God is in this… 

Dallas. Wondering through the pit I get to talking with the daughter of a Pro Mod driver who is cutting some of her junior year college classes back in Ohio so she can be with her family and team at the track. I kid with her about my having cut entire weeks of a class when I was in college (I really disliked that Labor Relations course and the biased commie prof).  The crew includes her grandparents, her dad Scott who is the driver, and a couple of mechanics; really small compared to the other competitors in this class.  The others on the team are super busy, and she is there to help her team.  I really like Elizabeth, you can tell she is intelligent, and has the capacity to ‘see’ what is going on around her.  Sort of like Jesus in the midst of a crowd saying ‘who touched me?’ . . . sensing way more than meets the eye about the needs of others.

I see the team again in the staging lanes.  The crew is lounging on the golf cart tow vehicle waiting for their time to go to the starting line and run.  It is quite a bustling choreography of cars, teams, and tow vehicles in the staging lanes; imagine a 12 lane wide on-ramp to the freeway with a line of cars in all 12 lanes waiting to get on.  You have to be aware of the movement of each lane and when you can pray and not pray with a driver or crew.  Sometimes you get it right and sometimes not.  This time I get it right.  When I ask Dad (Scott) the driver, if he wants prayer, he says yes.  Since there is sort of a circle around him with the entire crew, they bow their heads and I pray for safety and a simple request for God to touch all the members of the team.  A few minutes later the car is on the way to the line for the run.  That prayer is the only one with them that day.

The next day I am again in the staging lanes and moving from lane to lane, trying as best I can to be ready for each driver and team.  As I am walking toward the front, Elizabeth comes from behind me to thank me for the prayer.  What I didn’t know was the day before, prior to the run when I was with them, there was tension in the team.  It’s that sensing Elizabeth knew.  Women are particularly good at this . . . reading emotions and caring about the people affected by them.  Here, the ‘family’ was out of tune and God came through with harmony.

Something really big happens in a prayer.  It gets us away from self and to God, and when that happens harmony occurs.  He touches each team member with is-ness.

God is in this…

Richmond. The NHRA assigns us our parking space when we arrive at the track.  You never know where you will be.  In Richmond they placed us 300 feet from the staging lanes and right across the way from the Pro-Mods.  My young friend, Elizabeth, is sitting on their team’s golf cart when we pull in to set up. Our windshield is aimed directly at their trailer and pit so we get a chance to see them in action the entire weekend.  Her dad, Scott, the driver and I talk about a variety of things that day and I mention how much I enjoyed meeting and talking with his daughter in Dallas.  I comment on Elizabeth’s keen sense of observation and he concurs that she is a very special young woman who excels in everything she undertakes.  This is my first time to get to know him and I really enjoy his sense of openness and humility about his family, life and racing.  You really want a person like him to succeed.

This weekend is a good one for the team.  Scott runs a personal best time ever, just a tick off the lowest qualifier and very close to the world record, and in eliminations he is winning every round.  What happens though is you must have a lot of hands on the car to keep up with the adjustments and fixes needed round to round.  Repacking the parachutes is a hugely important task, at 240 mph, chutes help straighten the car and bring it to a stop.  Because your life is on the line, you pay very close attention to this.  On Sunday after winning each round Scott is in the finals.  Not knowing when he will be called to run again . . . as soon as an hour maybe, lots needs to be done.  He and his mechanics look after the engine and drive train and Elizabeth and her Grandmother pitch in too.

Seeing and knowing their dilemma to get ready, two other teams who’ve lost earlier come over and offer to help.  Of all things, they are assigned the job of carefully repacking Scott’s parachutes.  These are competitors who have lost to you and you assign them the chutes, what’s the big deal you ask? . . . in the last few months two drivers have died when their chutes failed to deploy.  You see a humble driver and a spartan crew, a family in their teens to sixties, and competitors who know what it takes, all pitch in to help.  Here is Scott’s team, not whining, stepping out in faith believing they can win, knowing that the odds are not in their favor against the much larger and better funded teams.  In faith, even with such a small team somehow, they will figure out how to get it done.  And then, former competitors suddenly become team members and do of all things . . . pack the chutes.  I watch all of this unfold Sunday afternoon in amazement.  The harmony in Dallas inside the team, is now stretched to Richmond and others outside the team.  Is-ness.

