I was fortunate to get free tickets from Ian Hanavan. He has been on an AIA basketball tour and I had met him Friday evening. I am hoping we can brainstorm some ideas and work together to spread Jesus throughout Leuven through sports! I also found out another player, Jamel McLean, went to Xavier and ALSO went on an AIA basketball tour! So fun!

They’re not the greatest photos, but Ian is on the left and Jamel is on the far left in the photo on the right.

It was a pretty intense game as both teams were really good. I had heard the Bears had not lost a game yet. The Bears trailed the majority of the game, but tied it right at the end of regulation, sending the game into overtime. They lit it up in overtime and won 96-90!

The non-American part of the game was at the very end when the team, coaches, cheerleaders and some fans went onto the court and sang “Sweet Caroline.” I cracked up!

It was so fun and I am excited to have a Belgian basketball team to cheer for

Here is Roel making the turkey stir fry:

And here was the finished product:

And of course the apple muffins Lise whipped up (with no recipe):

I definitely have many things to be thankful for. How awesome it was to spend this traditional American holiday with another American, a Dutchman, two Belgians and a South African

There were so many things about this summer that cannot be explained without God. There was so much goodness, my heart is so full of mirth whenever I think about it. This summer’s trip means so much to me, but one word that best describes it is redemption.

A part of me so badly wanted this summer to go well, not just to reflect God and his glory, but to redeem myself from last year. I made a lot of mistakes last year, but I learned so much through the process. I had been through a lot of hard things as well in just a short amount of time…about a span of 3 months starting March 19th, 2011 with the death of one of my athletes. With the goodness of everything this summer…from the ministry, my team and the growth in my heart, reminded me of my phrase, “There is always goodness amidst the crap. There is always goodness, because there is always God.”

When we’re knocked down by things this world throws at us, we have to get up and keep going, because God is still moving. I’m not saying don’t grieve what needs to be grieved. Take the time you need to process through things – label what you’re feeling, work through what you’re feeling, sit at the feet of our Father for as long as you need, but you eventually need to get back up. There is work still to be done. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying there won’t be set backs. But I am saying that grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gives us the hope and the strength to continue moving forward when we feel defeated, when we feel distraught, when we feel like a failure.

I’ve yet to process through all of Belgium and the time I spent there but I do know that my heart longs to return to that country and to the people. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and coming along for the ride. This isn’t an ending, it’s a “to be continued…”

Our God is all about redemption and restoration. Just like in the parable of the Prodigal Son, our God is looking to the horizon waiting for us to return when we go our own way. When we make mistakes, he runs to us and embraces us. When I find myself in the middle of my own pity party, I can’t help realizing how selfish I am! In my pity party, it’s all about me. But this life is not about me. It’s about God. It’s about what he wants to do in me and through me. When I feel like a failure and doubt God can use me, that really says a lot about what I think about his character. Henry Blackaby put it best in his book, Experiencing God: “When you believe that nothing significant can happen through you, you have said more about your belief in God than you have said about yourself. You have said that God is not capable of doing anything significant through you. The truth is, He is able to do anything He pleases with one ordinary person fully consecrated to Him.”

My prayer, my desire for this summer is that God uses me in ways I could never have imagined. Of course there is a condition. I need to fully consecrate myself to God. I need to be available, I need to be open and I need to be willing. To put it very bluntly, I need to get over myself. This trip is not about me, but it is about God and his redemptive love story.

Then this week, two nights we’ve had some serious storms (quite interesting how Tuesday was passed over so I could play softball!) Last night it came right through Xenia. Baseball sized hail and no power. Still no power when I woke up this morning.

I got to thinking about the olden days…before power was a commonality. Before you could flip on a switch and you could see, or you could open your refrigerator and not worry if the food in there was going to be spoiled by nightfall. They didn’t worry about such things, yet again, they had completely different lives.

They didn’t plan a trip for 11 to Europe. They didn’t need to buy plane tickets or worry about where the money to pay for them was going to come from. So coming into the office today, I knew I had some things I needed to get done. But the power has been hit or miss. Luckily I brought Weedel in (my lil laptop…yes I named it! It’s short for wee dell)

The other day I was preparing for some teachings I’m doing this summer and one of the lessons is titled “Hurtin’ for Certain.” The essence of the lesson is that crap is going to happen. It’s as guaranteed as taxes and death. But it’s our choice of how we’re going to deal with it – are we going to be bitter or are we going to be better?

Just as competitions are a test of our training, just as exams are a test of our studies, tests and trials are a test of our character and faith. How are we going to react to them? What are we going to do when they inevitably hit? Who are we going to trust? Who or what are we going to rely on?

