see? We saw our soon to be 16 year old reading a “Teen Devotional Book.” Right next to him in bed was his Bible. That was the proudest moment of the entire day! We told him that we were so proud of his faith. I told Steven the game winning run he scored tonight paled in comparison to the positive, long term effects of his desire to grow closer to God through the reading of His Word.

Steven looked at me and said, “Dad, that’s weird. I was reading a selection about patience and it pretty much said what you just stated.”

I’m proud of my boy. Thank you God.

Last night was our first "Elders / Ministers Meeting" since our little crisis I wrote about in my previous post. Now here is one of those “Christian duh” moments. I stated in our meeting last night that we needed to dedicate at least half our meeting time to the ministry of prayer. Now I’m sure some of you might want to say something along the lines of, “You guys actually didn’t know that already?” Well, it’s like a lot of things; we knew it, believed it, but we had gotten away from it. I was so encouraged by the spirit of prayer that had been missing in our infrequent meetings and by the way, here’s another “Christian duh” moment. Those of us in church leadership need some “face time.” We need to communicate with each other. When our eldership shrunk to two, it was easy to forgo meeting with each other on a weekly (do I hear cheers from some of you) basis and I honestly think Satan took advantage of that.

Speaking of prayers, I ask for prayers on Krystal’s behalf. She and her husband Nate live in our upstairs apartment. She has a non-cancerous inoperable brain tumor. This tumor was causing her to have seizures when they first moved from Kansas to Cocoa. Her seizures last for about 30 seconds and cause her to go blank or act irrationally such as trying to exit a moving vehicle.

The seizures had stopped for about 3 months but they started up about 3 weeks ago. Krystal is 22 and is very involved with our youth group. She went on a youth group trip to Nashville a couple of weeks ago and continued to have seizures. What bothered her most was the girls in her hotel room becoming frightened because of some things she said while she was having the seizures.

When I spoke to Krystal a couple of days ago, she told me she wanted the seizures to stop but at the same time, she was reading her Bible everyday as well as constantly praying. She said the seizures were a curse and a blessing as she felt closer to God. What an attitude and a result.

Keep this beautiful, precious young Christian in your prayers.

Have a good day blog family.

First, I know Randy (The Big Unit) Johnson doesn't play first but I couldn’t find a picture of a first baseman arguing with an ump.

My son executed a fine (in this veteran high school baseball announcer’s opinion) piece of base running last night in our game against (no kidding Steve) Space Coast High School. He was inserted in the game as a courtesy runner for our catcher. He consequently stole second on the first pitch to the batter. On the next pitch, our batter attempted to bunt Steven over to third. He bunted the ball down the first base line which allowed Steven to go to third. The pitcher fielded the ball and then bobbled it trying to get it out of his glove. It appeared that he still made the throw in time to throw out the runner at first but the ump called him safe. This incensed the first baseman who turned and argued with the field umpire. In the meantime, my son rounded third, saw that the first baseman was distracted, and took off for home. He easily beat the throw to home which really made the first baseman look silly. BTW, we ended up winning 12 to 2 in 5 innings.

The distracted first baseman reminded me of myself last week. Long story short, we had a bit of a crisis in our church’s leadership last week and when you only have 2 elders and 2 ministers in a church of about 250, things tend to be magnified or if I’m honest with myself, blown up out of proportion.

In a nutshell, two of us were at odds with each other. One felt the other was out of control and needed controlling. He was calling on me to help him “put the hammer down” or he was going to resign. The other player in this drama felt the first guy was out of touch and out of control himself. Then there was me. I felt a relationship needed to be restored and the words of Jesus in Matthew 18 heeded concerning conflict resolution regardless of an impending resignation or not.

Summary:
I made numerous phone calls, advice sought, prayers were offered, meetings arranged, and praise God, resolution occurred.

But I’m still bothered because as I contemplate last night’s distracted first baseman I think about my box score from last week:

Members Visited – 0
Prayers Offered for members of the Church – 0

I wonder in spite of the results of my efforts or rather, God through me, if God is pleased with my shepherding efforts last week?

I wonder if Satan is smiling saying, “Cecil, you play a nice first base.”

What happened in College Basketball is truly amazing to this long-time Florida boy. My mother was from Kentucky, one of the truly great “basketball states.” Walk into most restaurants in Kentucky (unless you’re in Louisville) and you’ll see a shrine to the great Kentucky Coach, Adoph Rupp, as well as pictures of all the great Kentucky teams and players that have played for that storied program. I understood and cherished this part of my family’s tradition but I always felt like the red-headed (apologies to any of our bloggers that are red-headed) step child because what could a “Florida Boy” know about basketball? Everyone knew we were and still are a “football state.”


Then Billy Donovan, aka “Billy the Kid,” showed up at UF. In 2000 he took the Gators to the “promise land,” the Championship Game only to lose to Michigan State. But this year, even this proud Florida State Seminole is willing to say, for the moment, all of Florida belongs to the “Gator Nation!” Congratulations to Billy Donovan and the Florida Gators for doing something in a football state that nobody just a few years would have ever had dreamed, bringing a national championship home to the great state of Florida! The pressure is on Urban Myer to manufacture the same kind of success with the Gator Football Team.

No, pigs don’t fly but for the moment, Gators and the state of Florida do, a recognized “Basketball State!”