God is in this…

Luke makes a keen observation in his gospel, “. . . the kingdom of God is in the midst of you,” 17:21.

God as a gentleman, waits for our invitation to Him to enter into our circumstances.  When we invite Him in, He orients everything in our circumstances to harmonize with His nature.  Our prayer is that invitation to God.  His answer is His perfect will, health, successful relationships, financial supply, and most importantly . . . peace in our hearts.  Lord God, we acknowledge you in our midst, please help us let go to discover and enjoy your is-ness.

God is in this…

Dave and Sandy 

So, just what is going on in a racers family anyway?

I may have mentioned this before that the racing world is out in the toolies. That is unless the city has moved out around it, which is rare.  Memphis is no different.  The track is quite a few miles north sandwiched between a regional airport and an industrial park.  You’ve probably noticed this, your typical community really doesn’t want a bunch of loud cars blasting down the street and spoiling the bliss of viewing a cool morning’s quiet heavy fog over the pond, or messing up the tranquility of the rabbits eating the garden.  So racers have to go ‘out there somewhere’ to get clear of the noise ordinances cities set up so its residents can live harmoniously together.  You just can’t hop on a bus or drive a few minutes to be at the race track like you can for a ball game or a swim at the Y.  You travel and take your family along when you go.

Racing is a sport but more than that, it is a family project everyone in the family contributes to (the typical team has 5 members, most of them family).  It requires your attention to the expectations of the ‘boss,’ sanctioning organizations like the NHRA, discipline to the car preparation at home before the race event, thought about what technologies are needed to make the car run faster within the rules, and most important, how your team will live and work together peacefully in limited spaces and tough conditions at the event.

Kids get to see all this, and a few other things too.  You as mom or dad, up to your elbows in an engine that broke, with only a few minutes to fix it before the run . . . pressure.  Long periods in the heat when you’ve pulled on your fire suit and helmet, strapped into the car, and then must wait as the track clears for your run . . . patience in adversity.  The unfair advantage of a surreptitious illegal part that will almost guarantee you winning, that you reject . . . honesty.  The down times when all is set to go and you have a few minutes to spare, when the kids hear your adult chatter with other racers about life and events . . . transparency and attitude.  Your assignment of tasks to each crew member (kids included) so you can get everything done on time . . . teamwork and responsibility. The racer in the next trailer who happens to be one of your toughest competitors who breaks his car, and you give him the part he needs knowing he will probably  beat you the next round . . . sacrifice and generosity.

Your kids take these lessons into their world, and you as a parent hope they’ve caught it . . . especially if you’ve done it right.  So you send them off to RFC Kids that afternoon to play, get a few snacks and prizes, and learn something about God.  You are not there and you wonder how they will do . . . maybe they will grow some, but just maybe they will have something to give too.  Stacy and William (RFC Kids leaders) with Sandy’s help, set up a contest with the boys against the girls.  The numbers don’t match so a little 4 year old free spirit boy is shifted over to the girl’s team.  The game is to kick a little softball sized soccer ball around pylons about 40’ away and return it back to the next teammate in line.  The boys and girls are pretty evenly matched and skilled at it but then it’s time for the last pair.  A 10 year old boy is up against our little free spirit 4 year old.  It is no contest really . . . not until the older boy looks over and sees how poorly the little boy is doing.  The girls could see that the 4 year old is going to lose them the game.  You could see their eyes roll as they watch him stumble and miss kicks, they want to run out to help him but can’t, it’s his turn. They look over at the boy’s team jealously, knowing they are going to win.  As the 10 year olds teammates yell at him to kick the ball home and WIN, he kicks it off course, fumbles with it to buy the little fellow time, and waits until the two are even at the finish before he kicks the ball across the line at exactly the same time as the little boy.  It is a tie . . . everyone wins!

I watch all this and have tears in my eyes.  That 10 year old has captured the Lords most important lesson and conformed his life to it.  No one told him what to do as those rapid moments in the game unfolded, he just sees the circumstances of a person less skilled than he, and rather than easily beating him, waits for him to catch on and up.  The little boy and his girl team, as well as the boy’s team, all become winners because of the sacrifice of someone way better at the game.

