Wow, seems like just yesterday we were boarding the plane in Atlanta leaving for sunny California. Now we will be boarding our Alaska Airlines flight early Saturday morning at 1:30am leaving for San Francisco.
Time sure does fly when you are having fun and this has been a great trip.
Our last game(s) was scheduled for today(Thursday) but the trip would not be complete without another rainout and that is what we got tonight. The game we were tied with the league leading Pilots could not be finished and our last regular season game was cancelled as well. The Chena River, the one that runs thru Fairbanks, is actually coming out of the banks in some areas. The whole state, yes the whole state, is actually under a flood warning. We are living history here during the summer of 2008 in Alaska.
The next few days will be a whirlwind and I will try and update photos and the blog as often as possible. For those following our travel here goes:
**All times are local**
Friday 11am: Depart for Anchorage from Fairbanks via bus/vans
Friday 6pm: Arrive in Anchorage
Saturday 1:30am: Fly(Alaska Airlines) out of Anchorage to San Fran(Yes, we will be in the airport for close to 7hrs)
Saturday 7:30am: Arrive in San Fran
Saturday 9:10am: Fly(Southwest) our of San Fran to Los Angeles(LAX)
Saturday 10:40am: Arrive in LA
Saturday spend the rest of day sightseeing in LA, Malibu, Santa Barbara, etc.
Sunday 1:10pm: First pitch in Dodger Stadium!!
Sunday evening spent in Woodland Hills, CA
Monday 1:30pm: Fly out of LAX(Delta) to Atlanta arriving local time in ATL around 9:50pm
Monday night spent in Atl then drive back to SC on Tuesday morning
Tuesday/Wednesday will spent adjusting to hot, humid weather and darkness for the first time in two months.
Things we are looking forward to back home:
Seeing family, friends and Dexter
Secona
Homecooked meals
A dollar menu that is actually a dollar and not $1.75
Cheaper gas prices, $4.49 last fill-up
Clean water
Birds(there are very few birds here in Alaska, unless you count the mosquitoes)
Sweet Tea
No Alaska Glaze looks on people's faces
Friendly people that actually respond when you nod your head or say "hello"
Seeing the stars at night
Drew(Kirkland)
Golf(Giddy up Cupsters!!) Yes, I am in next week!!
Things we are not looking forward to back home:
95 degrees and 100% humidity
Thunderstorms(Kaylee)
Darkness(I know it's listed above as well, it will still be weird)
Our time here has been great. Now, we must carry on what we have learned. We have lived in and around some great people for the last two months. We have experienced so many different lifestyles. It really is amazing how parts of this country are so different.
Our challenge will now be to take what we have learned and model our lifestyle in that direction. The challenges will be tough and the future is always unknown.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Rain, cold, flat tire....OIA
For those that have been keeping up with our trip this summer by reading this blog you have come to know two things:
OIA means "only in Alaska" AND it has rained almost every day this summer.
Well today was no exception. It rained, still is as a matter of fact, and it is cold AND we had a flat tire this evening. No worries......today was still a great day.
We had our final discipleship series today and it was a debriefing of sorts. The guys had an opportunity to share what they have learned and how they have grown this year in their walk with Christ. It was very refreshing to hear college student-athletes relay their thoughts about how their walk with Christ has been strengthened this summer.
We play a DH tomorrow at 5pm, provided the 100% chance of rain is inaccurate. It has become comical now, the rain that is. This has been a summer for the books.
Kirkland and I tried to fish this afternoon, however, the river has come to the banks and some flooding has even started in the interior. Very odd for this time of year. I do feel sorry for the locals. They thrive on their 2-3 months of summer. Construction is taking a beating as well due to the weather. They are talking about how this summer will be set them back for years.
Well, off to finish the The Shack. If anyone else has read it let me know, I would be anxious to hear your opinion of the book.
OIA means "only in Alaska" AND it has rained almost every day this summer.
Well today was no exception. It rained, still is as a matter of fact, and it is cold AND we had a flat tire this evening. No worries......today was still a great day.
