James' First Clemson Game

My mother-in-law Angie (a Clemson fan I must add) gave me Carolina vs Clemson tickets for my birthday this year.  This was an awesome present, and I was more than happy to accept.  On Saturday morning Angie, Jaime (my sister-in-law), Joshua (my nephew), and my son James drove to Death Valley.  We spent a few minutes setting up our tailgating area, and soon after we started the low-country-boil for lunch.  I said to Angie, "Shrimp, sausage, a cigar, and a football game...this is gonna be a great day."

James.

A man came by with a small tube of orange paint.  He was offering to paint a Clemson paw on fans, and James watched the man paint on his aunt and grandmother.  He offered to paint a paw print on my son, a Gamecock fan.
"Could you paint a gamecock on me?" James requested.
"I only have orange pain," the man replied.
"You don't have red or black?"
"No, sorry."
"Could you paint a orange gamecock beating up a tiger?"
The man looked bewildered at James not knowing how to answer him.
"Maybe you could paint a orange gamecock on me?"
Man said to James, "I don't know how to paint a gamecock.  I'm sorry"
James look sadly at the man "I know, you could paint a spur."

Not a picture of a penis.

The man painted attempted to paint a spur on his hand, and James said thank you.  I thought it looked like a penis, and a few minutes later James told me that he didn't like it and asked me to clean it off.  A short while later, a young lady came by doing the same thing.  James again asked if she had any red or black paint.  When she said no he asked if she would paint an orange cross and a heart and she did.

Our tailgating area was next to the Clemson University indoor track facility.  James and I spent about an hour inside running around the track and playing with the pole vaulting stuff, though we spent most of our time bouncing on the high jump mat.  James created a game where he would try to run from one corner of the soft mat to the other while I tried to knock him down with a big rubber ball.  His game had rules and a point system, but I could never understand the complicated system. It felt as if he was making up the rules as he went, and I surprising lost the game having never made any points whether I knocked him down or not.  I felt vindicated when I started doing wrestling moves on him.  Goldberg's finishing move is fun to do on a 6 year old.

When we were not in the facility James was playing with a little 4 year old boy he had met.  James grabbed a football and ran, and the younger boy chased him.  I worried that James would be too rough with the younger boy until I saw the 4 year old wrap his arms around James' leg and text book tackle him.  For over an hour they played a game where James would run with the football and the younger boy would chase him.  James would stop and the little boy would knock James to the ground.

The game was slated to begin at 7pm.  James and I headed to our seats which were on the opposite side of the stadium from Angie, Jamie, and Joshua.  We were in the nose bleed section and I mean nose bleed.  If we had walked 4 steps higher we would have fallen of the back of the stadium.  The one thing I like about Clemson's stadium is that it is so steep that no one blocks your view, every seat is a good seat.  If I had not been surrounded by orange I might even say it was pleasant.  James and I sat next to a very nice Clemson man who we talked to during the game.   James said he was cold, and a Clemson fan behind him offered what he called "this nice orange blanket."  It was kinda funny, but James took it very serious.

Although I met a couple very nice Clemson folks, we were surrounded by a handful of jerks as well.  The college-aged kid sitting behind me taunted me and some of the other USC fans every time I clapped for my team or shouted out along with the band.  Another Clemson fan took the name gamecocks and twisted some of our cheers into something vulgar (you can imagine).  When I had the gall to look at him, he gave me an offer of leaving my 6-year-old son behind and joining him in fisticuffs.  I laughed at him and politely declined.  There was one be fair, there was one gamecock fan sitting near us who was as vulgar, rude, and idiotic as any Clemson fan I met that day.  What happened to sportsmanship?