How can you not cry as an adult when you see something as beautiful as this? God had to be looking down from heaven with a big grin on His face, and his parents, did they get to know about it too?  Sandy made sure the 10 year olds did.  All those life lessons observing mom and dad at the race track found their way into the spontaneous behavior of that young boy.  He captured what God did for us at the cross in Jesus.

There’s a short series of scripture excerpts in Galatians 5, :13 …”by love serve one another”, :14… “all the law is fulfilled in one word…love your neighbor as yourself”, and :16…”walk in the Spirit”.  That 10 year old boy had it all; sensitivity, sacrifice, and love.  His heart was God’s heart.

“Lord thank you for the lesson taught us so clearly and naturally by a child. Help all of us open our eyes to the needs of the world and show us ‘in the moment’ how to help them become winners too.”

In doing so we never lose, just like our young friend proved by his love for a little kid.

You are Gods anointed Saints,    

Dave and Sandy

IN GOD WE TRUST

This is being written at the Tom Sawyer Campground on the banks of the Mississippi in West Memphis Arkansas… very cool!

… six seconds later his car is a ball of twisted metal.

The first day of each event, in this case Friday morning, we receive our assignments for ministry at the track.  It depends on the number of Chaplains for that day, those who will be coming later, those who have relationships with a particular group of racers, and what each person knows they are gifted to do in ministry.  It changes at every track and generally changes every day.  Then add in rookies like us, who are rotated to every different position to get the whole picture of RFC’s approach to  ministry, and that sort of sets the stage for the weekend…not counting emergencies. 

Relationships are key to ministry success, so RFC sets up ministry to achieve that success.  Friday morning I am assigned two classes of racers, Pro Mod and Competition Eliminator (looking at the registration boards there must be 10 zillion classes), and am told to be their ‘chaplain’ for the entire weekend…build relationships, Dave.  That meant I would be with them in the Staging lanes and wherever else needed.  Many of the Chaplains work the local and Divisional NHRA events and know the racers… I didn’t know a one.  Who I do know though is God, and that’s the real hope…to transfer a sense of the Lord and His presence to each person the Lord sets before me.  There are a couple of places to get some info about the cars in each class, so off I go to get it.  Pro Mod has around 20 registered to race and Comp has over 40.

Looking at the race schedule, I have some time to go to the pits and meet a few of the teams before they are called to the Staging lanes.  Each hauler/trailer generally has a canopy attached to the side of it and the teams work in the shade to get all the ‘tuning’ done on the car.  Clutches, blowers, electronic ignition settings, tire pressures, and a million other things are done to get the car ready.  Believe it or not, these dudes can tear down and rebuild the entire engine in just one hour.  When you jump into their ‘space’ to introduce yourself, you really don’t know if a major thrash is going on, so it takes a bit of sensitivity to their situation to get  started on the right foot.  I go to about 10 of the 60 teams before they are called up to race.  Some are up-tight and others are very relaxed.

The Pro Mod cars are really cool.  They have HUGE blown motors (that’s good, not bad), weird, skinny door stop shaped carbon fiber bodies that almost resemble the ’69 Camaro or ’40 Willys they were patterned after, or whatever the imagination of the owner wants it to look like.  The cockpit is a maze of steel tubing, and the seat is no more than 6” off the ground.  The rest of the NHRA racers think these guys are crazy even though other cars are faster.  These cars reach over 240 mph in less than 6 seconds and because of the suspension, the word for handling is squirrely.  When they go down the track they look like an arrow in flight without feathers.  As Elmer Fudd would say, “Vewey vewey scawey”.

In the Staging Lanes just before noon, I pray with many of the drivers and some of the crews.  There is a ‘look’ I’ve come to expect.  We’ve been outside the 4 walls of the church for 20 years now, and around all kinds of people who prefer God on a shelf, and some of the drag racers aren’t any different.  You get a sense from some of them of their lack of interest in God, and a few crew members’ sort of look at you as if you are a fool. They really don’t want to be bothered(just like us for more than 30 years of our lives).  We’ve come to know though, after years of experience… God has other plans.  When finished at the staging lanes our next assignment is to go to the finish line and be the top end team, just like we did at Seattle and Sonoma.

