In Praise Of Aides

 In Praise Of Aides

I'm always blessed by terrific teacher's aides. This is about Megan Hill, one of the very best!! This is from September 8, 2012.
My life got better yesterday. During fourth period on Friday, Megan became my teacher's aide. That might not seem like a big deal to you but let me assure you, it is. Megan is an absolutely awesome young lady. A junior at WCS, she is incredibly smart and incredibly kind. She is loved by both her peers and teachers with good reason; Megan is the definition of class. She jumped right in with the first project I needed completed, the arranging and stapling of all the kids' traced hands on the wall. It's time consuming and tedious but she got a good start on it. I have a class of eighth graders fourth period and it's not ideal but we'll work around them. I told another teacher yesterday that I hit a home run when Megan came on board. He corrected me: 'You mean a grand slam.' I gladly stand corrected.

Megan joins a long line of wonderful teacher's aides that have blessed my classroom over the years from Kaitlyn to Betsy to Chelsey to Hanna to Samaria to Gloria to Bouba to Beverly to Viri to Nancy to Karla to Kelly. I've also had basketball aides who for the most part helped me coach and they have tended to be an even boy/girl split and likewise invaluable. I really like the ten girls who make up my middle school squad for the 2012-2013 school year. We have a practice period so we are already working as a team. We are an international squad this year- we have two girls who grew up outside the US! But we suffered a huge loss from last year and it's just now sinking in. Last May, Avery graduated eighth grade and has moved up to high school status. She didn't play for us last year but she was the most valuable girl on the Lady Wildcats- Avery was our student manager. Ask any middle or high school coach and they will tell you; good managers are harder to find than good players. Few want that role any more. It was a big thing when I was a kid to be part of something but I think now some see it as a demeaning position. They shouldn't. Avery made sure my day got off to a good start. She'd run errands for me in practice, get the cones out for drills, and sometimes chase basketballs. She would put the equipment up when we were done and run upstairs to tell the office who, if anybody, was absent. On top of that, she would next go to Room 258 and straighten up my teaching arena, preparing it for the one hundred plus students who would soon invade. Even though Avery never stepped foot on the court during a game, I have not been able to replace her. Paul wrote this about Timothy in Philippians 2 and verse 20:
 I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare.
Well, I can only 'AMEN, Brother Paul' while substituting the name Avery for Timothy! When we are givers in this world, we make everything in the orbit of our existence a little brighter. When we are takers, we suck the air out of the room. The Megans and the Averys keep the rest of us on track and they do it with little fanfare. They serve and we are blessed. They don't get paid- they do get a Christmas present from a grateful instructor/coach- and sometimes, they get a shoutout in a devotional blog. It's a tiny way for me to begin to say thank you.

Applicable quote of the day:
“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

 Albert Schweitzer

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Hub Of The Town

 Hub Of The Town

There are people who leave a mark on your life without realizing it. This is about one of them. It's from March 10, 2013.
Hub Foster died Friday morning. It wasn't earth shattering news in Houston where the big story this time of year is always The Rodeo. It is a big story in York, Nebraska, the town of 6,000 citizens where I grew up. Hub was born in York and died in York and except for time he spent in college and serving in the military, Hub lived everyday of his life in York. Every small town that thrives and survives has its own version of Hub Foster. He did a little bit of everything in his ninety-five year life. Graduating from York High, as I did  just a few years later, Hub was an honor student at the University of Nebraska, married his lovely wife, Ruth, raised three children, and owned a number of businesses. He was a member of many service organizations and had a city park named in his honor. Hub was the face of the York News-Times, the daily newspaper that was the source of news in York County before the advent of the Internet, writing columns and editing the sports pages. He was inducted into both the York High School and York College Halls of Fame. Hub received the Hub Foster Lifetime Achievement Award from the York Area Chamber of Commerce which, of course, also bears his name. In later years, he organized a travel group for seniors called the Fun Club which has grown to a staggering 4,000 members! To many, Hub was the promoter and voice of all local athletics- high school, college, and summer baseball- acting as announcer for countless sporting events over the course of many decades. I just simply cannot overstate it by naming all the things he was involved in: to many, Hub Foster was York, Nebraska.

