This past Thursday Will graduated from high school.

The Early Birth

The invitations were sent out for Will’s baby shower. We were all eagerly waiting for the birth of our first grandson. But God had other plans.  After a routine checkup with her OB-GYN, Jenny’s water broke on her way to the elevator. Will was due in early March but on February 13, 2007, he was born via a C-section at St. Joseph Hospital.  Thank God Jenny’s sister Amy was in town for the shower because she would be Jenny’s rock during this trial.

Mikos and I were both at the hospital as we watched a nurse treat baby Will like a normal birth. We could see from the window that something was not normal with Will’s breathing. At four pounds 11 ounces, his tiny lungs needed special attention. I told Mikos, “Something is not right!” As the father, his instincts were heightened; he knew that his baby was struggling to breathe. Mikos knocked hard on the window to get the attending nurse’s attention but she ignored his plea. Finally  he’d had it with this horrible nurse and called a doctor in to help us with Will. As strange as it may sound, we could hear the doctor yelling at the nurse for her incompetence. By this time Mike had arrived to see our baby Will fighting for his life. Will was immediately transported to Children’s Hospital of Orange where he remained in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for  two weeks. Because Jenny, had undergone a C-section and was still under anesthesia, she had no idea the trauma Will was experiencing.

Every day without fail, Jenny was at her baby boy’s side, watching over him until Mikos showed up to relieve her. The two formed a bond of love around Will, so by the time he reached his proper birth weight he was finally released into the loving arms of his family. In the meantime Maddie was in the loving care of her aunt Amy and me. We took turns babysitting so Jenny could be with Will.

Fighting To Live

When life starts with a battle, it can only indicate that God has a special plan for you. Will is a fighter who has had to prove his physical agility many times. God gave him the gift to excel in many sports. He played soccer, baseball, surfing, snowboarding and  basketball. He excelled at every sport but basketball  became his passion. He sacrificed weekends to become a wonderful basketball player. For years he was part of a Club Team. In his sophomore year in high school he was voted captain of the Junior Varsity team.

Sports and Politics

A coach can make you or break you. Shaquille O’Neal’s high school coach cut him from the team because he was too slow and clumsy, but a coach at Louisiana State University gave him the proper mentoring to help develop his basketball skills. We all know the outcome of that story.

Will’s high school is big on sports – that meant winning  was their only priority. Suddenly six-foot, 19-year-olds (holdbacks) were recruited to the varsity team. Will knew the odds were against him, so he moved on to golf. He never missed a beat because he is a fighter and has a supportive family who has his back at every turn. By the way, he golfs with his grandfather Mike on a regular basis and is excelling in this sport too.  Holdbacks are kids whose parents want to give them another year to develop their sports skills; they are usually bigger and sometimes two years older. Parents believe this gives their kids a competitive advantage  in both academic and sports scholarships.

Will said that he learned a great lesson during his high school basketball seasons. “You’re not always going to be the best, and you’re not always going to get picked to play.”

Work Ethic

Will’s parents have instilled in him and his sister Maddie the importance of having a work ethic. Following in his sister’s footsteps, Will started working for Porky’s Pizza at age 16. For two years he was the dough boy; now that he is 18 he is delivering pizzas. Maddie has a full-time internship but makes time to deliver pizzas as well. Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills customers, please be kind and generous to these two grandchildren of ours.

Utes

Will graduated with a 4.2 grade point average and was accepted by the University of Utah. There he can snowboard during the winter and golf in the spring. We are so proud of this young man; one, that he kept up his good grades and two, because he works part time. In one week he will start an internship with Harbor Distributing as a merchandiser.

The Celebration

Jenny’s Minnesota family made the long trip to celebrate Will’s graduation. A total of seven Minnesotans came to celebrate Will’s milestone. Our entire family was there as well.

My Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, please watch over Will. Protect him and guard his heart and mind to always do what is right in Your eyes. Lord, I pray for those who have graduated; direct a path of holiness in their lives. Do not let them fall into any wind of doctrine, but to follow You, the King of Kings. Amen.

Happy Birthday to our Church!

Pentecost Sunday

Fifty days after Easter Sunday and ten days after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, we celebrate this feast. Before Jesus’ Ascension He gave His apostles instructions to stay in Jerusalem.

When Jesus had spoken to his apostles about the Holy Spirit their minds and hearts were not spiritually prepared to take in all this holiness.

²⁶ The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that [I] told you.

This is exactly what the Holy Spirit does with me. When ministering to others I am reminded of Scriptures or certain stories in the Bible that relate to the subject matter.

The Ascension

In great amazement, Jesus’ disciples watched as He ascended into heaven. But now the apostles had to replace Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus. There had to be twelve apostles. The number twelve represents the twelve Tribes of Israel; it’s also the number of Divine Government and apostolic fullness (Gen 49:28; Ex 15:27; Mt 19:28). Matthias became the twelfth apostle. Now they could continue with their mission.

They were gathered in the Upper Room and for nine straight days: the apostles, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the other women prayed in one accord. “Praying in one accord” meant that they were seeking God and waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit. Our Catholic novenas derive from this holy feast.  The Novena to the Holy Spirit is prayed during the period between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday.