We had our final discipleship series today and it was a debriefing of sorts. The guys had an opportunity to share what they have learned and how they have grown this year in their walk with Christ. It was very refreshing to hear college student-athletes relay their thoughts about how their walk with Christ has been strengthened this summer.
We play a DH tomorrow at 5pm, provided the 100% chance of rain is inaccurate. It has become comical now, the rain that is. This has been a summer for the books.
Kirkland and I tried to fish this afternoon, however, the river has come to the banks and some flooding has even started in the interior. Very odd for this time of year. I do feel sorry for the locals. They thrive on their 2-3 months of summer. Construction is taking a beating as well due to the weather. They are talking about how this summer will be set them back for years.
Well, off to finish the The Shack. If anyone else has read it let me know, I would be anxious to hear your opinion of the book.
Monday, July 28, 2008
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).
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).
Last week.......
Today begins our last week here in Alaska. It has been a great trip and one that we have really enjoyed. So many of you are responsible for helping us make this trip a reality. We thank each of you that may have provided financial donations and prayed daily.
I have uploaded some photos, click here to view.
Check back soon for more updates.
I have uploaded some photos, click here to view.
Check back soon for more updates.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Called due to darkness.........
What a comeback.......we were up in today's(Saturday) game 6-1 after scoring five runs in the bottom of the sixth. Then we were down
8-6 after giving up seven runs in the top of the seventh. Fortunately, we came back to win in the bottom of the ninth 10-9. It was a good comeback and a good game.
The second game today was suspended due to darkness. It seems that the "summer sun" is slowly coming to an end and our game was "called due to darkness" around 11pm. We will pick it up tomorrow(Sunday) at noon leading 6-4 in the top of the fifth. Hopefully, we can hold on for the win and move up in the standings. We are 6.5 games out of first place, but only 2.3 to 3 games out of second. Most teams just beat each other up in this league.
The title of this post is "called due to darkness", ever thought about that in terms of your life? It would be a bad day to have your life end due to darkness. I have been reading The Shack, an interesting book to say the least. The jury is still out on whether or not I would recommend it to others. It starts out really good then takes a huge spin midway through. It did bring me to look at God's creation as we traveled back from Palmer to Fairbanks. We passed through the Denali Park area around midnight as the sun was setting and we ran across some incredible views. It really is amazing as to the beauty of what God created. I will have some photos up soon of the drive.
For those of you that may have read The Shack you will know what I mean by stopping and taking note of creation by God's hand. The mountains were huge and the clouds rolled over them with streaks of orange and purple. It was one of the most incredible sights I have witnessed.
Some people live in darkness all the time. They will never see the "light" and will one day have their life "called due to darkness". One of the things I have learned this summer is the power of living your testimony. That is hard to do and we will all fail at times. It's tough to live each day motivated and striving to show other's your Christian walk. Let's face it, it becomes tough to do if we do it right. We may think we are living for God, but we have to ask our self daily how focused are we and what can we do each day to become a better Christian.
This summer has really opened my eyes to many things in my life. It has allowed our family to grow stronger. I never realized how much my job takes me away from my family. This summer has allowed them to come into my world so to speak and has allowed me the opportunity to see that while baseball is my passion, it is not my life. I am blessed to be able to use baseball as a platform for Christ and I hope I can carry home some of the things I have learned this summer.
Well, it's after midnight here and 4am back home in sunny SC. Off to bed for a quick nap and then to the field for a "show and go" day at the park.
By the way, it rained again today. It was just a few large spits of rain, but we are now on day 15 I think of consecutive rain. The locals were talking about reading where something about the jet stream had shifted and this could be their summer weather for a few years. Not sure if I heard that right or not but that could be bad for this area. Imagine your two months of good weather and sun being limited even more. Wow, that's "OIA", only in Alaska.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
On the road again.........
We are now back in Fairbanks for the last week of the trip here in Alaska. We got in
early this morning(Saturday) about 2am. Our schedule did have us arriving Thursday afternoon but the weather decided to play havoc with the schedule. We played a doubleheader on Friday and lost another close one run game. These one run losses are adding up and becoming frustrating.
