Randy Wray’s Blog

The best thing about spring break, by far, is the time you get to spend with the fam and no real schedule.  You don’t have to travel to exotic locations and spend a lot of money to enjoy time together (though there’s nothing wrong with that).  You can be just as happy together in your backyard as in a 5 star resort.  Of course, you can be just as miserable together in the same situations.  I read a vacation advice column that said to limit you stay at a resort to 3 to 4 days.  If you have more time on vacation go somewhere else but keep it to 3 or 4 days.  The idea being that even on vacation variety is good.

I said all this to say I hate the Sunday after Easter.  (You can’t make smooth transitions like this unless you are a professional - don’t try this at home!)

I love the effort everyone makes to attend on Easter Sunday.  I love the energy and the atmosphere.  What about the following Sunday?  Every year the Sunday after Easter I remind myself "next year, take this Sunday off!"

We’re setting up the scaffolding again today to finish our projector install.  My goal is not to start the week in the hospital.  If we finish the install that’s just a bonus. 

Today we visited Big Trees national park and had intended to take a hike through the big trees.  With snow on the ground and us wearing shorts and tennis shoes we decided to not be one of those tourist families you read about on CNN.

We made our way back to another destination and stopped along the way to visit a cavern.  We climbed down 200 plus feet beneath the ground into the moaning cavern.  Seems the cavern doesn’t moan anymore.  They built the gift shop above the opening and it sealed the air flow so the cavern doesn’t make any noise from the wind.  Perhaps a new sign?  The cavern formerly known as?

We panned for gold and saw a few flecks.  The pan rental was $4!  Reminded me of who really made the big bucks during the gold rush.  The folks that sold picks, shovels, and pans.

We toured the historic town of Columbia.  A quaint old town somewhat restored to life in the 1800’s.  After it raining all day yesterday it was good to get out.

No wireless internet access in the room.

Beth actually had to use dial up.

Extended network on the mobile phone.

What kind of vacation is this? 

We’re going to do some exploring the next couple of days during Spring Break.  We intend to explore the area around Angel’s Camp famed for Mark Twain’s story of the jumping frog jubilee.  Ghost towns, gold mines and rusticity are all on the menu.

My knee is all scraped up and it hurts (wah, poor me) more on that later.

We had a (long) great weekend!  The praise band concert was well attended and our home-grown, local musicians did a great job.  We kept it simple and sought to provide a venue for praise.  I was very proud of everyone and the guitar solo leading into Days of Elijah by Mr. Vallejo was amazing.

Easter Sunday was a positive, encouraging time for us all.  Imagine the difference it would make if we approached every Sunday like Easter Sunday.  I know, I know "we celebrate the resurrection every Sunday . . ."  That’s not what I’m talking about.  I mean what if people made an effort to be a church every Sunday like it was Easter Sunday.  What if church leaders made an effort to make every Sunday as special?  It’s not about entertainment or spectacle so don’t even go there.  It is about giving our best effort, presenting our best offering each time we gather.  Mediocrity is not spiritual.

We joined Madison’s softball team for an Easter picnic and parent / kid softball game.  There’s a rule in parent / kid softball games . . . you can’t strike out when your daughter is pitching and you can’t get thrown out by your daughter.  Now, of course, you can strike out and be thrown out but if you have any ounce of parental dignity you make sure it doesn’t happen.  Madison has improved since I faced her the last time.  In two at bats I popped up twice (batting left handed) to the opposite field. 

I got on base the first time because the ball had so much spin on it the third basewoman could not catch it.  Eventually I found myself at third.  The runner ahead of me was thrown out at the plate and the catcher flipped the ball back to the pitcher (Madison) who turned around to walk back to the mound.  Since I had a generous lead and she never looked me back I decided to use my blazing speed and steal home.  3/4’s of the way there Madison was alerted to my attempt - probably the sonic boom as I broke the sound barrier - she spun around and threw to the catcher who was doing a great job of blocking the plate. 

I knew I had a decision to make at this point:

a.  Run over the 14 year old catcher (she’s a big girl, she looked like she could take it)

b.  Be thrown out trying to steal home - suffering the shame and embarrassment of not being able to hit off of her and be thrown out by her trying to steal home.

or, 

c.  Slide baby, slide!

My knee is all scraped up and it hurts!  It feels a bit like SAFE!
 

We practice tonight and play for the first time "live" tomorrow night. 

Tomorrow morning we have a community easter eggstravaganza event.  The day will start with fun for the kids and end with praise for all.

Easter Sunday we will celebrate with our guests the risen Lord.