 The afternoon gets longer and longer…the dreaded ‘oil downs’ caused by engine breakage’s on track get worse and worse, so the scheduled runs for my two classes are delayed later and then much later. Finally, now well after dark it is time to head back to the Staging Lanes for the Comp and Pro Mod drivers next qualifying rounds.  The second round of qualifying is like the first except I am really struggling with who I talked too and prayed for the first round.  The drivers, cars, and teams all look different…no sun glasses, hats or no hats, driving suits on or off, in the car or out, the car in a different order or in a different lane, etc, etc, etc.  I am puzzled and embarrassed but God is not, so I approach each one again to offer a prayer before they run.

I ask Ray Vettel, a Pro Mod driver from Nebraska, if he wants prayer and he says yes.  So on my cheap $11 dollar black slacks, I get down on one knee in the rocks and asphalt beside the car and pray a little prayer for his safety and favor for his family and crew.  A few minutes later he is at the line, the tree flashes green and 6 seconds later his car is a twisted pile of metal with Ray trapped in the car. The car started to ‘hunt’ at 230 mph as he approached the finish line and Ray couldn’t save it.  The NHRA Safety Safari got to the scene immediately and started to get the Jaws of Life ready to cut the cage away from Ray.  Somehow Ray, in all his pain, figures out how to wiggle out of the wreckage through an opening, and as soon as he is out the medics say, “start the chopper, this driver needs a trauma center for care.” Just as they load Ray on the Air Evac he tells the RFC Chaplain who was at the accident scene and now at the chopper, “tell Dave, I really appreciate his prayer.”  The medics load Ray on the helicopter and fly him off to the Baylor Medical Center 13 minutes away.  I knew none of this at the time. I was back in the staging lanes praying with other drivers as they waited their turn to run.  I heard someone say that the accident was no big deal and the driver was out of the car and walked to the ambulance.  I didn’t even know who it was.

Back at the RFC compound an hour later around 10 p.m., to my surprise Larry assigns one of the Chaplains to head to Baylor to be with Ray, the driver who wrecked.  At that moment, I found out about the severity of the accident and who it was.  Baylor Medical Center allows the RFC Chaplain to accompany Ray to every medical test area and finally at 3 a.m. the doctors say Ray is cleared to return to the track.  He has three very sore ribs, a concussion, a dislocated hip (put back in its socket by the ER staff), and lots of bruises, but no life threatening medical concerns of any kind… a big big BIG answer to a little prayer.

Around noon (can you believe he would sleep in?) the next day I catch up with Ray at his hauler to find out how he is doing.  “Very sore but fine” he says.  Thinking he would be heading home to recover from his wounds, of all things he asks me when the RFC Memorial Service is for a fellow PRO MOD driver who crashed at the Indy race and died two weeks later.  It is a bitter sweet moment at the service.  Ray is alive and Steve his buddy is now in Heaven.  It is a time to mourn, celebrate, and reflect.  Life is so brief and those who God gives us to share our time with are incredibly important…they have been placed near us by the Lord to pass along His fragrance.  This past weekend, for me it was drivers like Ray.

For more than 20 years I have repeated a ‘watch’ scripture over our family and our situations, both  good and bad.  This weekend in Dallas was a clear demonstration of the power of the Lord in us. Here is the scripture, it is 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Now thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the fragrance of his knowledge by us in every place.”

That fragrance is the humility of a small prayer that God answered in a BIG way.

Lord let us remember to ask you for the answer…and let us be thankful right now for the triumph you already have for the need.

You are blessed saints,

Dave and Sandy

Tears of joy.

“They’re supposed to be here at 8:00, where are they, it’s 8:10 and they aren’t here yet?” Larry said.

Chapel service was scheduled for 9 a.m.  and the band setup and sound checks all needed to be done at the latest by 8:45.  Time was pressing in to get the wedding underway and completed ASAP before chapel started.

We had all heard rumors from Wednesday on that a ‘gal’ said to ‘somebody,’ “we are going to get married Sunday morning at the same place where they have the RFC Chapel service in the pro pits.”  No one really knew who ‘they’ were or who ‘they’ had spoken too, but that’s what all of us had heard.  The gal finally found Larry Smiley (Chaplain and RFC President) and discussed the wedding with him and said that all of the wedding party would be there by 8 a.m. Sunday.

