Take me out to the ball game!

It just occurred to me that I never blogged about my last event with my kids. It happened 3 Saturdays ago and at the end of the day I texted Luke and said, "that might have been the most fun I have had with the RI kids in the past 6 years". I'll explain.

I don't know if I've ever blogged about my brother. He's 21 years old and just amazing. He and I are different in a lot of ways. He's a genius, presidential scholar and straight A student. He is super organized and really into numbers, the stock market and math. He is analytical, thinks through things before he acts and is just all around very disciplined and responsible. I'm scatter-brained at times. I can't do long division but in the past 24 hours I have read 374 pages. I'm emotional and impulsive. As different as we are, we have one thing in common... we love inner city ministry and the kids at Rock Island.

My brother is a busy guy and he doesn't have much time to get down to Cross & Crown. He plays college baseball at Northwood University in Dallas, so I called him a few months ago and asked if he might be interested in doing a one day baseball clinic for the Rock Island boys. From that moment on, he was hooked. He was so excited to use one of his gifts to spend time with the kids. Now when I say my brother is organized, it's an understatement. He rounded up donors and all kinds of things to make the day possible. He also recruited about 10 other college players that he knew to help coach at the clinic.

Every one of the 19 boys got a black baseball hat that said RI (for Rock Island), a water bottle and a used glove the second they entered the field. They were so excited (Even though it was around 105 degrees). In the morning they were split into stations and went through all the different stations to learn skills. Of the 19, only about 5 had ever thrown a baseball. At lunch time we cooked out hot dogs and the kids took turns taking batting practice and watching the coaches hit home runs. After lunch was the highlight of the day, the game. Every kid got a chance to hit and I was sooooooooo proud of them. After the game they practiced sliding on the slip-n-slide.

The thing that was the most amazing were the smiles of every single one of the boys. They were all grinning ear to ear all day. Not one single boy complained about the heat. They were just having fun, not thinking about life back home. At the end of the day they had an awards ceremony and handed out awards for sportsmanship, hustle, etc. BUT the highlight was the big surprise. The kids had been asking all day if they could keep the used gloves. When we told them that we had to save them for camp next year they were BUMMED. But, what they didn't know was that the bank my brother works at (Citizen's Bank of Edmond) had donated a brand new glove for every kid at camp to go home with. They each went home with a new glove and new baseball. They were so excited.. just jumping around and grinning. The most rewarding part was the drive home. I was exhausted and assumed the kids were too. They had been outside playing baseball in the heat for 8 hours. But as we pulled up to Rock Island one of them yelled, "lets go to park for a pickup game".. they all shouted and sprinted off. Many of the kids told me it was the best day they had ever had. I was blessed to get to witness it.

P.S. One mom even told me that her son has been sleeping with his glove and ball every night. :)

Here's a video from the exciting day.