West Cocoa Chat

There are days in our lives that we experience pain, fun, or memorable events that etch themselves into our memories. I wish I could show you video (some would have had to have been shot in night vision) or pictures that would do justice to what I witnessed yesterday and last night. I did take some pictures but they won’t convey what is etched on my brain.

We were chased off by an advancing thunderstorm around 7pm. We took shelter along some slips near a marina at the Port. Once the storm moved off we headed back to our spot on the north side of the north jetty. The Jetty is actually on the Space Center Reservation and can only be reached by boat. Of course, stepping off the boat and onto the jetty or beach itself would probably result in a swift response from KSC Security Personnel.

As with many storms in our area, it’s passing turned the water into glassy calmness once the storm had moved out into the ocean. We anchored our boat about 30yards off the jetty. We were surrounded by the biggest schools of bait fish I have personally ever seen. With us were a school of dolphins knifing through the bait fish. They were so close that we could see and hear them clearing their blow-holes as they surfaced.

The bait fish were not going down without “flight” and when they did, “flight” or run that is, the ocean would literally boil with movement, displacement of the water, and sound. As the half-moon started to come out with the receding sun, the boils became almost luminescent. You couple that with cloud to cloud as well as cloud to ocean lightning off in the distance, manatees and dolphins swimming around us, the light of the Kennedy Space Center, and 4 friends fishing and laughing, well, we could have made a great commercial.

Makes me want to break out into a chorus of, “I love you man,” (or woman) depending upon the sex of the reader.

This is a picture of the jetty and fishing pier at Jetty Park in Port Canaveral. I've lived in the Cocoa Beach area since the mid-60's and have fished on and around the jetty. But today courtesy of my good friend those of us at church know affectionately as, Hurricane Church, and another good friend, Mr. Tim, for the first time I'll be fishing from a boat just off the north jetty which is to the left of the one pictured.

Of course one must work as I am, teaching the future of America, your children. Then bless their little hearts, they better get out of my way as I make a bee-line for my car to hook up with my fishing buddies. :)


HC and MT say the reds are running so I'm looking forward to some fish in the freezer or perhaps on the grill. I'll leave you with another picture.

I guess I'm not leaving yet - this is looking back from the jetty down the channel. This channel is used by cruise ships, freighters, military ships and trident subs.

Have you ever needed a weekend from your weekend? That's where I'm at as I type another award (I give out the awards) winning post. This past Saturday at Parent's Weekend, I ran in the "Family Fun Walk / Run." The distance was 2.2 miles along the Intercoastal waterway. I figured the "run" would mostly be comprised of parents. I figured wrong.

The Basketball Coach decided to use this event as a way for his players to meet some parents as well as get in a little morning conditioning. As the race was about to start, one of the college officials asked all the "runners" to move towards the front of the (probably had about 50 folks there) line.

I somehow ended up near the front and just behind the basketball players. As we started running they began to set a very, very, non-51 year old pace. I don't know if this makes sense but my pace was not theirs and neither was it mine for I found myself almost in as much of a sprint as my "splints" will allow.

At about the 3/4 mile mark I began to reel in some of the basketball players. It was at that point that I experienced a so-called "mini-runners high" as I caught up with some of the big (and I mean BIG - one guy was 7ft 4in tall!) guys and then had to yell out, "Coming through," as I passed between them.

What could have been their possible thoughts?

1. Who is that geezer?
2. I didn't know they made "roids" for geezers?
3. Who's going to do CPR on the old guy at the turnaround point?
4. Maybe that's why I'm on the bench?

What do you think?

UPDATE: Spoke to Steven last night. Ashley was released from the hospital and actually ate dinner with him and his classmates. I didn't know this until last night but apparently he was sitting next to her when she started to convulse. He told us he literally "caught her" as she started to go down to the floor. Now that's a play you don't want to make an error on. :)

Thank you for your prayers and have a good weekend.

Steven called from College today to request prayers for one of his classmates, Ashley. He said she started having seizures in the middle of one of his classes today. Steven said the entire class gathered around her and prayed for her until she was taken away to the hospital.

He is trying to get as many people as possible to pray for her. I guess this is one of the many benefits of attending a Christian University. The other one is that he got to hear Francis Chan, the author of “Crazy Love,” speak at chapel yesterday.