There is a personal side to why his death two days ago impacted me. Hub was a huge influence in my life. When we moved to York from Brooklyn, when I was four, Hub became our family insurance agent. I have absolutely no idea why but when I was about six, he began bringing by his  old issues of Sports Illustrated every month or so for Dave and me to read. I remember devouring them, almost memorizing them, and I became enamored with sports, as did Dave, even though our folks never played an organized game of anything. Coincidentally, Dave, Scott, and I all coach for a living and apparently it wasn't in our DNA. When I was fourteen and started playing in the American Legion baseball program for the York Midgets, I went six for six in my first at bats and Hub called me, and I quote, 'the hottest hitter in Nebraska' and that snippet was picked up and reprinted in the Omaha World Herald. Hub was also a proud member of the American Legion, Bolton Post 19 and would drive in our car pool to out of town games. I often rode in his car down Interstate 80 to bigger cities like North Platte and Kearney and Grand Island, listening with my teammates to his countless stories. One summer, I couldn't play baseball  because of my work conflicts at the Jack and Jill Supermarket. Hub tried to intervene with the manager but to no avail, a rare setback for him! The highlight of my life athletically was my career playing basketball for the York High Dukes. I recall like it was yesterday, discussing with the other guys how we would do hand slaps when Hub called our names, announcing the starters to the highly partisan crowd at the York City Auditorium. And when I was playing baseball at York College, I was chosen to be the recipient for two years of a scholarship Hub set up for a deserving young man, which apparently in his mind, I was. Suffice it to say, Hub was a recurring thread through the course of my life as a youngster and I doubt I'm the only one.

I saw him several years ago. After my folks moved away, I had no relatives to pull me back but nostalgia is a strong force and so I took some time off and drove back to my hometown. I dropped by the News-Times unannounced one June day and his recall of my family history/updates and that of my friends was amazing, even remembering that Dan Leininger and I were  high school teammates and classmates and that Dan worked the next block over. (As a coach, I can tell you that is no easy task!) He excitedly told me all about the Fun Club and I filled him in on the direction my life had taken. You know, I wish Hub had written a book about small town life and what makes someone stay where they were born until the day they die. He had a perspective few can ever match and a knowledge of local lore that is probably untouchable. Many of us have come and gone over the years but not A. Hubert Foster. The truth is, the story of York, Nebraska is the story of Hub Foster and I hope future generations aren't deprived of his memory. On the News-Times website, I saw that it's 21 degrees with snow in the forecast tonight, not that unusual even in March in the Midwest. But I can only imagine the street lights in York are just a little bit dimmer this evening in Hub's honor. That's the least they could do.

Applicable quote of the day: “A small town is a place where there's no place to go where you shouldn't.”

Burt Bacharach

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Monumental Decisions

 Monumental Decisions

Four  days ago, we passed the seventeenth anniversary of Dad's death. As usual,  I found myself nostalgic. This is from December 29, 2012.

Good morning again from the friendly McDonald’s in Nashville, Arkansas. (I read an article in the past week about the declining popularity of this fast food giant. Most comments accompanying the piece decried the lack of service but this one, like many in small towns, is the model of graciousness to its customers.) I’m enjoying my stay here as I always do. You can drive down the main avenue in town and except for the name changes of some of the stores, it looks exactly like it did when we came when I was a boy. I find comfort in continuity and familiarity.

Last night, Uncle Bill and Aunt Tommye came over for supper which was just the kind of meal I remember eating here when I was little. We sat down to talk afterwards and before I knew it, the clock indicated it was close to 9:30 PM. I didn't say much, just listened as Aunt Jerry and Uncle Bill, my mother’s surviving siblings, and their spouses, Uncle Jack and Aunt Tommye, waxed eloquently on our family history and life in this community which once thrived in the peach industry. I loved these discussions from my earliest memories since we had no relatives where we lived in Nebraska. And the land we sat on has been in our family since 1850- 1850!- or eleven years before Abraham Lincoln became the sixteenth president of the United States. The feeling of indebtedness I feel is overwhelming. Honestly, I would not recognize the portraits of those matriarchs and patriarchs who built lives, culminating in the birth of my mother, that made my existence possible. But I recognize the foundations they laid have given to me a chance to live a life profitable for myself and others.  I work with youngsters everyday who have not been similarly blessed and I know they are missing something that I have always taken for granted.

