7 e's make for a long day.......

It's 10:40pm on July 28 as I type. We just finished up the day at the Duke's residence, host family coordinator for Fairbanks. They live in the North Pole, about 20 minutes from Fairbanks. The Beck's and our family, along with Todd Jeffress(Wayland Baptist), Nick Crawford(UAB) and Quinn Clair(Cuesta College) all had dinner at their house tonight. The meal was incredible and a first time, long time for a homecooked meal. The steak and halibut hit the spot and the keylime pie was just the right finish. I love seafood, but not a big fish guy. However, the halibut was extra tasty on this cold rainy night. Yes, I said rainy......AGAIN.

We played the first place Pilots this afternoon and trailed by only one run entering the 8th inning. It was a great game if you took away the fact we gave up two runs in the 8th, three runs in the 9th and committed seven errors in the game. Let's say we had a little talk after the game. It was the first time I saw the guys just go thru the motions. Hope we show up on Wednesday.

Tomorrow(Tuesday) we have our "debriefing" in discipleship. An opportunity for the guys to talk about what they have learned, how they have grown and how they can keep their walk strong as they head back to campus.

Chris shared an interesting note last week.....all though it is not factual, they(AIA) seem to think that close to 60% of the student-athletes that play/team up with AIA in the summer are not walking strong with Christ after five years. That is an astonishing number. I really hope our guys stay strong. I know it will be hard for them as they head back to the campus this fall. Let's face it, this generation lives by the "reset" button and does not always take consequences of their mistakes into account until it is too late. I guess we were all like that and perhaps still are at times. Campus life is tough and there are so many pitfalls out there for the college student.

Keep these guys in your prayers the rest of this week. It has been a long grind for them and they are tired, beat up and ready to get home for awhile. Many of them have not been home for any length at all since Christmas and before that it was last August(2007).