A reminder I’ve been giving myself and I tell my athletes raising support…focus on what you can do, not on what you cannot do. I am choosing to trust God. I am choosing to be better.

Then I watched the video. All I could do was stare at it. I mean, are you kidding me? My eyes were glued to my screen. I was thinking about  how powerful this thing was and how much damage it was doing. But then I was overwhelmed with another feeling…deep, sincere awe. It was beautiful! I thought it was weird to feel that, but my friend Rachel said something that totally made sense, “I’m fairly confident that I can say that all creation exists to reveal something about the nature and character of God.”

Like the tornado, God is powerful, He is strong. He changes things in His wake, and He is so beautiful in a way that words cannot describe. Things don’t always make sense to us, but they make sense to Him.

But this tornado is only a GLIMPSE of the power and majesty of our God. I believe it’s only a sliver of who He is and what He is capable of doing. Let us praise Him for His glorious majesty!

“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.” - Psalm 8:1

It has been a hard month. Losing someone so unexpectedly hurts. There’s a lyric from a Megadeth song (yes, I have some Megadeth cds) that says, “You know the sleeping feel no more pain, and the living all are scarred.” Jasmine feels no more pain, no more sorrow, yet those of us left behind, those of us still living, feel the pain. We carry the scars daily.

When Jaz first went missing, I clung to a verse – “Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.” – Psalm 130:1-2. He heard my cry and He has been attentive to me. He has taken care of me…not in ways I expected or thought, but He has cared for me. Isaiah 40:11 says, “He tends his flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart;” My shepherd has been carrying me.

After Jaz’s death, I my whole focus was turned to the team and myself. Belgium planning was put on the back burner. But even though I was not putting in the work for the details of logistics and recruiting, things were getting done. My roster was filling up and pieces were falling into place. On one of my worst days this week, I got an email that made me smile and praise God. I found out there’s a pole vault team in Leuven…we’re taking 4 pole vaulters. And they may be able to help with transportation (my biggest worry).

I feel like God was saying, “You take care of what you need to. You focus on your team and yourself. I will take care of Belgium.” The past month I’ve been swimming in this pool of grief, stress and crap, but God has shown me glimpses of goodness. My motto as of late has been “There is always goodness amidst the crap.”

As hard and as difficult life is and situations are, there is always goodness, because there is always God.

I really don’t mind driving. Actually, it was something I definitely needed. With coaching on top of all my other responsibilities, I have a tendency to run myself ragged and the past few weeks were showing that (that and my bad timing call to give up coffee). I needed time to spend with just Jesus. I needed time to think, to pray, to be. I’m taking this time to memorize the 4 Spiritual Laws (currently still stuck on Law 2, which states that man is sinful…I need to hurry up and get to the good stuff!) Immersing myself in who He is and in His promises has been such a blessing. It’s a comfort to know I don’t have to be perfect (and actually will never be) and I don’t have to have all the answers. I just need to have Jesus.

So far I have visited 6 different schools, spoken to about 250 athletes (maybe more, I’m horrible at guestimating numbers) and probably around 10 coaches, attended 2 weekly AIA campus meetings at 2 different schools, met tons of new people, stayed at a few strangers’ houses, caught up with old friends, played with kids and have been working on my tan

I love the south. For many reasons…the food, the people, the accent, the phrases… This place will always have a special place in my heart and I look forward to returning at least once a year!

As time went by, days I was really tired, I opted for both shots. “Medium Turtle, no whip.” But I was still not a coffee drinker.

I moved to Ohio and I started going to Tim Horton’s and getting their vanilla cappuccino every so often. Our baseball director would always joke with me (real shocker there) about drinking coffee. But I was not a coffee drinker because I had to get the “foo-foo” drinks.

Last August we had a new staff and intern conference here in Xenia, which meant late nights and early mornings. And free coffee. I figured it was free so I would experiment and try to “doctor” it up so I wouldn’t taste the “coffee” in my coffee. I fell in love with the Keurig butter toffee flavored coffee with hazelnut creamer. A few weeks ago I realized I was drinking a cup every day. Not that it’s an awful thing, but how did I get there?

So I decided that I didn’t need it. It was just something I wanted. I only had one cup a day, so I wasn’t addicted.

So I thought.

Last week was a rough week. Not only was it the worst week to cut coffee out of my diet due to my schedule, I didn’t realize that I was in fact addicted. A friend passed on a website that has information about Caffeine Withdrawal. Holy cow, I was experiencing many of the symptoms. I was irritable, tired, I had a ginormous headache and I felt like passing out or throwing up whenever I worked out. Unbelievable.