I'm sure many of you are or are going to read Francis Chan's book, "Crazy Love." I'm currently reading it so I thought I'd drop a few gems that have hit me on my journey towards having a "crazy love" for God.

In one part of his book he writes about what our lives should be about. He illustrates this by reminding the reader of "the brevity of life." He writes that somewhere between 45 and 125 billion people have lived on our planet. If you're into numerals it looks like 45,000,000,000 and 125,000,000,000. Another way he illustrates the brevity of life is by stating that in roughly 50 years (give or take a few decades), no one will remember you. You will be dead and so will most of those who would have remembered you.

Chan asks an obvious question, "Are you ready?" Remember Matthew 10:32- 33

32"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

This may seem like a dark (duh!) post. Hang in there and get the book if you haven't already purchased it.

You guys (and girls) with the "sickness" (a highly unusual affinity to possess, play, and display guitars) we'll die when you hear this. My last class before lunch just left. I thought playing the theme (Danger Zone) from the movie "Top Gun" would be appropriate. You know this to be true if you've ever had to move from point A to point B in a Middle School during class change, much less the change before lunch.

As the song was blasting out of my room, a kid walked by my room and said, "Mr. Walker, great music. I can play that on my guitar." I asked him what kind of guitar he had and (okay Greg, Randy, son - get the hankies ready) he said, "Oh, I have a Les Paul!"

Any one want to be adopted by this kid's parents? :)
Have a blessed weekend.

I shared this incident on Facebook but I'll share it in a blog. This past Monday I did a 5 mile run from our building, down the River Road which runs along the Indian River Lagoon to Hwy 520 in downtown Cocoa, and then back for the return 2.5 mile trip. I wish I could take some video of my runs for it is not unusual for me to see dolphins chasing schools of mullet in towards the shore as well as Manatees feeding on sea grass.

There is usually a nice breeze along the River Road which helps with the massive amount of humidity, some. Monday had a bit of the edge off the humidity but it was high (warning - reason for an excuse coming) nevertheless. When I returned to the building I took off my shirt, head band, and wrist band that I wear over the area that had some skin cancer. As you can imagine (or maybe you don't) these items, shall we say, were "glistening." I used my church key to go inside and get a drink of water for the trip home.

On the way home I decided that I deserved a bit of Mickey D's unsweet tea so I pulled into the drive-thru lane of our local McDonald's. My rout to McDonald's took me up U.S.1 with a speed limit of 45 and over the "Bee-line" (Hwy 528) which we're now being told to call the "Beachline." The speed limit on the Bee / Beach-line is 70 and at one point I do believe I was sucked into a "lead car draft" that propelled me just a bit faster than the advertised speed limit of 70. I surmised that one shouldn't mess with the aerodynamics of multiple vehicles travelling at high rates of speeds but then I digress.

So, I'm sitting in the line at McDonald's when a nice lady bangs on my window. Now, this is not an everyday occurrence with me so I felt compelled to roll down my window and listen to her inquiry. She must have gotten a sniff of the contraband that was attached to my rear bumper because she said, "Sir, there is something on your back bumper." For a moment I wanted to answer, "Yes, that would be the finest plastic Ford can obtain," but I refrained and thanked her.

I got out of my (using my best imitation of Rizzo on the T.V. show, "M.A.S.H.") "motor vehicle" and what did I find on my back bumper? Yep, the sweaty shirt, headband, and wristband that had been part of my person a few minutes earlier. They had survived speeds of up to 70 (cough, cough, something) mph for about 3 miles.

Do the math on that problem! I wonder what people thought as they passed me? What would have come to your mind?

Oh, my excuse - an overheated 51 year old!

Diversity.
We were swimming in it at our church yesterday and I love it! Our "blended" service of instrumental and acapella just keeps getting better and better. We had a visitor from Greg's old church (Long Beach) who told me, "You guys have the right combination." I couldn't agree more.

Our day of diversity included a former professional wrestler, covered in tattoos, and working on an addiction problem being baptized into Christ! His coming to Christ is a direct result of a phenomenal men's program that allows men to share their struggles, hold each other accountable, and be blessed by the fellowship of a diverse group of men, all on a journey.

His baptism was made all the more sweeter by the attendance of his mother, family members, and guys that he works with. I could not help but think these would be the guys that Jesus would hang out with.

