Reconciliation:

"23Therefore if you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that you brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and and be reconciled to your brother; then come offer your gift." Matthew 5:23-24

Last night I went to a service of reconciliation between two churches. Rarely does reconciliation happen between two people let alone two churches in the same town. Well last night it did happen and it was beautiful. The grace of God evident through out our time together, many tears flowed freely all evening.

Someone who came to the service said that they didn't belong to either body of believers but came to witness what took place and he was in awe of the humilty and forgiveness and love that was displayed. So much so, that he was going to describe what happened to his Pastor.

Who has something against you? Did you read that Matthew 5:23-24 verse above. Not when you have something against them but just the opposite, when they have something against YOU; GO! It will be like a breath of fresh springtime air for your soul!

The Flying Joe

I’ve been parasailing beforeand i loved it. a couple of years ago on vacation with my cute little wife I talked into going with me. She wasn’t too sure about the whole thing but she went anyway and I must say she was scared out of her wits. Not that she said anything but her legs were so stiff during the whole time her toes were pointed and her knuckles were white until we landed, which was just before we crashed into the Mackinaw Bridge.

Alex, in Florida, heard that Captain Billy’s Watersport was offering parasailing for the low, low, low price of $35.00 for a one mile ride she was all geeked about having Joe take a ride on the wild side. So we made the appointment and went to the beach and waited for about two hours in the baking hot sun. Apparently an appointment is not really an appointment just an estimation, I thought for a moment that I was in Mexico. We waited and waited. The more we waited the less confident we became about this whole thing.

This parasailing company had a different set-up than the one in Mackinaw. This Captain Billy’s Watersport used a “Banana Boat” that the victims, I mean people, would ride on like a horse, complete with a rope to hang on with. Now the Banana Boat was pulled by a wave runner out to the parasailing boat. From there you would have to climb off the banana onto the parasailing boat, across the platform that you take off from and find a seat. Sounds easy enough, that is unless you are unable to walk.

Hot, tired and pretty nervous we unloaded Joe from his custom sand wheelchair into the middle of the banana boat with Alex, Marla, Andy and me surrounding him to make sure we didn’t repeat the whole diving with the Dolphin thing. Of course, at this time, the wind and the waves decided to pick up again and getting Him on was hard because of the up and down of the boat. If you read this just remember the boats never stopped going up and down, up and down, up and, well, you get it.

Off we go out to the parasailing boat (PSB). As we pull up captain Dave, a really cool guy, decides that the wind and the waves are a stirring and we drive out, way out, to try and get an area of some calm. No luck. Captain Dave stops the boat and reaches over and grabs a hold of the banana boat and we quickly strategize on moving Joe onto the boat, which goes pretty smoothly. We get Joe onto the flat rear deck of the PSB. This is the part of the boat that everyone takes off from to their brief and expensive flight into the skies. As the deck is heaving with the waves it is very hard for us land lovers to get Joe over the deck to the stairs. Andy steps in a hole that the rope for the parasail comes out of and falls backward like he is going to go overboard but catches himself as we drop Joe on his back. Everyone is fine, we laugh, even Joe, and try again with success.

The helper on the boat, I can’t remember his name, put Joe in the harness with some help. Up until this point we all just knew that Joe and Andy would ride together, as would Alex and Marla. That is, until Captain Dave said that with the winds the way that they were, everyone would have to ride separate, even Joe. Gulp. The only way that this would work is if we “stand” Joe up to hook into the harness and then “catch him” and “hold him up” while he is unhooked after the ride is over. Remember the up and down waves thing, yeah, that’s a big deal now. Deep down inside I wanted to ask for a refund and hop back on the banana boat and go home at this point.

Joe was going to have to go first so Andy and I could help him “stand” and get hooked in. Even Joe didn’t seem to be all that excited about this one. So the guys get the sail deployed and then we moved Joe to the lift off deck and struggle against the sail, the waves, and gravity itself to get Joe hooked in.

Then it happened.....

Joe was off. Flying above the Gulf of Mexico all by himself, held on by just a rope to his only place of rescue. It was beautiful. Beneath my sunglasses I cried watching Joe fly. All of the work, the waiting and the sweat was worth it, a thousand times over, just to watch Joe fly.

