March 14 – “The cousins’ day”

Yesterday was a real Galveston tourist kind of day.  We actually went to the world-famous Strand.  And why in the world would we want to do that?  Oh, come on.  Have you never witnessed the wonder of watching the candy-maker at work at LaKing’s?  Or seen some teenagers working on their city-scape jumping skills?  Or perhaps do like Kel did … glamorize a tourist’s picture-taking by doing a photo bomb in a SpiderMan hoodie.  They even asked him to come back and pose. 

After a Papa John’s pizza lunch (gotta have pizza at some point on a cousin sleepover day), we headed on out to the Strand.  The hoped-for ride on the ferry was nixed when we woke up to another foggy, dreary day on the coast.  It wasn’t all that cold, at least, but it would have been miserable on the ferry, that’s for sure.  Besides, all these cousins have never seen the candy maker at work.  And who can turn down a whole store full of candy to choose from? 

When we arrived, however, we discovered that the next show was not for another hour.  So consolation candy bags in hand, we made our way over to the gigantic chess board.  Jachin and Zakary intended to play an actual game, but they soon discovered that they had way too much help.  All eight cousins decided that the big guys needed their help in setting up the board.  Whenever Noa or Luke moved a piece, the older guys (or maybe a Daddy here and there) would very patiently move it back to where it belonged.  It looked like so much fun that I decided to join in.  When Jachin wasn’t looking, I started moving pieces as well.  I don’t think he caught on to my antics right away, but it didn’t take him long.  The whole thing was quite entertaining for a young couple who thought they were just there to relax for a few minutes.  The floor show was a bonus.

Back to the candy store and the demonstration of making taffy.  Our guys pushed their way to the front and had a ring side seat.  Cailyn and Noa even staked a spot on the horse ride right by the rail.  The whole thing didn’t become real, though, until the candy maker started tossing samples to the crowd.  Free chocolate-flavored taffy and all you had to do was catch it.  Well, or pick it up after it bounced off some unsuspecting tourist’s head (and that happened more often that you would expect).  Then we went on back to the house, stepping in every puddle we could find along the way.  Oh wait.  I guess that was just me.  Guess I was jealous of the fun they all had the day before.

And waiting for us back at the house was none other than … a speckled trout fish fry.  Uncle Nathan and Aunt April threw in a few pounds of shrimp as well, so it was quite the feed.  Mix that with Nani’s cheesy potatoes and corn and green beans and Aunt Christina’s salad, and you have a full-blown feast.  Good stuff.  Almost depleted our store of fish, though.  Old DadDad is gonna have get to work on replenishing it real soon.

We finished off the evening with the cousins’ sleepover.  Sleeping bags on the floor, a movie on the TV (Indian in the Cupboard), and a few adults carefully hovering in the background.  The number of adults gradually diminished until only Nani was left waiting for the final holdout to give in and fall asleep.  I think that was Josiah, believe it or not.  The cousins’ sleepover finally officially ended this morning when the early risers, Micah and Zak joined me for a trip to the donut shop to pick up breakfast.  I couldn’t go without them after they left me a sticky-note command on the front door.  It read, “Do not go to get donuts without us.”  And so, a dozen plain glazed, three chocolate iced, three strawberry sprinkles, and three dozen donut holes later, they were ready to start the day.  How about you?

1 Chronicles 16:31 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

Father, please keep these youngsters close as they grow up.  Help them learn the value of family.  Amen.

March 13 – “Vollllllllll-cay-nooooooooo”

Our Spring Break hosting of family has begun in earnest. Josh and his crew arrived late Wednesday evening, and it has been non-stop activity ever since.  Christina and all her kids were over most of the day, so the cousins’ play time kicked in.  It was like they had just seen each other yesterday and were picking up where they left off.  Cailyn even managed a brief appearance after she got out of school.

Checking out our placemats at lunch proved an interesting and educational task.  One on particular has pictures of each U.S. president.  They were choosing which president was their favorite.  I heard Caleb select George Washington, and somebody was rooting for Abraham Lincoln.   I think it was Josiah who couldn’t decide, so he was assigned James A. Garfield.  At one point Micah turned to his cousin cohort in age Zak and asked, “Are there any girl presidents?”  Zak didn’t miss a beat with his answer.  “It’s not allowed.”  Now there’s a “Girls not allowed” twist I haven’t heard in a while.  Good thing Cailyn wasn’t here at the time.

