The Wide World of ...?

Many people would complete the title of this post with the word "Sports." Of course they would be referring to the ABC sports program that came on every Saturday afternoon for at least two decades. The show gave us the phrase "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat." as well as the infamous footage of the the skier losing it and painfully crashing to the ground.

But I'm was not thinking about sports when I decided on the title. When I looked back on the month of June I realized what I have done and where I have been over the last 30 days. That review made me realize that I have become fully involved in a " The wide world of ministry."

Here's a list of the ministries God allowed me to be a part of in June alone:

• Vacation Bible School as a teacher
• The church music ministry as a soloist and part of the Sunday Morning Praise Team
• Ventriloquism performances at the public library and in an evening service at church
• Leading a mid week Bible study & prayer service for the adults members at church
• Serving as a chaperon for teenagers over night at church before they left for youth camp
• Being a member the church nominating committee & selecting those who will help in planning our new building
• Teaching Children's Church on Sunday morning
• Creating the announcement slide show each week for the church Sunday morning worship service

I don't write those to pat myself on the back for being involved at church. Those works are worth nothing unless I do them out of obedience to and to the glory of God. I have to admit that list is a very wide variety of ministries for a 30 day period. I enjoy doing all of it. Children, teenagers, and adults; I seem to be able to teach and communicate with all age groups on one level or another.

I know that ventriloquism is the one thing that God wants me to focus on in regard to future ministry. I know he wants me to be a ventriloquist. I am excited about that because it is something I love doing. But after reviewing the month I realize that He also has a wide variety of other things for me to do as well.

Believe it or not this realization has a connection to my trying to decide whether or not to have surgery to lose weight. There's no worth to the realization of the fact that God wants me to participate in a "wide world of ministry" if my willful sinful behavior of overeating continues to keep me from being physically able to do those ministries. See the connection? I do.

Once again God has taught me a lesson that will help find the right path to serving him.

Teaching The Children Again

Today at church for the first time in 3 months I taught Children's Church. There were 16 children and I had 4 of my best workers helping me.

The Bible lesson came from the gospel of Luke. It was about the sick woman who gets healed when she touches Jesus' robe. The games and craft centered on tassels because in Jesus' days the people wore tassels at the bottom of their robes.

We played a "toss the tassel" game, sang songs about praising God all the time, and made a coloring craft with pictures of Jesus and the sick woman and a real tassel taped between them.

The session ended with visit from the children's favorite puppet, Cecil the Turtle. He helped me review the lesson with the kids.

To me it felt like the session went really quickly. The hour just flew by. I am going to teach again next week. After being a little burned out from teaching nearly every week I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the preparation and teaching. Its a real blessing to me.

A Serious Seminar

Today I did something I never thought I would do. I went to a seminar discussing Bariatric surgery; which is more commonly known as gastric by pass surgery. I'm not looking to undergo surgery any time soon but I am interested in a permanent resolution to being over weight. I've tried a lot of diets and had some success but none have helped me reach my goal weight, get me healthy, or keep the weight off.

Bariatric Surgery consists of 4 types of procedure but I was only interested in learning about 1 of them. I pretty much know about gastric by pass because my sister had it back in February. She seems to be doing well losing weight and is very happy that she did it. I know that's not the way for me to go.

The only procedure I would ever consider having is the lap band surgery. This operations consists of the insertion of a small plastic band around the top of your stomach which when tightened creates a small pouch at the top of your stomach. This drastically limits the amount of food it takes to feel full and quells your hunger. Other than creation of the pouch the digestion process remains normal. It can be done lapariscopicly through small incisions in the abdomen, the band can be adjusted without any further surgery, or can be removed if it needs to be.

The lap band is the way I would go. Right now it seems that this may be my only alternative for any improvement in my physical condition. Medically I am considered "Morbidly Obese" ( I hate those words). Bariatric Surgery is the only proven permanent solution to effective weight loss.

In Thursday's post (Back to the Land of The Living) I mentioned that I will have to make a decision on what kind of action to take to improve my limited and degrading ability to be physically active. This condition and pain in my back and knees are direct results of being overweight.

God has been telling me for a few months now that my current physical condition and eating habits are sinful behaviors. They keep me from getting closer to Him and limit my ability to do things in the way he wants to use me.

I am at a crossroads in my life. I need to improve my physical condition to be able to be happy in the years I've got left. Most importantly I need to be physically able to answer God when he calls me to do things for him.

I haven't made a decision but it looks like the options are limited. I have no faith in any other weight loss alternative. However the path of lap band surgery will be long, difficult, and require a definite commitment to drastic changes in my life. I need to be able to be sure that this is the path God wants me to take and that He will help me through it. The window of time to choose my path is closing rather quickly. Please pray for me as I make that decision.

The End of An Era

The title of this post refers to my decision to give up on something that has been part of my life for over 40 years. Think of some of the best Christmas presents you were ever given. One of the best things my parents ever gave me was a statistics based dice baseball game called Strat-o-matic baseball.

I got the game for Christmas when I was a sophomore in high school. The game used 3 dice, cards for each individual players, and the science of probability to allow you to play your own baseball games.

I completed my first 6 team league in 1977. The 1976 Cincinnati Reds were the champions of The Interleague Baseball Conference.

Over the next 40 years I continued to play Strat-o-matic (or "SOM" for short). I would create leagues and play a few games then get bored and start another one. A lot of time I would start a league and then I wouldn't have the time to play.

I kept statistics for each hitter, pitcher and team. I started out keeping them on index cards. Over the years I used Excel spreadsheets to calculate them. I learned most of what I know about Excel I learned while designing stat sheets for my SOM leagues.