It was fun to have James at the game with me. A couple of years ago Ty York gave me 2 tickets to watch the Gamecocks play The University of Florida, and James came with me then.  We that game lost 56-6.  During that game our band rarely played, and USC fans did not cheer much.  James did give hi-fives to all of the Florida fans every time Tim Tebow threw another touchdown, which happened quite a bit.  The Clemson game was different.  James was learning the cheers which were led by the band and cheerleaders, and we were playing well enough that there was a lot to cheer about.  It was fun to hear James scream "U-S-C-Goooooo Cocks" along with all of the fans.  The temperature was hovering around 30 degrees, so keeping him warm was an issue.  He was well layered, and had also brought along his red blanket.  Around 10pm he fell asleep wrapped up like a burrito in my sweatshirt and his blanket.  When I saw that he was still cold, I added two of my tee shirt layers plus my winter coat to my little mexican dish.  I shivered a bit while he slept soundly.  When the game ended I did what my Dad used to do at the Gamecock games and I look around for souvenir cups.  Of course all of the cups were orange, so I left them where they were.



I was a fun game, and I had really wonderful father-son time.  We won the game 29-7, bit I can honestly say the score was secondary to the time I had with my son.  I wonder if I would have thought the same thing if we had lost.

Thanks to Angie for the tickets.  You continue to be my favorite Mother-in-law.

Youth Ministry Stories #8 (and "The Bob" was born)

The mission team with some of the VBS children

Each summer we take a short-term mission trip.  I've have done this with every church I have been apart of.  My youth director even led these type of trips when I was a teen.  In 2006 we took a trip to Pass Christian, Mississippi. It was less than a year after Hurricane Katrina, and the town was devastated.  We took a group of 25 teens to spend a week running a Vacation Bible school, do some light construction, and serve food to the volunteers rebuilding the area.  We camped out 5 feet from a graveyard, encountered robot crickets, and even had a bit of drama (you know who you are).  It was an amazing trip, and the Lord impacted the teens and the adults present.  When I was planning the trip I asked a handful college friends to join us and to help lead.  All of these friends were former students from past youth programs.  Two of these friends were Steven Rinaldi and Josh Bell.  They had both been students in the young life program I helped to lead in the mid 90's.  

Steven and Josh during a VBS skit

Bob Hallock was one of the adult leaders who was on the trip with us.  Bob rented and drove up a mobile RV for he and his wife to sleep in at night.  The porch part of the RV became hangout-central, and each evening after our worship time we would all sit, talk about the days work, and tell stories.  One night Bob was telling a handful of stories about his life.  He told about his time in the Coast Guard, his stint as a game show host, and few other stories.  I have to admit Bob has some really great stories, and Josh and Steven were enamored with him.  Josh and Steven began to tell their own stories about Bob.  Since they had just met Bob they just made the stories up.  In these stories Bob was climbing Mount Everest shirtless with no climbing gear, killing Grizzlies with his bare hands, or scoring the winning touchdown in the superbowl with his helmet off.  During the story telling the boys decided that it was not good enough for Bob Hallock to be one of the people in the world named Bob.  He was not a Bob.  He was "The Bob", and he has been called "The Bob" for the past few years.  During the rest of the mission trip the stories about Bob stories morphed into Chuck Norris jokes with Bob's name inserted...

Josh trying, unsuccessfully, to be like "The Bob"

• "The Bob" doesn't read books, he just stares them down until he gets the information he wants out of them.

• Superman wears "The Bob" PJ's to bed.

• "The Bob's" tears can cure cancer; too bad he has never cried.

• "The Bob" doesn't sleep, he waits.

These days when I talk to Josh or Steven they always ask about "The Bob", and as usual "The Bob" is just fine.

Steven and Josh

"The Bob" 

Josh and Steven agree "The Bob" is awesome

"The Bob" being awesome without trying

Project Bells

Most everyone has seen how fabulous the Bell of Christ Church are.  Alexia Lemaigre, a youth at Christ Church, has begun to create a video emphasizing the offstage part of the Hand Bell Outreach tour.  This is just a taste of what is to come.  Great job Alexia.





Project Bells by Alexia Lemaigre

James learning to Skate

I am having a lot of fun teaching James to skateboard.

Trying to Ollie

Watching the Hamsterdam crew at a skate competition

The Power of a Simple Gift - Operational Christmas Child