I really like the fact that both Matthew and Luke list the family trees of Jesus. It was obviously very important throughout the Scriptures that the Jewish people knew their ancestors and could recite them. Last month, Aunt Jerry and Uncle Jack placed a monument, the term is an obelisk, in the family cemetery at Corinth, several miles outside of Nashville. On the four sections at the top are listed information about my grandparents, Ruth McClure and Jord Chesshir. Engraved on the four sides are Ruth and Jord's children, including my mother, and the children of each of the siblings. This is an important piece of ground for us. Not only are there many of my kinfolk buried on this site- as I will be-, my parents were married at this location in the church building which once graced this plot. The granite statue my aunt and uncle erected is a reminder to the rest of us of those who went ahead of us. When the Israelites were entering the Promised Land after the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the Lord had them build a  twelve stone memorial on the banks of the Jordan River as a reminder of what the Lord had done for them. On a smaller scale, I see the one stone marker in the New Corinth Cemetery as a reminder of what the Lord has done for me through the example of relatives who died decades before my mother, Sarah Nelda Chesshir, was born. I am indebted and now, my name is also etched in stone. It's a big responsibility.

Applicable quote of the day:

Memory is the treasure house of the mind wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved.
Thomas Fuller

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Crock Pots And Kindness

 Crock Pots And Kindness

I got a new Crockpot for Christmas!! This is from April 12, 2017.
My student aide, Jean, left to run some errands Monday afternoon and came back with a present for me! It was a USPS package addressed to yours truly but I couldn't tell who it was from or place of origin. It felt like a plaque but I couldn't remember doing anything noteworthy. I think Jean was as excited as me to open it so I wasted no time. The contents are what you see posted above! You might recall that several weeks ago, I penned an entry about choosing a $15 per month rent increase to pay for all new carpet and floors in my apartment along with brand new major appliances. To cover that optional expense, I publicly pledged to not eat out for a year, along with foregoing the purchase of any new clothes. My blog traced my spring break cuisine marathon, in which four straight days of crock pot yielded a freezer full of meals, leaving me NO EXCUSE for buying any sort of fast food supper. That brings me full circle to the mail delivery. Natalie, one of my favorite former students, read my slow cooker treatise and decided to help. She sent me a slow cooker recipe book, two supplemental magazines, and three packets of gourmet soup mix to fortify my fledgling culinary skills! Natalie and I go way back. She sat in my  classes in Tennessee where I also taught her sister, Carol, and was blessed to have her cousin Nancy coach with me in basketball. Natalie and I reconnected on FACEBOOK and today, on that all-important nutritional level!

I've messaged back and forth several times with Natalie in the hours since the package arrived. We actually have not seen each other in many years but since she lives close to a number of my relatives in the Oklahoma City area, I am hoping we can visit during one of my holiday trips and I can meet her husband as well. I'm equally hoping my new reading material will make me a better chef- I'm using that word loosely- and dietitian. What an amazingly kind gesture! Jesus taught that even cups of water given in His name would be rewarded; my prayer is that Natalie gets abundantly blessed for thinking of her former instructor and trying to make his life better!