As everyone went about their duties to get the Caterpillar/Matco hospitality center ready for Chapel, Shawn and Troy (bride and groom) and the rest of wedding party walked in at 8:15.  Licenses?  Check. Forms for recording?  Check. Rings?  Check.  Who’s doing the photos?  We got six cameras and two people for that.  Check.  Where can we have you stand?  The band is up front, how about the side facing the Top Fuel Caterpillar car, with the crew working on the dragster in the background.  Cool!  No flowers, Shawn in a ladies pink t-shirt, beige shorts and tennis shoes; Troy wearing blue jeans and a white drag racing t-shirt; the stand ups, a couple of guys in dark blue racer t-shirts and shorts, a lady friend of Shawn’s, taking pictures and Shawn’s 15 year old son also with a camera.

Larry begins officiating the ceremony almost at once for the forty-something couple.  Facing each other Troy reaches for Shawn’s hands and the vows commence.  It’s noisy.  The air compressors and generators are running, the band is hitting licks on the guitars and drums, and the vocals are being belted out for sound checks in preparation for service.  Just your typical run of the mill race track wedding.  What fun!

Darting between tables, photos are shot by the son and her friend as we all sort of stand-by.

As I watch from about 20 feet away, I sense something way bigger happening than just the wedding going on… the Spirit of the Lord was at work.  The Lord sort of nudges me to get engaged in the ceremony so I reach in my pocket, pull out my own camera and start shooting.  It was His way of getting me to connect with the wedding party.  As I move around, I get close to Shawn’s son and he says to me, “I have never seen my Mom cry in all my 15 ½ years.”  Tears were streaming down Shawn’s cheeks as the vows were being recited, and each time she looked into Troy’s eyes, her breath jumped visibly inside her.  The humility of that look and smile will forever be etched in my memory.  Larry closes the ceremony with a prayer and the formalities of signing the documents begin.

As he waits for his turn to sign, Troy tells me his story.  He’s a racer and has always been from a child up; a driver of his own car, a mechanic for a friend’s car, a crew member for someone if they were short on help; and a racing fan, always a racing fan.  But life at home wasn’t good.  Even as a good provider and conscientious husband, his former wife would not and did not share his love of racing.  One day she gave him the ultimatum, quit racing or we are finished.  So he quit.  But that was not enough for her so she left him…and left a broken man.  Racing was where he felt his soul was being healed, so back to racing he went.

As Troy signs, Shawn tells me her story; a marriage, babies, a divorce, work, and years of single parenting.  She also was a racer and fan, so to the races she went.  One day, Troy and she happened to meet at the track and a spark ignites in each of them.  Racing provides the longed for common bond and the sense of oneness that life could offer them together and did not offer them alone.  The seeds of love were planted and grew.  Finally the day came to marry, just before the Chapel service at the new track at Charlotte and beside the Caterpillar Top Fuel Dragster.  Just a bunch of circumstances the world would say.

The tears?  Shawn, couldn’t contain them anymore, they came tumbling down her cheeks.  Out came the years of loneliness and forced self control, and in came the joy of a dream come true in the form of a man who shared her love of racing and shared her values as a mom, wife, and friend.  God had picked   this time to form the bond of two separate lonely lives into a new and healthy union.  We got the chance to participate, pray, and speak God’s blessings over them.  There is something special about tears…especially tears of joy!

What did the newlyweds decide to do as they began their first moments together in marriage?  Sit down at 9 a.m. for Chapel service and worship the Lord with 400 other racers who love the Lord and also just so happen to love racing as well.

There is a wonderful promise in the Word…”He which began a good work in you will perform it unto completion in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 1:6).   Shawn and Troy had the Lord begin a good work in them and He will carry it through to completion.  Lot’s needs to be done in Shawn and Troy as they move along the path to completion, and we know that the ‘good work’ is underway…it is God’s promise to them.

In each of us there is much ‘good work’ going on.  Sometimes the Lord’s pruning shears hit one of our live branches and sometimes one of our branches produces a harvest crop…but in all events it is the ‘good work’ of the Lord.  

Lord let us all relax and let you do your good work in us…we too want those tears of joy born from the fulfillment of our marriage to you!

You are the best saints in the world!!!

From the road,

Dave and Sandy

This past week was a long planned 4 day vacation in the midst of the ministry schedule (we leave Wed for Indy). This is too good -- we had to share this with you.

“I am interested… your plan is audacious and bold…(first part of the quote)

OK, class, hands up, who is W.A.R. Godwin? Anyone know?  No?