Jet Ski Joe. Part Three

This in continued from the two posts below: "Jet Ski Joe"

As Eric and I began to turn Joe around so he was facing the front of the ski a second unexpected wave hit us hard and all three of us went into the Gulf. This time on the way in both Joe and I swallowed some sea water and came up coughing. As I was once again holding onto Joe, Eric pulled himself back on the Ski. About this time a small bright yellow Jet boat pulls up and the two tan guys in it offer to help us, as it turns out they are off duty firemen from out of state. As they get close a wave knocks the Jet ski into the boat, the problem with that was I was between them and was holding my arms out, one on each watercraft so I didn’t get crushed and desperately trying to hang onto Joe.

Finally we moved Joe behind the small yellow boat and begin to coax his 180 pounds on the boat. Thankfully this time the waves aided us in the effort and the two firemen pulled him into their boat after much effort and care. All during this time people were yelling different instructions to Eric, to me, to who knows, the reality was I didn’t hear many of them at all. For what ever reason, in the next moment, I am being dragged behind the bright yellow boat so I can get closer to my jet ski as the fire guys yell "Hang on!" and things like "Are you all right?". Eric bailed and went to get his ski.

Exhausted, I climb up again to my seat, now without Joe, the seriousness of the situation begins to set in. My hands were shaking so bad that I had a hard time getting the plastic safety switch that was on my life preserver back under the kill button so I could start my ski. The whole time the waves were relentless and very close together causing all of us to bob up and down at a pretty fast pace. At last, key in and engine started, I realize that I have lost my favorite hat, a Detroit Tigers hat that my daughter bought me for fathers day somewhere in the gulf. Hats are cheap compared to what happened today.

As I race to catch up to the little yellow “firemen” boat that is holding Joe, I see the Coast Guard boat and their flashing yellow lights in the distance. It’s getting darker now as we race off to meet the black and red boat. Pulling up to the Coast Guard ship I notice that they are yelling at Eric. Come to find out later, someone had mistakenly called in that Joe had been paralyzed from this accident, and that his leg was broken too! So the Coast Guard was thinking that it had a real mess to deal with. It’s a good thing that Alex, Joes aide, wasn’t long in getting there, she was able to talk her way onto the Coast Guard boat and ride back to the dock with them and Joe, who by the way, laughed the whole way back!

As I drove back to the resort that night I cried, thanking God that he had spared again the life of Jet Ski Joe.

The next day we took Joe parasailing, which is a whole other story!

Jet Ski Joe. Part Deux

Continued from the post below: "Jet Ski Joe"

The sun was getting low in the sky as we roared away from Shell Island heading directly into the blindingly bright sun, which made it very difficult to see the ski ahead of you. Combine that with the salt water splashing on your sunglasses and seeing became a relative thing. As we approached the inlet to the Gulf of Mexico the seas became much rougher. Joe and I flew through the sky a couple of times over ever increasing waves. But I got to tell you he held on just fine. By the time we caught up to the rest of the group they had all stopped to watch a bunch of Dolphins jumping out of the water towards the sky. We had several Dolphins swim within a few feet of our watercraft. They were amazing to see up that close. There were other people watching them from a huge catamaran. We crept out further into the gulf following the Dolphins fins. The waves were now about six feet in height and we were about a half mile off shore, bobbing up and down in the surf.

Then it happened. As the group pulled away in front of us, Joe started to slip to the left as a wave hit us from the right side. My first reaction was to gun the Jet Ski and get us righted. As I gunned Joe’s death grip was holding onto my life jacket, and that, combined with the power of the wave, we both went into the ocean. Now normally that may not be all that bad. Joe has a special life jacket that by design keeps his head above the water because he cannot do that by himself. For whatever reason we didn’t have that jacket with us. As I hit the water my first thought was “I have to get to Joe!” We were close enough when we fell in that I was almost right next to him. His face was under the water as I grabbed him and he was starting to panic. “Joe, you’re alright”, I told him. “You’re alright.” The task for me at this point was to make sure that his head stayed above water. Why I didn’t have immediate flashbacks to the Jaws movies I don’t really know, because I have been afraid of swimming in the ocean ever since I watched those flicks. So hear we are, in the Gulf of Mexico, trying to hold Joe’s head above water and what does Joe do? He starts to laugh, at which time I accuse him of wanting to fall off the jet ski so he could swim with the dolphins, which brings more laughter. As we joke, we make our way back to the jet ski and I hang on to Joe and to the ski, rising up and down with the large rolling waves. It was at this moment that I notice the sun was beginning to set; the bottom of the sun was touching the water as Joe and I were in it. It was beautiful.