In spite of the rain we did manage one outing.  Josh and I took the older guys over to the airport to play some baseball.  Every field was standing in water, though, so we ended up wading through some puddles onto the tennis courts.  Everyone managed to have a turn at bat before the Galveston College baseball team had the same idea we did.  They set up on one side of the court for infield drills.  Finally we decided to give up on baseball and plodded our way over to the skate park.  Not that we had skates.  The boys just wanted to see what mischief might present itself.  They ran up and slid down the ramps until the massive puddle at one end proved too much to ignore.  Micah and Josiah and Zak and Caleb were drawn like a magnet into the abyss, and before long they were slipping and sliding and landing on their backs and even face first.  At one point Jachin, who refused to lower himself to such childish pursuits, even joined the fun by calling out some words of encouragement to his brother, “Micah, run like school is chasing you … and Barbie dolls.”

Last night Chris and I were treated to a special night out at the Rainforest Café.  We have been there once before that I remember.  I don’t know the occasion, but Christina was there.  She had been working as a waitress at a steakhouse in Houston, and she insisted I send my steak back twice when it was obviously not cooked properly.  Weird what one remembers.  This time we joined the Josh Crew for the ride while waiting for our table.  Definitely the first time I had done that.  And it was worth it to watch the boys respond to all the critters on display, even if they were made out of plastic and plaster (the critters, not the boys).  After the ride Caleb had but one pronouncement to make as we made our way through the winding tunnels back to the restaurant: “I can smell the terror.”  So beware if you take the dare.  The food was pretty good, and Josh sprang for one of those Vollllllllll-cay-nooooooooo desserts.  Very rich.  Very tasty.  The boys even talked him into a souvenir.  I started to get one of my own as well.  They sell a whole line of caps and t-shirts with the logo, “One Old Guy.”  But I forgot.  Appropriate, right?  Ah, well, on to our next adventure …

1 Chronicles 16:31 says, “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns!’”

Father, thank you for placemat presidents and water puddle racing and adventures through tropical rainforests.  Oh, and surprise chocolatey, caramel ice cream brownie desserts.  Amen.

March 12 – “men in blue … and darker blue”

I made a trip out West the other day.  I did have to go by Seaside to check on some supplies, but my main purpose was to locate the last of the fire department Daddy’s that we had a baby Bible for.  Well, not for the Daddy exactly.  It was for his baby.  I’ve been trying to connect with Steve for more than a month now.  He works out of station eight, so that meant a trip to Sea Isle.  It was good to finally catch him on duty on a day when I could make the trip.  Oh, and I found out that we have another pregnancy happening.  Congrats to the Beall’s who just found out they are expecting. 

I also stopped by station seven on my way back to town.  They were having a big unofficial conclave with a police officer who stopped by.  It was a guy I met at one of the fires a while back.  Always good to see the men in blue and the men in - hmm, I can’t say men in red, can I? – so the men in darker blue developing positive relationships.  I even got to talk about some future marriage meetings with one of the guys whose wedding I’ll be performing in November.

Yesterday I went to the Galveston Ministerial Alliance meeting.  Incredibly diverse group.  They met at the synagogue and representatives from the Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Baptists were all there as well.  The main topic of discussion was a Juneteeth parade being organized.  I was quite impressed with the lady doing the presenting.  She said she wanted the day to be “about honoring the past, sure, but also about casting a vision for the future of Galveston.”  Her goal is “moving forward together in one accord.”  I’m pretty sure God will honor that woman’s heart.  I know he really loves unity within his Body (aka the Church).  The close of the meeting was rather unexpected.  We all stood around the table and held hands – not the unusual part, by the way.  But then we were led in a song.  Also not so unusual in concept, but the song was “We shall overcome.”  Brought back all kinds of memories from my almost-hippie days.  Of course I was too young to be considered an actual hippie, but I did manage to catch the Jesus Freak movement as a senior in high school.  The toughest part to handle about that whole experience, though, came when I told Josh about it last night.  He had never heard the song.  What a … child.

Jeremiah 17:14 says, “Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.”

Father, keep on inspiring unity among your body.  Amen.

March 11 – “The discovery”

Christina and her kids came over for a few hours yesterday.  They had to be out of their house for a while because it was being shown by real estate agents.  Once that property is finally sold, they will actually have to find a house of their own, so they have been looking in the League City and Dickinson area up near their church.

While they were here Noa made a discovery.  She and Josiah were playing with Nathan’s old stash of G.I. Joes and all the paraphernalia that goes along with it.  Nathan was always – how shall I say this? – “creative” in his play with those particular action figures.  They often had run-ins with Barbie dolls (belonging to our niece, Sarah), for example, that never ended well for the Barbie dolls.  Those crises usually happened in the hot tub.  It was when they battled each other, though, that things really got gruesome.  Those poor figures underwent all manner of torture, from hanging by the neck (a favorite when we were in the car on long road trips.  On one trip into Canada we forgot to bring a birth certificate for Nathan to prove he was really our child.  When the border looked into the back of the car and saw Nathan’s elaborate system of string laced across the seat with G.I. Joe figures hanging from numerous appendages, she waved us right on through.  It was as if they wanted no part of him in their child welfare system) to having limbs ripped from their bodies.  I’m fairly certain, though, that none of them ever gave up any information to the enemy. 