Then to top off our day of diversity, we went bluegrass. We sang an old Church of Christ favorite, "To Canaan's Land," but as our Worship Minister said, "We say we're about diversity around here. Well, you're getting ready to get some diversity, bluegrass style." The church belted out that song, then watched the birth of a new brother in Christ, and finished off the day with a energetic singing of "I Belong to Jesus."

It's good to belong to Jesus.

Make sure you check out Greg's (http://gregengland.theobloggers.com/) blog for some thoughts and a stirring picture with respect to the observance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I have to tell you that I felt like "Cousin Eddy" last night from one of my favorite movies, "Christmas Vacation." No, I wasn't wearing a bathrobe, a "Russian type winter hat," and drinking a Meister Brau beer. No, if you had been spying on me last night you would have seen an almost 51 year old man on his back patio around 10pm, in shorts, a t-shirt, and crocks, sweating profusely in the Central Florida humidity, vacuuming his pool. Oh, I forgot the other part of my attire. I was wearing a head lamp as our pool light is out.

I get tickled just thinking how I must have looked. Oh well, let that image sail you into the weekend.

I'm not a Yankee's Fan and this isn't a blog about baseball but a moment in baseball (http://www.newsday.com/sports/derek-jeter-ties-lou-gehrig-in-career-hits-1.1434725?localLinksEnabled=false) history I think helped me to crystallize some thoughts that have been rolling around in my soon to be 51 year old head.

Derek Jeter, famed Yankee's short-stop tied the most career hits record for any Yankee player, tying the great Lou Gehrig. Jeter is famous for his disdain of individual records over team accomplishments. When he hit his record tying single in the 7th inning of the Yankee's game with the Tampa Bay Rays, Yankee Stadium broke out into a standing ovation that lasted for one and half minutes. Jeter was noticeably embarrassed by the attention but acknowledge the crowd with a tip of his hat. Even the Ray's players were applauding him for his efforts. In a time of in your face / win at all costs sports, it was refreshing to me, to see an opponent acknowledge someone on the opposing team accomplishment out of respect.

I did not vote for President Obama and I do not support many of his policies. Nevertheless he is the President of our Nation and that alone should call for times of respect. I was taken aback at the firestorm that preceded the President's address to school children. This is the same President who could send my son off to war to defend our country and yet, some did not want their children to hear this country's President talk about doing well in school and setting goals.

Then there was the outburst from Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina in the middle of the President's speech to a nation-wide audience in which he called the President a liar. My friends, I do not advocate rolling over and playing dead in opposition to some (if not all) of the President's policies. But I believe and let it start with me, we must find our way back to some level of collegiality when it comes to those we oppose.

There are many things that I'm proud of when it comes to my heritage in the Churches of Christ. One thing that I'm not proud of is our reputation among many outside our fellowship for the same kind of in your face / lack of respect / (or as Trey http://www.treymorgan.net/) Morgan in a recent post) being a jerk attitude to people that we oppose. Many of you have felt the sting of what I just described.

Respect does not necessarily signal agreement or weakness but lack of it will lead in my opinion, to anarchy.

My son told me about a book, "Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God" by Francis Chan. He said one of his suite mates bought extra copies of the book to share with friends in response to how the book had impacted his life. I've never heard of the book or the author but I ordered it so I can read it with Steven.

I also ordered the book Mike (http://preachermike.com/) Cope promoted on his blog, "The Unlikely Disciple" by Kevin Roose. You can read Cope's summary of the book on his blog.

So here's to reading, getting one's monthly B-12 shot, and going for a 5K after school. Cheers.

Here's a question - Can or does God work in the life of a shredded serpentine belt on a bus? I think He did for us. First - in the timing. As we rolled into a gas station after being fed by the good folks at Crossroads Baptist, Chad who was driving the bus noticed a sudden loss of power steering and power brakes. When we popped the hood it was evident that the 151 (this number would come back to haunt us again and again) inch long serpentine belt had shredded. God was truly with us in many ways.

First, we (that would be me) had just come from driving on I-40 (or as you SoCal folks say, "The 40") in the mountain passes, tunnels, and 45mph curves of North Carolina. If we had lost power steering and brakes on our 35 passenger bus, in many places along parts of I-40, the results could have been disastrous.