The brief moment of chaotic peace was suddenly interrupted with the arrival of Eric, our tour leader. I tell him that we are OK and we spend the next few minutes trying to figure out how we are going to get Joe back up on the ski. Finally Eric ditches his ski about ten yards from us and swims to our ski. He jumps on and with the help of the waves I push on Joes butt as Eric grabs below his arms. We manage to get Joes rear end on the rear footpad of the jet ski. In doing so we pulled his swim trunks down off his behind. I can sense that Joe is concerned about it so I try to get them righted. At this point other members of our group are beginning to drive too close and crowd around our ski so Eric stands up and screams at them to all back off and give us some room. The catamaran is also coming very close asking if they can help, and giving us advice, which would be great if Joe could walk, but he can’t. Eric tells them that Joe is paralyzed and to move off. By now Eric has gotten Joe on the seat but he was backwards, so I pull myself out of the water and get on the Jet ski with them. The plan was for me to help can turn Joe around, then I would move in front and we will be on our merry way.

But that isn’t what happened. To be continued…

Jet Ski Joe

My friend Joe is 18 and back when he was seven he was hit by a truck as he crossed the street near his home. That accident has left him severely handicapped; most professionals never thought that Joe would live through the injuries. Today, Joe is in a powered wheel chair and has very limited use of his hands and struggles mightily with communication, for which he relies on sign language.

Joe has been coming to our church for about the last three and a half years.

Three years ago Joe went to Florida with the youth group and had a good time at our annual Student Leadership Summit during Easter break. He has taught me so much that I almost feel like I should pay him to go. He is a very compassionate, thoughtful, young man who longs to be “normal”.

This year he was very ready to go again to Florida and we left on Easter night, driving south to near Panama City Beach, to a place called Laguna Beach, Florida. We had great weather the entire week in the 80’s which was a real treat for us Michiganders.

One of the many highlights of the Florida experience is our Jet Ski trip and this year was going to be great because we were able to get a deal that would allow all 24 of us to Jet ski out to Shell Island and back a two hour tour!

It was a beautiful day that April 20^th and all twenty four of us were on twelve Jet Ski’s with two additional skis that held the leaders who would guide us through our afternoon journey. As it worked out Joe was with me and we were both good with that. To put Joe on a Jet Ski was a task that required four of us lifting Joe from his wheelchair and someone in the water holding the jet ski still. First we tried to get Joe to sit in front of me on the ski but my arms are too short. (Former co-workers used to call me T-Rex for this very reason.) So, instead, we tried Joe on the back of the ski holding on to me, he has a great grip and it seemed like it was going to work out. To be honest, I was somewhat nervous, not sure if he would have the stamina to make it for the whole two hours hanging on with his death grip.

We were the first ski loaded and were trying out the arrangement in the lagoon as everyone else loaded up. We took the last position in the single filed line as we motored through the “no-wake” zone. Finally, about a mile out, we got to hit the gas and go. Joe seemed to like to go fast over the warm Gulf waters. We often caught up to the ski in front of us then we had to slow down because the leaders wanted us to remain in a single file so it would be easier for them to keep track of us. Every five or ten minutes I had to slow down and adjust Joes hand grip because through all of the bouncing his hand migrated too far south. We had a great time hooting and yelling over the waves. The path that we took out to the island was very smooth since it was guarded by the island on the south and the mainland on the north. We made stops for people to hunt sand dollars in the bay and then at the island I got a break after about an hour of riding. I was wondering about my stamina at this point not Joes! Alex, Joes awesome caregiver, sat with Joe as the rest of us hunted sea shells on, go figure, Shell Island.

The last bit of the journey for us lay ahead; little did we know that it would be the most dangerous part of the day as well. To Be Continued...

When A Hug Is Enough

My father In Law was killed in a fishing accident almost two weeks ago. Both him, and his fishing buddy Al, apparently got caught by a Lake Huron storm that laid claim to their lives on Friday April 21^st. We have spent the last week or so (after they found the bodies) going through all the emotions and motions of grieving including all of the arrangements that must be made after someone is suddenly gone. One evening with my mother-in-law on her front porch near Harrisville, she was crying as we hugged when she said that it all had no meaning anymore. Without her partner, her lover, her “best” friend, as she called him, life in that house had lost its meaning. There was nothing said, no words could heal this gaping wound to her very life. The hug was enough.

Thank You for all of your prayers.