January 11 – “Ministry ... and baseball”

Yesterday was a busy one ministry-wise.  Started out the day getting in an hour or two of sermon work before hitting the road.  My first stop was fire station five.  I wanted to touch base with the crew there that had a really tough call in the wee hours of Monday morning.  And of course the truck was not in the bay.  Since they were out on a call somewhere, I decided to head on to stop number two.

That meant a trip into Texas.  One of our Seasiders had a stroke just after Christmas, and he is now in a rehab hospital in Clear Lake.  I’ve been staying away while I was recovering from the respiratory crud.  No way he needed that on top of his other issues.  Dave seemed to be doing really well, though.  He looked better than he has in a long time, and he seemed much calmer.  No doubt an effect of getting blood pressure under control.  I got to meet one of his daughters before she left to return home to San Diego.  A second daughter will be in town next week to spend time with him, so it sounds like he is well on his way to recovery.

On my way back to Galveston I got a phone call from Dave’s daughter.  I forgot my daytimer book there in the hospital room.  Yikes.  I’m pretty old school when it comes to making lists on paper and checking my calendar in that little book.  How would I know what day it was?  How could I make any plans for the future?  I would be paralyzed.  I started to take the Dickinson exit and turn around right then when she made a suggestion.  One of our Seasiders had already notified them that she was coming up and bringing Dave’s dog for a visit.  Would I like for her to pick up the book and bring it to me?  Great idea.  I assured them I would make the request and thanked them for keeping up with the book in the meantime.  My life could continue without added chaos after all.  Hey, my life has enough chaos on its own.

Continuing on into Galveston I headed back to the station.  The guys were there this time, and two of the four on shift for the bad call were assigned to the station again.  I got to talk briefly to them to see how they were doing.  The other two guys were coming later that afternoon for the debriefing session with police and EMS crews who were also involved, so I decided to touch base with them just before the meeting.  As usual, I was really proud of the way they were all handling a difficult situation.  Things like they had to go through are hard to forget, and maybe shouldn’t be forgotten.  But they have to be accepted and processed honestly.  Bottled up emotions can turn into serious issues even much later down the road.

After the meeting I hung out with the crew for a while.  Couldn’t help myself.  Baseball.  They were pitching to each other with one of the new versions of wiffle ball – the kind with all the dimples that makes the ball do all sorts of crazy things.  It was a lot of fun watching them do their best to at least hit a foul ball.  And finally it was time for the old man to teach the youngsters a thing or two.  Now understand, it has been literally years since I have swung a bat, and then it was to hit a slow pitch softball.  The pitcher did say at the outset that he didn’t care of he hit one of his co-workers with a pitch, but he was afraid to hit me.  Advantages of being the feared and respected hitter, I guess.  To everyone’s surprise, including myself more than anyone, I actually managed to get the bat on the ball pretty consistently.  Even managed to hit a few left handed.  Oh, I didn’t crush it like some of the youngsters did, but I was never a long ball hitter anyway.  They finally headed out to get something to eat, so I headed home for the day.  Ministry and baseball.  Great day.

Psalms 23:4 says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Father, continue to be with all the players in that tough call situation.  Give each one someone to talk to.  Amen.