Second, the belt went just as we pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store to get diesel for the next day's return trip home. Being just a few miles from Bob's church, we were able to park the bus (this would have been Sunday night around 8) and shuttle the kids to the church building. Bob was sure that we could find a belt in the morning, put it on ourselves, and be on our way to Central Florida.

Now, remember this phrase, "I have it in my hand." This phrase would become almost as infamous as Britain's Neville Chamberlain's, "Peace in our time."

Columbia, South Carolina is the state capitol, home of the S.C. Gamecocks, and numerous G.M. Dealerships. We figured between this fact and a number of Recreational Vehicles outlets, surely (and don't call me "surely") someone would have the belt we needed.

I could walk you through each step of our belt quest but I won't. Suffice it to say that as we journeyed for 4 hours all over Columbia, S.C., the scenarios were the same. Someone in Parts would say, "We have the belt," only to discover that our belt was made in Canada and therefore was 151 inches long, not the 149 inches that the belt would have been if it were a die hard American made belt.

The other scenario that played out in our 6 or 7 stops was someone in Parts would say, "No, we don't have that belt but let me look it up on our computer." This PP (that "Part Person") would then give us a false sense of hope by saying, "Here it is, it's at Store blah-blah." To further rub salt in our "belts" they would then call "Store blah-blah," ask them to check for the belt, and then tell us that the PP on the other end of the line was saying those immortal words, "I have it in my hand."

We went to what ended up being our next to the last stop having been told by a female PP those immortal words. We thought for sure God was going to come through before lunch time. As we walked into this dealership's Parts Department we could immediately tell, the belt "in hand" wasn't the belt. We said, "Madam PP, that isn't the belt and the guy told you it had to be 151 inches!"

Madam PP was at a loss for words but to explain to us that she was right she took the belt, put it under her foot, and stretched it until it was even with her head. She then said, "Look, I'm 5ft, 6in," as she was stretching the belt. I wanted to slap her in Jesus as I said, "Madam PP, 5 times 12 plus 6, doubled, does not come out to be 151 inches."

We had several adults and kids that had to be home that night. One was flying to Turkey the next morning. So as we drove off I took out my cell phone in the quest to find a rental van. My friend Bob who had graciously shuttled us all over Columbia told me to put my phone up. I explained to Bob that we were out of time but he insisted that I put my phone up and that we try one more place.

By chance we pulled into an Auto Parts Store. We had passed this store several times in our 151 inch quest. We told the PP what we needed and his first answer was, "We don't' usually carry something like that but let me check." He did, he smiled, and then he said, "Somebody is looking after you today." He walked back among the parts and returned with a 151 inch long belt. He told us that someone had ordered that belt 2 weeks earlier but had failed to pick it up!

Do you think God sometimes gets a good laugh out of our efforts, our plans, when He knows how He is going to work it out? Either way, it was a God thing.

Most of you know of our church's journey towards being truly non-denominational. This journey was played out in our trip up and back from Cincinnati.

We stopped on the way at a former member's home just outside Atlanta. Shane and Teresa not only shared their home with us they also shared their church. We met a group of their members along with one of their ministers at a community pool in one of the member's subdivision. They provided drinks, food, and their minister led the kids (their youth group and ours) in some games and a devotional. These folks belonged to a local Community Church.

On the way back we were taken care of by my good friend's, Bob and Shelby's church, Crossroads Baptist. These folk unexpectedly bought all of our meals at a local Fuddruckers Restaurant. When we tried to talk Bob and his church out of doing such a deed, he insisted that they wanted to be part of our mission work in Cincinnati.

I had approached Bob a couple of months earlier about staying in their church building on the return trip to Cocoa. Bob said when he approached his fellow deacons about our request and told them of the mission work we were doing, he said to a man they all insisted that they would buy our dinner as the least they could do in coming along side a fellow church doing mission work in the name of the Lord.

How about that - a Community Church and a Baptist Church helping out a bunch of folks from a Church of Christ. In some ways its a shame that I would write that previous sentence as if such a practice is an exception rather than the norm. 3 different group of folks who love the Lord - helping each other - now that should be a common practice and perhaps one day it will.

I will get to the "Beltless" part of this post in my next posting. Its a story that demands its own space.