Need hints?  OK.  He was poor, pastor at probably the first formal church in America, full professor at one of oldest colleges in the country, never drove a car preferring to walk or use trains to get around, created a nonprofit that now has over $1 billion in philanthropic investment, and effectively created the way for the whole world to experience America’s foundational history.

Yes, that’s right, Godwin was the pastor of Bruton Chapel and visionary behind Colonial Williamsburg. The college is William and Mary, Godwin’s wife had her driver’s license and drove him around, and John D. Rockefeller Jr. heard Godwin’s dream, kept alive for over 20 years (from the early 1900s), and invested somewhere near $28 million in the 10 years from the teens to the late twenties of last century that catapulted Godwin’s vision into reality.

The rest of the quote started above is “…if your vision had been just the restoration of a few buildings, I wouldn’t have been interested”, John D. Rockefeller Jr.  Over 400 hundred buildings needed to be restored, many others torn down, power lines buried, a tunnel for traffic put under the whole recreated 1775 town, a hospital and school moved, and finally a way set up for the re-creation of life as it was just before the Revolutionary War that all of us could see.  Audacious and bold indeed!  John D. Rockefeller Jr. was the match made in heaven for Godwin’s dream.

We took Jack, 13, and Julia, 11, our two youngest grand kids, to meet George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and W.A.R. Godwin.  It was a way to experience courage in action, not only the courage of the founding fathers but Godwin’s unflinching courage to see God’s plan revealed to him come to life 150 years later.  In both instances, everything was at stake; reputation, finances, their lives, and others futures besides their own.  These men and women dreamed of helping others live better lives and were willing to risk everything they had to help bring it to pass: courage.  How do you get courage and keep the fire burning?

In 1775, Loyalists accepted the status quo and subjection to a self absorbed foreign ruler. The Patriots… a bunch of pip squeak farmers and shop keeper freedom fighters went up against the most powerful nation and military in the world… ha.   In Godwin’s world, the town’s people, interested only in making money as a gas stop between Norfolk and Richmond, completely indifferent to America’s historic treasures being destroyed.  Godwin… the pastor of a dumpy ramshackle church, a man in his mid 50’s well past his prime with no money; a nut with a big crazy scheme…ha.

So courage, how do you get courage and turn vision into reality, even as a, “who me?”.  One word-prayer.

Thomas Jefferson proposed that the people of the Colony of Virginia gather at Bruton Chapel for a day of fasting, reflection and prayer.  Washington, Henry, Mason, Jefferson, and many others came to humble themselves before God to pray and ask for wisdom and courage to throw off oppression.  So too Godwin, for 20 years he asked God every morning to help him find the resources to restore Williamsburg.  God answered with courage and action; courage to step out in faith, and actions that demonstrated His support with miracles. It is so much fun being a Christian, the world cannot stop God!

Look at Proverb’s 18:16 “A man’s gift’s make room for him, and bring him before great men.”   Wow, does that ever define W.A.R. Godwin, and the Revolutionaries, and I might add…us.  We are gifted by the Lord to be unbelievable leaders in events that need courage and action.  What God inspired dreams do you have?

In the name of the Lord, we ALL pray together for His divine inspiration to encourage us and give us the action steps and favor to bring it to pass.  Amen.

Audacious and bold…why not, ha!

You are blessed Saints,

Dave and Sandy

A Cup of Cold Water

Indy is one hot place, I mean literally.  The big events have more cars, motor/toter homes, vendors, haulers, and more asphalt . . .  lots and lots more asphalt.  Everything seems to be paved and hot.  The song about ‘It don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summer time’ is true, at least these last 6 days here.  The Mac Tools US Nationals is the granddaddy of all drag races usually with the most cars, meaning very spread out and distant from the staging lanes and track.  Therefore you walk and walk and walk . . . you get the idea.  Just about all of the Chaplains at the races have golf carts or scooters to get around.

Sandy and I do not.  So we walk everywhere we need to go to meet people, put up chapel and RFC Kids event announcements, and just get to know the racers and their families.  Walking has advantages though, you have time for a quip or a comment about something with a fan or team.  Generally we are outside from 8:30 a.m. until we head back to the hotel in the evening, here at Indy it’s after 7 or 8 p.m. Talk about farmers’ tans, we’ve got ‘em!  There are precious few chairs around for the fans unless you are in the stands, therefore walking or standing is what you do as you go through the day.  Along the way, you stop and find a shady place to get out of the sun, or lean on a fence for a few minutes to rest your feet.