I wish my friend John was here to help me set up the equipment.

Keith Green wrote these lyrics:

Lord I’m gonna love you, Yes, I’m gonna love you.
Oh, I’m gonna love you Lord, with all that’s in my heart.

Lord I’m gonna trust you, Yes, I’m gonna trust you.
How I’m gonna trust you Lord, with all that’s in my soul.

Lord I’m gonna thank you, Yes, I’m gonna thank you.
How I’m gonna thank you Lord, with every thought of mine.

Lord I’m gonna praise you, Yes, I’m gonna praise you.
Yes, I’m gonna praise you Lord, with all my strength and might.

Lord I’m gonna follow, follow you.  Yes, I’m gonna follow, follow you.
Lord, I’m gonna follow you, with all my strength and might,
With all that’s in my heart and all that’s in my soul.

Lord, I’m gonna trust you, Lord I’m gonna trust you.
Lord, I’m gonna love you, Lord I’m gonna love you.
Lord, I’m gonna follow, follow you.

His recorded version is, like most of his work, full of passion and fire.  I’m looking for a 4 part arrangement.  Anyone know of one?

I decided to make another attempt to return the wallet before handing it over to the local authorities.  After school the kids and I drove over to the address listed on the wallet.  The garage door was open and one look at the cars and bumper stickers told me the individual no longer lived at this address.  There is a really popular local hispanic radio station in town and it seems they rely heavily upon bumper stickers to get the word out.  This was confirmed when the woman who answered the door was hispanic and was a little scared of talking to the muscular, street-wise wallet recovery and return officer.  No, I was by myself.

We try to impress upon the kids the importance of knowing a second language (like Spanish).  For such moments like these and others.  We exchanged a nice conversation and I resumed my quest.  We were able to escape without a bumper sticker.

Driving back home brought a moment of inspiration.  We pulled into the AAA office, presented the AAA card of the wallet holder asked for every map they had and made a run for it!  Did I mention that while house hunting we tried to purchase a map at AAA a few weeks ago and they wouldn’t give or sell us a map because we were no longer AAA members?  We went next door to Office Depot and gave them $5 for a map.  It seems to me, and this is just my opinion, that it wouldn’t hurt to sell maps for $5 to non AAA members.

The AAA rep called the wallet owner and left a message on his phone to call me.  While driving home my phone rang and at last contact had been made with the owner.  He was appreciative, of course, had been furiously searching trying to determine when and where he had lost the wallet.  We made arrangements to meet to return the wallet to him. We drove to where he said he lived and reunited owner with wallet.

The funny thing is he lives behind our house across the street.  Not the house right behind our house.  The house across the street (and over one) from the house behind our house.

And with that the saga of the found wallet is closed.  Tune in tomorrow and you might hear me say "there’s a snake in my boot." 

We headed over to Lowe’s last night to price some things for our soon to be house.  There in the middle of the road I spotted a wallet.  We made a legal u-turn and went back to investigate where we picked up the wallet and discovered it still contained its contents.  Drivers license, bank cards, cash, and pictures.  Isn’t God good?  Swifter than the insurance company, God reimbursed us for our destroyed dash and stolen CD player!

Beth said, "wouldn’t it be funny if this wallet belongs to the person who broke into our car."

Do you know how hard it is to return a missing wallet?  Can’t find the guy in the phonebook.  No number to call in the wallet.  The police said they’d come by and pick it up last night and return it but they never showed (must be tracking down my stolen CD player).  So, I’ll run over to the PD today and drop off the wallet.  That’s right - headed downtown - to the precinct - I’ll probably get my wallet stolen trying to return this one!  

The area wide service in Sacramento was a delight.  Hosted at the Parkway Church, a predominantly African-American church, the singing was energetic and enthusiastic.  A few of our Central members made the drive up and it was encouraging to see their faces in the sea of faces.  At one point during the singing my mind drifted back to the many pleasant memories of my time with the "Say So" Singers in South Texas.  One of my High School friends attended the black church in town and invited me to sing with their singing group.  I sang bass along with two other men and one woman (who could sing lower than all of us).  Forget sheet music and notes when you sang with the Say So singers you sang from your heart and your life experience.  A challenging exercise for a high school kid!

The brothers and sisters were very gracious and welcoming.  It’s a lot of work preparing two messages from scratch in a single week.  But in this case, it was certainly worth the effort.

As if that were not enough,  we’ve been officially welcomed to Stockton.  The committee stopped by some time last night and ripped the cd player from out of the dash in the van.