I always eat lunch during basketball camp in my classroom, bringing it in an Igloo Cooler. Yesterday, there was a knock on my door as I was finishing up and preparing to go down to the gym for our last session of the summer. It was Shelby, one of the players on my WCS middle school team. (She's a neat kid; I wrote a blog about her two months ago based on the song, She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain.) Shelby had been to the first week and a half of our three weeks of camp but left to go on a vacation to California with her folks. They returned Thursday night and she wanted one more day of camp so she was back! Shelby had several gifts for me. The first was a California postcard with a very sweet note. The second was a trophy proclaiming me the Hollywood COACH OF THE YEAR, kind of like an Oscar statuette! I liked it so much I posted it on Facebook this morning. That's the top picture. Others liked it, too- over one hundred hearts and thumbs up. About an hour or so ago, I saw Number 106 like was from Amy Pickler Fowler, one of my very favorite former students/players/people in the world. I reposted the picture on her timeline with this message:
Hey, did you see your picture in my picture you just liked??????????? Is that why you liked it? Love and miss you, Amy!
Amy's response:
Ha!!! No I did NOT see that at all! I don't know if I have ever seen that picture! Honduras, '99?
You see, in the upper right corner of that picture is a photo of two beautiful young ladies. One is Amy and the other is Kathryn Thomas Phillips, another one of my very favorite former students/players/people in the world. Amy was right; it was in Honduras in 1999. The time stamp on the picture says it was July 11 and the handwriting on the back is Kathryn's. My guess is Tricia, Kathryn's mom and a fellow missionary on that TORCH trip, was the photographer. The scene was a terrific restaurant high above Tegucigalpa where we were blessed to dine once each year. Amy and Kathryn had grown up as best friends as their parents were. Only six weeks before the two had graduated from high school and were about to enter college. Hard to believe for me that it was almost half their lives ago. Now they are grown ups with grown up lives.
You know, Amy didn't like that picture because she was in it. In fact, she isn't even sure she'd ever seen it before. I have that frame with Amy and Kathryn where I can see it daily, not so much because I love the shot itself but because I love Amy and Kathryn. Do you know what Amy and her husband Nick have been up to the past six years? They live in Brazil as missionaries where they are raising their family and making an impact. Kathryn is married to Andrew, a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they are changing lives in their native land. Do you know why Amy never saw herself? That wasn't her focus. It never occurred to her to look for her likeness. No, she liked that picture on Facebook, and I am no photographer, because she loves me. Great workers in the Kingdom, I am convinced, don't always see themselves in the struggle because their eyes are fixed on Jesus, where they should be. Amy and Kathryn, without a doubt, are imprinted into the fabric of so many stories around the world where the love of God is shone into the darkness everyday. But some things are just too powerful to be captured on film. I see you, Amy.
Applicable quote of the day:
A true photograph need not be explained, nor can it be contained in words.
Ansel Adams
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at shawley@westburychristian.org
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