It's funny what stays in our mind and what passes through without taking up residence. I won't forget what Natalie did; it took time and thought and cash, three components of graciousness I often neglect to invest. Sometimes seemingly inconsequential actions, inconsequential enough that we quickly forget them, leave a mark on someone else. As I've cleaned my closet in anticipation of the upcoming renovations, I've come across bits of the past which had escaped my memory. On Sunday, I found a copy of an e-mail from a former student named Sara. The e-mail was dated 2004 and was attached to an essay written at a Midwestern university. In a college education course, a paper was assigned to discuss a school incident which made a difference in the life of the student. Sara wrote about my jotting a short recommendation for her in regards to cheerleader tryouts at the new school she was soon to be attending. In her note to me, Sara recounted several details about her transferring but those details were fuzzy to me and the recommendation drew a complete blank. Teachers do those kind of things on a daily basis and that particular one didn't stick. But you know, it mattered enough to Sara to turn it into an essay and track me down on the Internet ten years later so I could read it. (My belief is that her kind act far outweighed the one which I could barely recall.) Within twenty-four hours, two students from the same school blessed my life. My guess is their paths never crossed- Natalie came before Sara- but somehow their acts of kindness coincided in a confluence of thoughtfulness. When Paul listed the nine Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5, he placed kindness exactly in the center, right after patience and right before goodness. I like that; kindness should be right in the middle of every action we take, every thought we have, every word we speak, and maybe, in every meal we make. During His temptation, Jesus reminded Satan that man does not live on bread alone but on the word of God. There's more to life than crock pots, too, but at least I'll have some more options to chew on. I'll let you know!
PS: And while we're at it, congratulations to Natalie who passed her real estate exam yesterday!

Applicable quote of the day:
Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness.
Sophocles

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

AMEN!

 

 Amen!

Eight years ago, our WCS Fine Arts' Department staged  a production of Lilies Of The Field. It was tremendous! This entry, from August 20, 2012, references the movie based on the play.

 While in Vietnam, I work with an eighty-three year old American missionary named Tom Tune. Believe me when I tell you that there is no one quite like Tom! One afternoon a month ago, I heard Tom singing the chorus to the old gospel hymn:
"Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves,
We shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheaves."
I remarked that we don't sing that song much anymore. Without missing a beat, Tom replied, 
"We don't rejoice much anymore."
What an absolutely true statement! With all we have as Christians to be grateful for, we moan and groan. Tonight as I sat down to supper, I turned on the television and what was playing but my favorite scene in any movie ever! In this clip from Lilies Of The Field, Sidney Poitier is teaching a groups of German nuns who have relocated to the American southwest the old spiritual, AMEN. I know it's only a movie and an old one at that but the look of joy on those womens' faces as they sing about Jesus is priceless. That's what salvation is: priceless. If it's in our hearts, maybe it should be a little more on our faces so the world will see what we understand, that there is a peace that passes understanding. And the church said Amen ......... or at least it should.

To watch Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier) and the nuns sing Amen, click or copy and paste the link below!
  

Applicable quote of the day:

“I think we all sin by needlessly disobeying the apostolic injunction to "rejoice" as much as by anything else”

C.S. Lewis  God bless, Steve Luke 18:1

Left Behind

 Left Behind

In the past, my students  discussed a story about a guy in Georgia who spent the majority of $31,000 mistakenly deposited in his bank account. He is not the subject of this blog from February 23, 2013.
Sometimes, we hear people accusing others of making a big thing out of a small thing and we've probably all said it and probably all been guilty of it. But, I'm not always sure it's a bad thing. There are times we see little things that others overlook but which make an impression on us. After working out this afternoon, I ran by Wal-Mart, a trip I had not planned to make. But we are having a gift exchange in our Chinese church tomorrow in conjunction with the Lantern Festival and I could not come empty handed. (Don't ask me what I bought in case you are Chinese. If there's one thing I cannot stand, it's somebody who spoils the secret gift they bring for the Lantern Festival!) I went through the self service line and waited for the gentleman who was before me. As he walked away and I began my purchase, I found a penny left in the change return slot. I called out to him and he stopped and turned around. I told him he had left his penny. His reply?
"It wasn't mine so I left it there."
You know, I grew up investing in the finders/keepers mentality, at least as it applied to small, insignificant stuff. If it was me, I could justify pocketing the penny and putting it in our Honduras/Haiti fund. After all, nobody is going to come back looking for an abandoned one cent coin. And yet, the gentleman in front of me did not think it was his place to take it and so I couldn't either. I don't know the man's name but I got a glimpse of his character. 

I don't want to overuse a scripture but recently I quoted Jesus in his statement that if we are trustworthy in small things, we will also be trustworthy in important things. Maybe that's why folks still make a big deal of that guy who had his 214th birthday eleven days ago and whose image is stamped on the penny. Historically, Lincoln has always been portrayed as an honest politician, something our country believes is in short supply these days. And let's not con ourselves; many of us struggle with honesty in the matters which we think are too small to count. The man at Wal-Mart didn't look at that coin with the popular perspective. His thoughts were worth much more than that penny he refused to take this afternoon. So were his actions.