Last week or rather the last 12 days in Anchorage will be our last there until we return on August 1 for our flight back to San Fran.
The guys showed signs of wearing down this last game. You can see the bounce in their step is not always there and the frustrations of poor at bats or hanging curve balls is growing daily. It has been a long grind for them. Remember, they all started back in August last year with fall season, weights and conditioning. It is a year round grind that you have to love to continue playing.
We play a DH today against the second place team in the league at 5pm. Tomorrow will bring on a Church visit, game and then host family meal later in the evening.
The host families have been great for the players. They take these guys in for the summer and feed and house them.
The family is doing good although Kaylee is ready to go home. Kirkland actually said he missed home yesterday, which is odd for him. He usually loves going to the games and hanging out with the guys. Keep Tammy in your prayers. With all the traveling I hope she is able to rest as needed. She is a trooper and getting some good rest.
We finish up our discipleship this week as well. A recap to help keep the guys focused when they return to campus is in the works for the remainder of the time.
I have a'lot of stories left to tell and photos to update, but just got a call and need to run for the day. Check back later if you have nothing to do.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Alaska Glaze.......
It's Wednesday, July 23 and we all have the "Alaska Glaze" going on right now. The"AG" is that stare you see in people's eyes and that blank look they give you. It comes from the sun being out all day, except for the 12 days in a row it rains.
It's raining again today......actually, the weather has it raining in some form or another for the next 6-8 days. I know, the south is experiencing record heat and drought conditions and I should be thankful for the rain. It's just a little hard to play baseball in the rain.
We were tied 2-2 in the 7th with the second place team last night and it started.............to rain of course. The game was suspended and it is raining today. It now looks like we might be rained out tomorrow which will force us to stay two extra days in Anchorage, play a DH on Friday, leave Anchorage around 3am and play another DH on Saturday at 5pm in Fairbanks. What a cruel joke!
It is cool and not 100 degrees so I need to be thankful I guess. Plus I am here with family, friends and a bunch of Alaskans.........
Corwin(discipler) left today for Florida, his hometown. He will get back with the Miami Dolphins soon and start the NFL season in another month I guess. He did a really good job as has all of the disciplers. His last session was on worship and how Christians should approach worship. It was really good and got good interaction with the guys.
He talked about how our view of God must expand if we are to worship Him faithfully. He also provided four "must haves" for good worship:
1-reverence
2-public expression
3-service
4-sacrifice
The challenge set forth from our disciplers this summer(Bruce, Mike & Corwin) have all been met head on by all of us on the team.
Well, it's off to the stadium for another rain out. I will try and post some photos tonight when I get back. I think our team is going bowling if we do get rained out tonight. That should be fun.
It's raining again today......actually, the weather has it raining in some form or another for the next 6-8 days. I know, the south is experiencing record heat and drought conditions and I should be thankful for the rain. It's just a little hard to play baseball in the rain.
We were tied 2-2 in the 7th with the second place team last night and it started.............to rain of course. The game was suspended and it is raining today. It now looks like we might be rained out tomorrow which will force us to stay two extra days in Anchorage, play a DH on Friday, leave Anchorage around 3am and play another DH on Saturday at 5pm in Fairbanks. What a cruel joke!
It is cool and not 100 degrees so I need to be thankful I guess. Plus I am here with family, friends and a bunch of Alaskans.........
Corwin(discipler) left today for Florida, his hometown. He will get back with the Miami Dolphins soon and start the NFL season in another month I guess. He did a really good job as has all of the disciplers. His last session was on worship and how Christians should approach worship. It was really good and got good interaction with the guys.
He talked about how our view of God must expand if we are to worship Him faithfully. He also provided four "must haves" for good worship:
1-reverence
2-public expression
3-service
4-sacrifice
The challenge set forth from our disciplers this summer(Bruce, Mike & Corwin) have all been met head on by all of us on the team.
Well, it's off to the stadium for another rain out. I will try and post some photos tonight when I get back. I think our team is going bowling if we do get rained out tonight. That should be fun.
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