Baseball, Worship and Conversations

Today was one incredible day. After three years of Good Seed's baseball team trying to find a field to call their own, the boys played their first home game EVER! It was an incredible thing to witness and the boys were so excited. It was another hot day in the sun as my very red skin proves but our team cheered on those boys like they were in a championship game.
All of the boys were so excited when the found out there were signs with their names on them. Almost all of them asked me if there was really one that had their name on it. I always answered, "Not just your name but your number too." They would get really excited and run to find their sign. One boy named Terrell read his sign over and over again. After several times of reading it he realized exactly what it said yelled thank you and ran to the field. It was such a blessing to watch them be encouraged and feel like they were the most important baseball team ever. They are!
This is Pastor Bone sitting with Joshua or Little J or Flamming Hot, which comes from his love of Flamming Hot Cheetos. Josh is the youngest boy on the team and very much the little brother. The other boys get frustrated with the fact that he is still learning the game and hasn't developed some skills as much as they have. BUT today Little J walked and then stole second base. As soon as they called him safe his eyes lit up and his smile was was big as his face. He quickly looked over to the bench and fans and saw everyone cheering for him. Once he scored a run he ran to our group who was holding his sign and gave everyone about 20 high fives. He was on cloud nine.
Nathan and Trent were recruited to play for the team. Nathan hit a home run and Trent made some amazing defensive plays. They were encouraging the boys from the field and the boys were encouraging them. Pastor Bone is trying to get them to join the team again in the tournament they are playing in South Bend next weekend!

John and I were asked to throw out the first pitches on the new field. That was a very humbling experiences. As you can tell from the picture. I clearly have no clue how to pitch! I made the boys promise not to laugh again but I think I laughed the hardest when I threw the worst pitch in baseball history.

We spent the evening worshiping at Willow Creek Church. It was interesting to hear our students reaction to a church that is much bigger than GCC. We ended up sticking around for quite some times just eating in their food court and enjoying each others company.

I absolutely love this team. We have had so many great conversations about what God is teaching us and where we are in our journey. Our students are asking great questions and our leaders are giving some very wise advise from their own personal experiences. I'm so proud of everyone for staying focused and diving deep this week.

I would post more pictures but it took forever for these to upload. Continue to pray for the team to stay focused and push hard the last few days we have here. We don't want to miss any opportunities!