Well, as it happened, Noa found one of the survivors of that period of Nathan history, a figure with no legs, and it greatly disturbed her.  She examined the little fellow carefully, and then embarked on a crusade to make known to the world this horrible atrocity of war.  She carried the figure up to each of us in turn, held it up to our faces, and declared, “Man have owie.”  Reminded me of the Christmas when her Daddy got one of those Stretch Armstrong dolls.  He wasn’t really sure what to do with it, so me and his uncles decided to show him.  We each grabbed an arm or leg and stretched him to the limits of his stretchableness.  Kel was horrified at the sight.  He screamed and ran and refused to even touch the doll for weeks after that.  He finally got up the courage to take it in hand once again, though.  Only to try an experiment some weeks later.  He stabbed it with a ball point pen.  As the shiv exited the body, with it came an oozing of some kind of fluid.  Once again, he was horrified.  This time he was able to put into words his deepest fears of the moment, “I killed him.  I killed him,” came the cry.  We put a band aid over the spot to “stop the bleeding,” but to no avail.  He once again refused to touch this unearthly creature, this time insisting that he had killed it, so he didn’t want to touch the dead body.  We finally told him we would take the figure to the hospital (read here, top shelf of Mom and Dad’s private closet), and that calmed him down. 

So, back to Noa.  Though she didn’t get any response from her older brothers, I certainly respected her sense of compassion and subsequent commitment to a cause that repeatedly proved fruitless.  Keep it up, young Noa.  Someday your efforts are sure to be appreciated by the rest of the world, especially when your brothers realize just how much they could have made by selling that figure on ebay … if it had both legs intact. 

Colossians 3:12 says, “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

Father, thank you for the sense of compassion Noa showed at so young an age, even for an action figure.  May that mature within her as she grows into a young woman.  Amen.

March 10 – “I guess it’s time …”

Josh shared a Caleb story with us the other day.  In one of his last basketball games of the season, when most recently-turned-six-year-olds would have lost interest competely and been ready to move on to something different just because, well, because it was time to move on to  something different (That’s just what you do when you are six), Caleb and his team were bravely continuing on, trudging through the final weeks of practice and games, talking often about teeball or soccer or video games or the bug they saw on the way in or whose birthday was coming up or how many Star Wars tie fighters it would take to defeat an army or Pokemon characters or whether the new Baylor football stadium was secretly built out of Legos, or …  well, do you get the picture?  It’s just hard for a six-year-old to concentrate for so long on one thing when there are so many serious problems left to be solved in the world around him.

So Caleb was being less-than-conscientious in playing defense.  Now his Daddy was helping coach, so he of course wanted his son to excel in every way possible.   And since Caleb was at least six inches shorter than any other player on the court anyway, defense had always been his best weapon.  And that weapon had served him well throughout the season.  When Caleb was guarding a man, that guy simply could not get his hands on the ball.  Ever. 

That’s why it came as such a surprise to Josh to see his young charge lackadaisically strolling down court.  Desperate to get his attention, Daddy hollered out, “Caleb, do you see your man?”  Instantly, Caleb stopped in his tracks.  Slowly his hands came up to his face.  Slowly the fingers on each hand formed tiny little circles as fingertips touched thumbtips.  And the circles made their way to his eyes, forming, well, binoculars.  Once equipped with this vision-enhancer, Caleb scanned the court for the kid he had been assigned to guard.  Target acquired.  He raced over to him, still wearing his binoculars.  Now standing right next to his objective, circled eyewear still engaged, he slowly leaned those binoculared eyes down, down, down, until they rested on his opponent’s shoulder.  At that point he cried out confidently to his Dad, “I see him.”  And as his Dad’s head dropped into his hands, the thought crossed his mind, “I guess it’s time for teeball.”  But recovering quickly, as any good coach must, the words that actually came out were closer to, “Attaboy, Caleb.  Stay with him now.”

Psalms 16:7-8 says, “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.  I have set the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.”

Father, thank you for the active, never-stay-too-long-in-one-place mind of a child.  That’s a big world they have to discover, so they need to take advantage of every opportunity.  Amen.