Sunday was especially hot and by 4 in the afternoon we were ready to sit down in the shade and rest for a few minutes.  We had one more place to go about a mile away to check on a race team from Louisiana to offer them our home and barn in TN as a safe haven for them and their big rig hauler if the hurricane wouldn’t let them go home.  But before we headed over there, we wanted to rest a minute.  We found just the spot.  Under the grand stands in the shade, there it was, a golf cart with a rear facing seat and nobody near it.  We ‘borrowed’ it . . . ahhhhh!

A few minutes later a fellow got on a cart near the one we were on, drove by us, stopped and said, “Here, take these,” handing us a couple of plastic wrist bracelets.  “I have Suite 9 upstairs, you look like you could use a cold drink and some air conditioning.”  We thanked him and said we would come up in a bit and did after seeing the racers from Louisiana.

Turns out the Fatheadz (huh?) suite didn’t have too many people in it when we got there and Rico, our new friend, had the time to tell us a wonderful story about his life.  He’s a very big guy, I mean really BIG guy.  We started asking him questions and soon found out he’d been successful in the car sales business and had an idea to make sun glasses for people like him who had larger than average size heads.  He said that he’d lost or broken over 50 pairs of sun glasses and told his wife that somebody needed to make them for people like him.  Nobody was doing it so he took the plunge.  He’d always worked for others and had to figure out all the parts of a business he’d never done before, and launch the start up while still working long hours selling cars.  When he could, he made sales calls on optical centers, retailers, and frame companies and started to get some business.  After work, he’d go home, process and bill orders, and pack product for shipment the next day.  The Indianapolis Business Journal caught wind of his new venture and wrote a story on his start up business.  That gave him more new clients . . . orders, late nights, and more work on top of his day job.

Up early, drop the kids off at school, long hours at work, and home to get the Fatheadz’s orders filled into the wee hours.  One late night as his head hit the pillow totally exhausted, he said, “Lord I don’t know how much longer I can keep this pace up.”  That morning, a friend e-mailed him to congratulate him on the newspaper story.  He said to himself, “Where’s this guy been, that story in the IBJ is a couple a months old?”  What he didn’t know was the Indianapolis Business Journal had submitted the story to the AP and USA Today picked it up and ran it.  A few days later Wal-Mart called to see about doing something in their Optical Centers for folks who have needs like Rico.  A year of successful tests and soon Wal-Mart will expand the Fatheadz line into 3,500 stores.  Guess what, that dream call and contract gave Rico the confirmation to quit his day job.  He hasn’t looked back.  It has not been easy though, lots of hard knocks and tough lessons.  Now he faces the challenges of getting the business to the next level, knowing it will take expertise and new talents to make it happen.

Did Rico expect anything in return for offering us the cup of cold water?  We don’t think so.  But God may have a reward for Rico through us.  We have a wonderful cousin who has all kinds of retailing and optical experience and might be able to point Rico toward ways to grow his business.  In the next week or so, Annette will be calling Rico to see what she can do to help him.  We just love being around God who answers prayers in fun and mysterious ways.

The Lord wants us to do great things and has it all set up for us to know how to succeed.  How you ask?

Just call God on His telephone number.  It’s Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”  Isn’t that a phenomenal promise?  The key here is not just the call but the listening.  The Lord is ready to speak to us, all we have to do is ask the questions and then listen.  It’s the small still voice full of peace, hope, love, encouragement, and direction.

It’s the voice Rico heard when he saw two hot and sunburned Racers for Christ Chaplains who needed a cup of cold water. 

The direction we get might seem totally unrelated to the ‘call to me,’ but the Lord knows what the answer will lead to, logical or not.  Lord we ask you to reveal the ‘unsearchable things,’ to ALL of us that you want us to do.  We will listen and do it.

You are blessed saints,

Dave and Sandy

P.S.        We want to thank everyone who has been so generous with funds for  our support.  You have no idea how much we appreciate your generosity.  It is confirming our decision to step our in faith and go.

P.S. 2     We are off to Charlotte, Dallas, and Memphis.  We will stay in touch on the road.