The Upper Room

The Upper Room In Jerusalem is entered through the Zion Gate. As you walk past the Jerusalem stone walls you are met by street vendors selling goods made of sesame, honey bars, and other products indigenous to the Holy Land. When the path splits into two, the walk continues toward the left until you reach a statue of David. The Jews frown upon this statue because they believe that it is an offense; Jewish culture does not venerate idols and considers this a graven image. Of the many times that I have visited, poor David has suffered amputated toes from the hands of Jews and, on several occasions, his nose has been broken

This area of the Upper Room is considered the Jewish section of the Old City. The Muslims consider this to be a mosque, but the Israelis believe the lower level of the old structure is the Tomb of David. As Christians we remain neutral; we visit the Tomb of David but spend most of our time in the Upper Room. This is one of my five favorites sites to visit in the Holy Land.

The Upper Room, also referred to as the Cenacle, is located in the southern part of the Old City of Jerusalem. In this room many historic occurrences took place that changed the course of Christianity: Jesus washed the feet of His disciples,  the Last Supper, the Resurrection of Christ, the post-Resurrection, Pentecost, and the descent of the Holy Spirit.

In all the times I have traveled to Jerusalem, our team would never miss the opportunity to visit the Upper Room. You can still feel the anointing in that room. Our team spent a lot of time in prayer there.

The Holy Spirit

Our son Mikos is a great planner.

The Plan

It started several months ago. Mikos wanted to host a small reunion with a few of his high school buddies, but he also wanted to include their families. This get-together was based around their friend Aaron’s schedule. Aaron is the manager of the New York Yankees. With Aaron’s busy schedule, Mikos knew he was taking a chance, but he went ahead and sent out the Evites.

The Friends

Having only one friend from high school that I still keep in contact with, I marvel that Mikos has maintained so many of his friends. Jay was the only local. He, along with his family, live in Orange; Mark  lives in Fort Collins, CO, and Carter lives in Northern California. These three all confirmed that they would attend the gathering.

The Dinner

With Mike making the best chile rellenos and my famous refried beans, it was a no-brainer that Mikos asked us to cook dinner for his guests. It was a small, intimate group: Mikos, Jenny, Jay and his wife Michelle, Carter, Mark, and Mike and me. While the men were reminiscing about their boyhood stories, the subject about the nude beach came up.

The Nude Beach

They were 15 years old when we took a trip up to Santa Barbara. We still have a little cottage a stone’s throw away from Ledbetter Beach. But these boys wanted to be dropped off at Henry’s Beach. I had to load them up in my car to drive them there. I knew that there was a nudist beach, but it was a few miles’ walk and I never expected these guys to venture off that far.

It was well into the afternoon, no cellphones, just a communication to meet me at the front entrance to Henry’s Beach at 3 o’clock. Sonja and I waited and waited; then, as if they had been on a long jog, slowly they started to appear. Mark was the last one to surface, and I was a little suspicious. I will never forget the image of his face, it was flushed red. When the boys got in the car I asked, “You didn’t go to the nude beach, did you?” “Oh, heck no!” they laughed when they answered. I knew something was up, but I let it go. Only after this dinner did I finally get the details.

Of course they walked deep into the private beaches of Hope Ranch because they wanted to experience the nude beach, but they were wearing swimming trunks. To Mikos’ recollection, “We saw an old man playing Hacky Sack and I wanted to turn back, but Mark wanted to continue.” Mark was right and their dreams were about to come true. As they lay in the sand, two beautiful, young college girls came down the steps that led to the beach. The boys held their excitement because the girls were fully dressed. I’m sure these boys waited with bated breath as they watched the girls disrobe.  As if it were a free show, the beautiful young girls stripped to their bare bottoms, their birthday suits!

The Disrobing

As the story continued my eyes were wide with amazement.  Turns out we only knew part of the story. Mark had a great idea: “I think we should take off our trunks.” At first Mikos and Carter were nervously apprehensive but, as groupthink would have it, they made a consensus. “If we do this, we can’t look at each other’s privates,” Mikos added. “Oh my gosh! did you guys take off  your trunks?” I asked. They did but, for some strange reason, only rolled their trunks to their knees.

The BBQ

Aaron finally confirmed that he would make it to the BBQ. It was going to be a big group. With our family alone, we are ten: Aaron, his parents, Bob and Sue, along with his brother Matt and his family. Jay, Michelle, and their son George, Carole, Chris, Jay’s mom. Carter, Rachael, and Jane, Carter’s mom. We had the best time sharing stories about the boys.

Sue shared the sweetest story about Aaron and Sonja. Sonja was a freshman, and Aaron was a senior in high school. Aaron handed Sonja a quarter with a folded piece of paper containing his phone number. He told her that he was just a phone call away if she ever needed anything. This is who Aaron was and still is: a gentle, humble man.

The Video

I’m part of the fans that will go the extra mile to promote my Blog, mycatholicroots.com. Preparing ahead of time how I was going to wrangle Aaron into doing this, I had to hit while the iron was hot. Poor Aaron had barely walked in when I asked if he could do the video.  Of course, as gracious as can be, Aaron made a Reluctant Chef video. Plus I think he liked the bean dip too! Aaron took photos with everyone who was there. He is so sweet and patient.

Aaron had to leave early because he is the manager of the New York Yankees! We all stayed behind and enjoyed the wonderful company. But the day was just beginning.

The Game

Later that evening we had great seats to the game. Maddie, her friend Thompson, Mike and I had a wonderful time at the game. We headed up to the Diamond Club for our farewell to Mark and Carter.

I remember the mounds of nachos I made for those boys. We had a tortilla factory and manufactured our own chips, so the barrel of nachos never went dry. Our home was their safe haven and will always remain that for them.

My Prayer

Dear Lord, I pray for Aaron as he manages the toughest baseball team in the world. May You continue to give him godly wisdom in every decision he makes as a manager. Lord, protect our families. May we grow in the knowledge of Who You are in our everyday lives. Amen.