March 9 – “A Giant Tinker Toy Connection”

The kiddos at church yesterday really got into the teaching intro.  I brought up our tub of gigantic tinker toys.  Now, I don’t know if you have ever seen such a thing as giant tinker toys.  Somewhere back in our history someone thought our boys would enjoy playing with them, so we have kept them around.  Being plastic, they even survived Hurricane Ike, so they have seen their share of excitement through the years.  (Not sure which was worse, the hurricane or a typical playing session with three boys). 

The next three teaching sessions at church will be about “Connecting” as it relates to the crucifixion (with the Event, with the Word, and with the People).  What better way to learn about connecting than playing with tinker toys, right?  There were only three or four kids who came over to the tub, so I gave them free reign with the tinker toys for the rest of the service.  I did get a message from Chris that it might not have been my wisest moment.  Those things make a lot of noise when dropped onto a tile floor.  All in all, though, I think the kids did a pretty good job staying relatively quiet. 

The first recognizable thing I saw put together was clearly a hockey stick.  And of course one of the smaller round toys made a perfect puck.  That kid was from Minnesota.  I have to say, he remained busy and quite creative the rest of the service.  In fact, later on I almost lost it right in the middle of the teaching.  That youngster had fashioned what looked like a pretty awesome sword to me, but then he kept adding extensions to it until he reached the ceiling.  Fortunately he stopped before breaking through.  When he began to break off all those extensions, I thought he would return to the simpler sword idea.  But no.  Instead he turned the sword upside down – point toward the floor – grabbed the hilt with both hands and began to act out … any guesses?  A jackhammer.  Now that was totally unexpected.  And inspired.  Not that I was distracted by any means …

Speaking of the teaching, it was comprised almost entirely of Scripture.  I compiled all of the accounts of the crucifixion in the four gospels into one story to give an overview of that entire day.  After that I read Psalm 22 to show how that specific prophecy, made around 1000 B.C., came true in such a graphic way at the crucifixion of Jesus.  Sounds pretty simple and straightforward, doesn’t it?

Well, among our visitors was a group of ladies.  There were four of them, but they were part of a group of nine women who have known each other since junior high school.  They were all celebrating turning 50 years old this year, and they were at a beach house for the weekend.  So, after the service one of these ladies, visiting from Rhode Island, asked to talk with me.  Seems that in her church background she had never heard the Jesus story in quite that way before, and it had pricked her interest.  She wanted to know more about the whole love relationship with God thing.  So we talked together for a few minutes, and before you know it, she was praying and asking Jesus to come into her life with that love relationship.  All because she listened to the Word of God rather than some speech I could have given.  I really love how God works that way.  Pray for her as she returns to Rhode Island.  I gave her a New Testament, but she needs a church up there.  Her friend promised to be there for her, and so should we … in our prayers.

Luke 15:10 says, “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Father, receive your new daughter into your kingdom.  She was pretty excited that the angels were having a party because of her.  May she quickly come to know the joys of being one of yours.  Amen.

March 8 – “Savin’ Some Daylight”

OK.  Daylight Savings Time today.  As far as I know I did everything right on my list of preparations.  Changed all the clocks.  Even got in a fun little jab at Chris when we went to bed.  She asked if I had set the alarm for this morning.  I assured her I had, but added, “I hope my phone changes over automatically.  Otherwise we’ll be waking up at 4:00 instead of 6:00.”  After about a four count, I heard, “What?”  I tried to keep a straight face, but bless her heart, she was so befuddled that I just laughed.  Early mornings are not Chris’ favorite time of year. 

I did try to help out those who have a hard time handling this early morning madness.  Here’s a copy of the e-mail I sent yesterday to the folks at Seaside.

Hey there, Seasiders!!!

Yep, it's that wonderful time of year once again when we get to invest an hour of sleep into a summer's worth of extra sunshine.  At least that's the party line as I understand it.  So ...

1.  Set your alarms for 2 A.M.

2.  When the alarm goes off, spend a moment or two asking forgiveness for those first thoughts that entered your head

3.  Get up and frolic about the house, stopping to move every clock you find ahead one hour (2 a.m. becomes 3 a.m.)

4.  Return to bed, give your wife or husband or dog or even your cat a joyous kiss (I dare you!)

5.  Fall right to sleep without a care in the world

6.  Wake up with an hour's less sleep, but the promise of an extra hour of sunshine at the end of the day.

7.  Option Two: Ignore number 1.  Move number 3 to number 2, adding this phrase at the beginning: "When it is time to go to bed."  Move number 4 to number 3.  Move number 5 to number 4.  Move number 2 to  number 5.  Continue to number 6.  Repeat number 4. 

Oh, and here's a number 8 for you: Come to church!  We'll all sleepily worship Jesus together!

Love you, Family!

Pastor Kelley

Ecclesiastes 3:11-12 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.”

Father, thank you for every second you give us here amidst this creation of yours.  Amen.