Day #5 brought the first day of baseball sessions for me to coach. I think my favorite sight in all of sports is kids complaining that their hands hurt form blisters. It just tells me that they are swinging their bats and playing some ball!!!
I would not necessarily say that I rushed to call my MLB scouting friends to have them come to Taiwan to see any prospects I've stumbled upon, but the 20 kids I worked with had a blast today! Even in 98 degree temperature with air sucking humidity they threw, ran, and hit for 2 hours together. We even had all of them need to shower because of all the sweat which is huge for Jr and Sr High boys to do anyway!
For me, it was a great test to coach with a translator, but it is so cool to see the universalism of sports. You don't need a translator to understand "home run", "bat", "ball", and "run"!!!! Tomorrow there will be a few cuts, some sore muscles, and a few aches, but I think my assistant coaches will be ok after they stretch :). The kids on the other hand will be totally fine!
In the evening, I will preach on Joshua 1:1-9. Honestly, it isn't the most exciting section of scripture, but I'm hoping the kids will hang on to a phrase that is echoed over and over in the Old Testament by God to his people.
"Be strong and courageous."
For some of these kids those are words that have only applied to them in school or when going to college. The pressure that they feel to excel is palpable at times. However, my hope is that through this brief look into Moses and Joseph's life they can see that the reason they can be strong and courageous in their own life is because God is with them at all times. That He loves them regardless of their High School entrance exam scores. That He is way more concerned about knowing them than what type of job they get out of College. That is my prayer and that is what I'd hope you'd pray too for me when you read this tonight.
I have to say I was blown away yesterday by our family group called the Green Team (side note: we won the coveted Amazing Race contest last night in sheer domination..yes!). In these groups we talk about how the week is going, if they have any questions, and give them time to memorize scriptures for the day. Our group was amazing. None of them knew each other before this week, but they had bonded in less than 24 hours ON THEIR OWN! So much so that when we got to the group time they had studied together all of the scriptures and were helping each other memorize them. They had already memorized 4 different sections of Scripture in both English and Chinese.
It was one of the most amazing things I've seen and I was stunned! As Americans we forget our password to the ATM and telephone numbers on a daily basis, but these kids are able to memorize large chunks of Scripture in two languages. I know it made me want to pick up my game as Christian more than ever.
Of course, the key is that they start to understand and absorb the meaning of the words they are reading, but just to hear the Word spoken out loud by such amazing kids gives me great hope that they will connect the dots. What a great group!
Well, it is time to prep my sermon and then grab some lunch. I hope that you had a great Sunday over there and I missed you all like crazy.
Pray for us over your warm, awesome, good tasting, American meal and I will pray for you over whatever thing I eat that I can't pronounce today! :)
Tag You Are It!!!
Keep up the great work you and the team are doing. We are all praying for you.
Posted by: Matt | July 12, 2010 at 03:45 PM
I think we all need to read over Joshua 1:9,
"Be strong and courageous,..... for the Lord
your God will be with you wherever you go".
Sounds like you are having quite the adventure!
Keeping you close in our prayers!
Posted by: Linda | July 12, 2010 at 04:15 PM
Sounds like you're doing awesome things over there! The kids and i have been praying for you every night.. Melissa was really upset that she couldn't say bye to you on Sunday.. She didn't believe me that you weren't there.. I had to show her and Eddie on our globe at home where you were.. :)
Posted by: Sandi | July 12, 2010 at 07:48 PM
YOU'RE it Brian! Rock on. You are leaving a ripple in the pond that they won't soon forget.
Posted by: Jim | July 13, 2010 at 03:45 PM