Applicable quote of the day:
"Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth."

Margaret Thatcher

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1

Andrew's Advocate

 Andrew's Advocate

This is one of my favorite basketball stories of all-time. It's from March 2, 2013. 

I don't follow the NBA to any  great extent until the playoffs but I try to see what the hometown Houston Rockets are up to as often as possible. Like most casual fans, I have a favorite player or two. I like Tim Duncan because all coaches like fundamentally sound players and Duncan is at the top of that list. I like Steve Nash because he sees everything and is the model of unselfishness. I like Jeremy Lin because his story of unpredictable success resonates within the Asian community. And I like James Harden because he has the best beard since that Lincoln guy in Washington. There's another player I never see play who I have a great deal of respect for but it's for something that happened off the court and it happened a long time ago.

In 2004, St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia was enjoying a magic run with their basketball team. Going 27-0 through the regular season, the Hawks were featured in a Sports Illustrated article featuring the young man who would be National Player of the Year, Jameer Nelson, on the cover. The piece, written by Michael Bamberger, chronicled the fairy tale year for St. Joe's, focusing on Nelson. Bamberger included a insight into both Coach Phil Martelli and Nelson when he divulged an incident that no one but the coach and player knew of. During preseason workouts. Martelli called a young man named Andrew Koefer into his office. Koefer, a freshman walk-on, was positive he was about to be cut after his third practice. With the door closed to make it less painful, the office phone rang, even though the coach had told his secretary no distractions. Thinking it was an emergency, Martelli answered. It was Jameer Nelson. Jameer asked about the red haired kid trying out for the team. Martelli told his star that Koefer was sitting in his office. Let me quote Michael Bamberger here:

"I think you should keep him," Nelson said. Nelson didn't know the kid's name.
"Why?"
"He's a hard worker, and he'll help us practice better."
"Is this important to you?"
"Yeah."
"All right, then."
Nelson had never requested anything like that of the coach. For that reason, and because of his abiding respect for Nelson, Martelli turned to Koefer and said, "I've decided to keep you." He never mentioned Nelson's plea on Koefer's behalf.
(taken from Sports Illustrated, February 16, 2004 issue; article entitled Full Nelson by Michael Bamberger)

You can guess the rest of the story. Andrew Koefer stays with the team that is ranked # 1 in the country and temporarily becomes the most famous college basketball walk-on in America. Interestingly, Koefer never knew of Nelson's intervention on his behalf until Martelli told him as the SI article was about to hit newsstands. Koefer went on to play one more year for the Hawks while Nelson, who just turned thirty-one, has had a solid career with the Orlando Magic of the NBA.

It's amazing how life can turn on a chance meeting or a conversation or a phone call. Christians believed these happenings are sometimes woven together by God in ways we cannot foresee or understand. Still, it remains up to us to do an act of kindness or speak up for those in no position to do so whenever we have the opportunity. As sinners, we stand accused by Satan but that's not the end of the story! John tells us in the second chapter of his first epistle that,
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
I like that term advocate; an attorney or champion, maybe even a hero! What Jameer Nelson did on a small scale in private, Jesus Christ does for us in the only arena that ultimately matters! Jameer Nelson kept Andrew Koefer from being discarded as a player while Jesus protects our souls from destruction due to our sinfulness. Being cut from a basketball team stings temporarily; being cast in outer darkness has no end. Someday, Jameer Nelson's basketball playing days will be over, long after Andrew Koefer, the young man he is linked with, hung up his sneakers. The best play Jameer Nelson ever made was off the court and on the phone. He sustained the basketball life of a young man whose name he didn't even know at the time. In John 10, where He refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd, Jesus teaches that if we are of His flock, He knows our name! In that case, I guess it's pretty important not to get cut from the Sheep team!

Applicable quote of the day:
"A lot of dreams don't come true in life. If you can make somebody's dream come true, you should."
Jameer Nelson

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1