May 25th (Day 11)

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!! I hope you had an awesome (and somewhat relaxing) day! I sure did. As I said yesterday, I had today as well as tomorrow off. I slept in this morning, getting up around 9 am or so (giving me about 10 hours of much needed sleep). I practiced some guitar, talked with Dave a little more, and read a lot more in the current book that I'm on, When God Builds a Church by Bob Russell. About midday, I got a call from my very good friend Ariel, and she said that she and some friends had an extra ticket to the Indians' baseball game tonight. I ended up driving past the stadium that afternoon to get an idea of the streets I would have to maneuver around on and then I headed to the Starbucks in Garfield Heights, near the Momentum office. I got a coffee and read for a little while I was there. One of the Momentum members (Mike), who is volunteering a lot more recently with video editing and other Creative Arts jobs, was working so I chatted with him and saw how he was doing. When 3:30 pm rolled around, I pulled up to a gas station and put an extra 2 gallons in, just in case I was going to be stuck downtown for a little while tonight. Then I headed off and found a parking area that was just outside the stadium. I walked over and found Gate A, sat down, and began to read again while I was waiting on Ariel and the others to arrive. About 5-10 min. after I sat down, a woman came up and sat beside me to rest. We commented to each other on a few things about the weather and the stadium, and it quickly evolved into a 3o min. conversation. During this conversation, she saw that I was reading a book and asked about it. I told her what it was and that I was reading because I was up in Cleveland for the summer for an internship. That struck up her curiosity and it led her to ask some questions about where I was working and other things like that. She seemed to have a bias against Christianity and Christians, but (and I'm not bragging, it was totally a God thing) I quickly broke down all the stereotypes she had about Christians. When she found out I was working at a church, she seemed to get more defensive and withdrawn. I made myself just as transparent as could be, asking her about the city, stadium, if she grew up in the area, and just about other things in general. When she saw this, she opened up and began sharing things and talking to me as if we had been friends for years. I even got to plant the seed of telling her that Momentum met at the Cinemark theater in Valley View. I think that she might have been interested in attending, except that she lives in Cleveland and doesn't have a car (she takes the bus everywhere and can't walk too far). She even pulled out a container of baseball cards that she had just gotten signed that day and shared them with me (side note: growing up I was a HUGE sports cards collector, so just to have this connection opportunity was yet another God thing). After a half hour passed and the stadium was opened, she began to pack her stuff up and head in. The funniest thing for me was that as she was just about to leave, she complimented me and said that she loved my beard (I know a good many of you probably just snickered at that. To be frank, so did I when she said that, haha). We talked a few more min. about my family and who all I inherited what from and all that jazz. The conversation with us laughing heartily and slapping hands and she thanked me for the conversation and took off to her seat. I took a moment to just soak up all that had happened. Another 15-20 or so min passed and Ariel and the rest of the group showed up and we entered the stadium and made our way to our seats. The game started out a little rough and by the end of the game, some fans were giving up hope and left before then end. However this game turned out to be the best baseball game that I've ever been to. The Indians rallied in the 9th, scoring 7 runs to defeat the Tampa Bay Rays. It was a great ending to a great day. I'm hoping tomorrow will be just as eventful and enjoyable. Until tomorrow!  

Pat