Go Bulls!

It has been great fun, watching the UB Bulls play football this year!  I got to go to one game, but have been watching them on TV or the computer several other times. So many great finishes. Lots of overtime wins. Friday night was hilarious…I was at Jim and Kathy’s house, and they have Fios, and the game was carried on Time Warner. Kim and Stan were also coming over, but decided to watch the game at Tully’s for a while first. The Bulls went down by more than two touchdowns, so they headed over. The phone rings: “This is Stan and Kim, we’re sitting in the driveway, but unless you have a radio we’re not coming in…the Bulls are making a comeback.” Eventually, we ended up in Andrew’s room huddled around a radio and listened as the Bulls won in double overtime. AWESOME!!! It means the Bulls are guaranteed a bowl game.

What’s really cool is the feature that ran on ESPN’s “Outside the LInes” this morning:

Outside the Lines

This is the story about the only other time the Bulls got invited to a bowl game–in the 50’s. They had two black players who would not be able to play because of segregation laws in Orlando at the time. They voted not to go. Great story.

I love sports…but standing up to racism (and I especially love it that the stand was born of “team” and “community”), that makes you a hero.

 

Go, Bulls!

Hello from Minnesota!

Awesome win by the UB Bulls football team last night over UTEP! Several of their starters played local high school sports before heading to UB (I loved to watch Naaman Roosevelt play hoops for St. Joe’s). It’s fun to see them have such a great start to their season after so many dismal years.  Did you know that First Trinity member Rodney McKissic is the Buffalo News beat writer for the Bulls?!?! Check out his piece on last night’s game here.

 

Gratitude rears its’ beautiful head once again…

 

You know–I’m a gratitude junkie. I got a fix today coming from what might seem a most unlikely place: a professional athlete.

Kevin Everett, the Buffalo Bills tight end who had a career-ending (and almost life-ending) injury in the first game of the season, is on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. It is a fantastic article. A man who will not play football again (and who is passionate about the game) and has struggled to walk again says this:

 ”I look at my life in a whole new fashion…you realize how blessed you are. You thank God even more when you wake up in the morning and for every little thing you have. I thank God for sparing my life and letting me be here for my family and my fiancée. I’ve been able to see how much people love me, and how much I love them.”

Gratitude. Kevin Everett is GRATEFUL.

Beautiful.

Honestly, I had to write about this today for several reasons:

• I’m a gratitude junkie (you knew that)
• I love it when God acts in a miraculous way and then all the scientists and pundits try to explain it–in this case it was the “perfect storm” of care across many professionals and helpers
• I love Buffalo and Buffalo looks great (for once) in the SI article
• I am sick to death of all the horrible stories about professional athletes (guns, drugs, arrests, dogfights and the like). It is such a treat to read about a professional athlete who is a man of character
• (Warning: this is not rational) somehow this article makes me think the Bills will win on Sunday (I SAID it wasn’t rational!)

PS There are some great photos of Everett’s road to recovery here.

 

Ministry on the football field???!?

I love sports. I love local sports. The Bills, the Sabres, lots of high school basketball…and it was great fun to see the UB Bulls football team come such a long way these season: MAC East Champs and Coach Turner Gill was named MAC Coach of the Year. After watching two of his players play St. Joe’s basketball in the past couple years (Naaman Roosevelt and Dominic Cook) it is great fun to see a couple local guys do well for the Bulls.

Gill was in the running for the University of Nebraska head coach position and so had some national attention over the last couple weeks. The job went to Bo Pelini (currently on the coaching staff at LSU). Today, on WGR550, the Howard Simon Show featured an interview with Turner. You can listen to the whole thing here.

Simon asked Gill what his philosophy of coaching football was. He was so clear!

“I know that my purpose is to provide a positive environment which encourages excellence, growth and balance for each student athlete and my staff.” And later in the interview: “I look at this as a ministry that God has for me here in Buffalo.” This makes me do the happy dance right here in my office! A guy who understands the bigger picture of who God is calling him to be and what God is calling him to do.

If you think that “ministry” only happens in church, think again! Ministry happens EVERYWHERE! Home, workplace, neighborhood, school, playground, store, forest, field, boat, plane, dance floor, hospital, car, basketball court, bleachers, youth group, library, factory, restaurant…EVERYWHERE!

PS If you like high school basketball (dollar for dollar you can’t beat the entertainment!), there’s a couple good games this weekend:

First Trinity member Sil Dan is head coach of Cardinal O’Hara’s varsity team. They play Starpoint at home on Friday December 7 @ 7:30pm

St. Joe’s plays Niagara Falls High School at Niagara University, 8pm on Saturday December 8th.

 

Trinity is now a verb!

Have you seen the way Trinity College won their football game over the weekend? Check it out:

This has to be the play of the year! FIFTEEN LATERAL PASSES to get the ball in end zone. This team just didn’t give up. When one guy was going down, he knew where another teammate was and got the ball to him. Fifteen times!! One blogger said, “Trinity is now a verb” and mentioned that other teams will be hoping to “do a Trinity”.

Wouldn’t it be great if First Trinity got to be known as a verb??!? If, in our community, we were known as people who take action to help others, who work together, who do whatever it takes to accomplish our mission (transforming our world one life at a time through the power of God’s living Word)? I wonder what will happen in this day that will give me the opportunity to “do a First Trinity”??!?!? I am asking Jesus to give me that opportunity. Be ready…I may need to make a lateral!