How did I get from being a non-coffee drinker to a cup-a-day-sometimes-more coffee drinker? The simple answer is slowly. Slowly over time, my body became accustomed to the caffeine and it wanted more. It needed it every day to function “normally.” This is so much like sin. A huge affair doesn’t happen over night. It starts small and slowly grows into something that cannot be contained. You grow into a person you don’t recognize. You look into a mirror and say to yourself, “How did I get here?”

Satan is crafty. He’s conniving. God said to Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7). James tells us that “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). Sin is crouching. It’s hiding. It’s waiting for the opportune moment to pounce. It entices and then drags us away. It’s like Satan is setting a trap. It looks all glamorous and glorious. At first, it’s not a big deal, but before we know it, we’re wrapped up into something we never thought we would be involved with. This is why we need our Band of Sisters. We need them to see the slippery slope we’ve stumbled upon when we don’t even realize we’re on it. Sometimes we need them to pull us off the slope onto solid ground (2 Timothy 2:19).

Be careful of sin. It is everywhere. It is enticing. It is waiting.

Unfortunately, this is partially true. Within our fallen world, there is so much evil and in this case, it is not an exception. Over the past few months, I’ve been learning more and more about this sickness that affects millions of people throughout the world.

Our world has a multi-billion dollar sex industry. Look at our movies we watch, our music we listen to and our clothes we wear. There is a huge demand for sex. It’s a great market to profit in. Isn’t that basic economics? (I’m not sure, I never took the class). Go where the demand is high and supply what is demanded? Be the savior and give to the “needy” while taking their money and making huge profits? “The U.N. and other experts estimate the total market value of illicit human trafficking at $32 billion-about $10 billion is derived from the initial “sale” of individuals, with the remainder representing the estimated profits from the activities or goods produced by the victims of this barbaric crime” (UNODC). *

But at what cost? The cost of forcing young children into a hellish nightmare with no hope of escape. Ripping away their childhood and scarring them for the rest of their lives. The average age of entry for girls and boys ranges from 11-14.

This nightmare is not in some third world, poverty stricken country. This nightmare is here.

The US State Department estimates that approximately 14,500 to 17,500 men, women and children are trafficked into the Unites States annually. *

“Trafficking occurs in major cities such as Dallas, Baltimore, Atlanta, El Paso, San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City. It also occurs in Minneapolis, Toledo, and Tampa to name a few.” **

Dallas. Blessed to be in a state with thousands of miles of borders and a major highway system. Easy transport in and through. Dallas. Where the Super Bowl will be held this weekend. What better place to profit? Thousands of new “clients” will be coming in. According to USAtoday.com, the Super Bowl is “commonly known as the single largest human trafficking incident in the United States.”

I can’t help but to imagine…that with all those football players, those coaches, the personnel, the sponsors, the fans, even our own AIA staff…as all of these people roll into Dallas…how many thousands of young children are rolling into Dallas against their will?

Human trafficking is a form of slavery. It’s about power. It’s about making someone feel they have no option but to do what you ask of them. I received a book from my friend titled The Slave Across the Street: The True Story of How an American Teen Survived the World of Human Trafficking by Theresa L. Flores. It is about an American teenager who, for two years, while she was living in her parent’s Detroit home, was forced into sexual slavery. How? Why? Questions that entered my head before I read. But there was a part at the end of her book that helped to explain:

“Would anyone have believed me if I told my secret? Even now, the truth seems unbelievable for a girl in an upper class suburb in the United States. The important thing to know is that I felt I couldn’t tell anyone. I was terrified of the consequences. I believed I had no options. No choice. No Free will. That is why it is called slavery. I was brainwashed, confident that no one would believe my story if I told. Reduced to nothing inside, I was convinced that the welfare of my beloved family rested solely on my behavior. I was without hope, happiness or future. Left only with shame.” **

As the Super Bowl approaches, as you gather your snacks, as you get your apparel ready…pray. Pray for the people in Dallas partnering to raise awareness of this evil. Pray for the “clients” that they see the evilness for what their actions truly are. And pray for those who are subjected to slavery and endure a nightmare no one should ever have to live through.

[For more information and statistics, visit: Love 146; Not for Sale; Free the Slaves; International Justice Mission; Grace Haven]

* Taken from The Problem published by love146.org
** Taken from The Slave Across the Street: The True Story of How an American Teen Survived the World of Human Trafficking by Theresa L. Flores