When I moved to Bowling Green my SOM game came with me. During the first 3 years once again the game was my faithful companion. It helped me get through the time I had to wait until Paula and I could finally be together and get married. I can't even begin to express how much a part of my life Stratomatic baseball has been.

A couple of years ago when God really started working in my life I realized that the time it took to play was time better spent on other things not so self indulgent. The last time I played was in 2006.

Now here's the "end of an era" part of it. I have a friend named Joe who lives in New Jersey. He's one of my friends who has faithfully shared the love of Stratomatic baseball with me over the years. He still plays.

I still own over 100 individual teams (made up of 20 hitters and pitchers cards each) which until today were sitting in my closet. Today I got them out and put them in a box to mail to Joe. While I still have the passion for playing my life has grown to a point where it's just not a priority anymore.

God has put a higher calling on my time. I write that with much humility and awe. I am so honored and blessed to be called into his service that I can't ever express it. I am so glad that He has brought me to the point in my life where I am ready to answer His call and invest my life in things to glorify him.

Now I'm not completely removing Stratomatic from my life. I still have the basic game, minus the players cards, in my closet. However it's just for memory purposes only. I also have rectangular wooden box that was made especially to hold my game and all it's pieces. My sister-in-law gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago so I'll always make sure I keep it.

So to the Stratomatic baseball game I say "thank you." So today may be the end of an era; but I know that with that end comes some new and exciting things as I yield to God plans for my life. I can't wait to see what they will be.

Back To The Land of The Living

I woke up this morning with my back feeling better than it has in a couple of weeks. I decided that since I was off my medication for 24 hours and feeling a little more human than zombie I’d try to go to town and get some errands done. I had a list of things I wanted to and I got them all done.

First I mailed 4 boxes of stuff to James in Iraq. He wanted some things from GNC to help him with his weight training. He also has a new pair of sneakers sent here so we packed them and sent them too.

I also paid our house insurance, bought some tassels at a fabric store (I’m using them as part of a craft when I teach Children’s Church this Sunday), made a bank withdrawal and deposit, and went birthday shopping for my wife’s birthday.

Now that last one may not seem like a big deal but anyone who is married knows that it is. Of course my wife doesn’t seem to make a big deal out her birthday although she has a right to.

Now I have only been married 5 years but I really have difficulty thinking of gifts to get her. She really doesn’t ask for much. Last weekend I thought of a gift that she has never asked for but might like. I can’t tell you what it is now but I will come next week after I give it to her. I had to do a lot of walking around while I was shopping for her gift. It really wore me out. I am going to have to do something about my limited ability to be physically active. But that’s another post for another day.

Of course while I was in town, I had to go spend an hour or so talking with my friend Brent. We always talk about thing that have to do with being a Christian, the Bible, today’s culture, and politics. We really enjoy our conversations and the time usually gets away from us.

After I returned from town I went to church to practice with our musical praise team. We spend an hour each week singing together and getting ready for Sunday’s service. I was very tired and didn’t feel much like practicing. I like going though because my wife goes with me and she enjoys it.

Back at home I did some household chores like take out the trash, feed the dogs, clean up after the cat and that sort of thing. With my wife in bed trying to catch up on some sleep she lost last week I’m just sitting here writing this post. The kingdom is quiet.

I am thankful that my back is better. I can still feel the effects of the medication and probably will for the next few days. I don’t like having to take the pills that make me sleep most of the day and then make me feel like a zombie when I am awake. I’m going to have to start getting my back stronger. But like I said that’s another post for another day. For now it’s great to be back in the land of the living again.

I've Been On The "DL"

About 2 weeks ago I woke up from an mid afternoon nap with the left side of my back hurting. Somehow I had pulled a muscle. I tried to put heat on it overnight but it didn't seem to get better. After this past Sunday I realized my back wasn't getting any better.

Regrettably I decided that I had to do what I usually do when my back is hurting this long. I had to take myself out of "the game", go on the disabled list (or "DL" for short) and just rest for a couple of days. I have been taking muscle relaxers and a pain pills for the past 2 days. I am quite a bit better now but still in some pain.

Over the last 2 days because of the pills I must have slept most of the day. The medicines just knock me out. My wife says when it comes to medications that make you sleepy I'm a "lightweight".

I feel good enough to get back into doing things again. Tomorrow I'm going to try and get some errands run and work on some things here at the house. Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I was down and out for a couple of days which is why there hasn't been any posts since Sunday. I'll get back to writing on a regular basis when I feel better.

My First Duet

Okay blog readers I know it's been a few days since my last post. I've had a busy week but it didn't have much in it that I could blog about. However tonight was quite an evening for me at church.

Our evening service at church was "song night." This meant that anyone who wanted to could get up and sing a song. It could be any song: a hymn, a modern gospel song, a Sunday School song or Worship chorus.

My wife, Paula, sang a song that she's been wanting to sing for a while called "If You Want Me To." Although she has an accompaniment CD for it, she didn't have it with her so she sang without music. She did a wonderful job. Hearing her sing is always treat for me. I love her singing.

Next it was my turn to sing. I decided to sing with one of my puppets, Sherman. You see a year ago one of our church members challenged me try and have me and my puppet sing at the same time. He thought he was being a wise guy. I told him I considered it a challenge and would work on it. It took a year or so but I finally got up the courage to try it. So with the help of some prerecorded material and the help of the people in the sound booth tonight I sang a ventriloquist duet. The puppet I used was an old man golfer named "Sherman" (pictured at the right).

The jokes and the song were enjoyed by the congregation and the performance is another step in my development as a ventriloquist. I took a video of the performance but it the file was too big to be published on this blog.

I'm not anywhere as good as I want to be but I'm learning with every performance. God is really good to me. He gives me these wonderful opportunities to develope my talent. I'm very thankful for those chances.