Sunday, June 28, 2009

Back To Clinton

Hey everyone, Daniel here.
I'm sitting in Phil Jackson International airport in Atlanta right now with heavy eyes. Its so funny how baseball will just move you sooooo quick. I mean I woke up yesterday to a warm smile and kiss in bed from my beautiful wife and this morning I woke up to two middle aged men on both sides of me in the middle seat of a red eye flight! The Mariners informed me yesterday around 3:30ish that I would be leaving that night on a red eye flight at 11:35 that will eventually end up in Clinton, Iowa to rejoin the Lumberkings. When I told Chelsea the news we were both a little bit flustered, but Chelsea really stepped up and got things done. She packed up all our clothing and belongings within one hour and was ready to drive home to California by 4:30. She then drove over to the Mariners complex where I was.... gave me my baggage, then we ran a few last minute errands... said our goodbyes and she was off, driving home by 5:30. I can't believe it!!! She is so amazing , she didn't complain once, just got everything done and was gone within two hours of first hearing the news. I am so blessed to have such an understanding wife when it comes to this crazy lifestyle I dragged her into. I love her so much and I don't think I can thank God enough for her constant love and support. Anyways she will hopefully be rejoining me in Clinton in about a week. I'm excited to get things going again and to get back into the game again. Thank you to everyone for all the prayers!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Great Game!

Hey Everyone!
So Daniel started playing in the Rookie Ball games out here in Arizona. Yesterday they had a game against the AZL Padres and Daniel went 3 for 6! With 3 RBIs- Praise God! The game ended up going into extra innings and in the bottom of the 12th with bases loaded... Daniel drove the perfect bunt down the first base line and the runner on 3rd scored, breaking the 2-2 tie and allowing the AZL Mariners to win!! So that was an exciting game, so just wanted to share it! We still do not know for sure when we will be leaving for Iowa.. Daniel was told maybe sometime within the week. So I'll be sure to post. Hope you all are doing wonderful!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Thumb Update

Hey everyone,
Sorry I didn't get a chance to get on yesterday and post, but great news- Daniel's thumb is all healed up!!! He's going to start playing in games out here in AZ this week and then we should hopefully be back on our way playing in the season again! Thank you for all the prayers, I'll be sure to keep you all posted on here.
Anyways, Daniel wrote an awesome devotional today so I thought I would share it on here (he said it was okay)... So I hope you all are blessed by it, I know I was. Enjoy:

Being a Letter of Christ, Don’t let You’re Ink Fade
II Corinthians 3:4-6
“ Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This letter is written not with pen and ink, but with the spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone but on human hearts.”

As Christians, we are messengers of Christ. So if you will, imagine with me for just a moment that you are a giant envelope that is addressed “To: Everyone…From: God.” And that is the way you had to go about your everyday life, with arms, legs, a face and a giant envelope for a body with a beautiful letter inside of you. Can you imagine how many normal people would stare and wonder and ask what is wrong with you. I mean people would freak out and say.. “Hey what is going on ..you have a paper envelope for a body”. Then that is when you would say,“Here, I have a letter from Jesus for you.” That is the way we need to live our lives. As if we were that giant letter unto everyone else in this world mailed by Jesus. Every where we go we have a message to deliver for everyone we meet. It a message of love, that Jesus died on the cross and was risen from the dead for our sins. The Bible says that ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks‘. Christ needs to be that abundance in our hearts everyday so that, the letter of His love and forgiveness in our own lives...written in our hearts… may be told. But ,I myself, have of lately found my letter to be almost non existent, which I’m sure is the case with most Christians. We let the ink of our beautiful letters fade and become a plain piece of paper. How can we as Christians ever let this happen? We are the messengers of the gospel. Now what good is a messenger with no letter? We must ask God everyday to forgive and forget our sins and make the ink of our letter even brighter then the shining sun. So why cant we live like a big envelope with a letter inside? Because we get too distracted! Here is the key; We need to lay everything of this world that doesn’t matter to the wayside and be those blatant unconcealed big letters from Christ in this world…with words that burn like fire through the spirit of the living God. We can never ever let our ink weaken and fade away ever again, we have a job to do. A message to be delivered!


Prayer: Heavenly Father, You are mighty and You are magnificent! You are righteous and unwavering, faithful and just. And for that I give you praise because you solely deserve it. Please Lord, forgive me of my unfaithfulness. I know you sacrificed so much on the cross so that I may live. Please awaken my heart and fill me with Your holy spirit. Please teach me to let my letter of your love in my life be shown unto others. Teach me to be a good messenger and give me boldness. May you rewrite my letter this day, make it fresh and brighter than ever. Start a fire in my heart that no one can put out. Amen.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

God's Hands

Hello faithful followers! I can't believe it has been almost nearly 2 weeks since my last entry..

But here I am finally getting it going again....

So it's a little after 7 in the morning here and I'm all curled up in bed still. I was laying here just gazing out the window and am in awe of God's beautiful creation. I can hear the birds singing and see the leaves on the tress moving in the wind... I can feel the warmth beam of the sun hitting our room... I can see the clouds in all its different formations and shapes. How often do we just 'hold still' and look around us and praise God for the unfathomable creator He is? I know I'm guilty of doing it too little. Psalm 95:1‑7 "Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care."


Praise God!

Well we've actually been having a really great time out here in Arizona. I know were here under 'bummer' circumstances, but the Lord has just been showing us more and more that He is in control and we need to let Him be in control and trust in His plans for our lives. It's been a big learning experience; and I'm sure one we will never be able to fully master. Our flesh can be weak and it's so easy to 'doubt' God's plans for our lives, but it's been a huge reminder that our ultimate goal in life needs to always be JESUS. Our lives are in the hands of the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE... The same one who made all the beautiful things I see around me with just the command of His voice. How come we forget how BIG and how GREAT our God truly is? I know I put Him in a 'box' way too often, but I am so thankful to know that my life is in His hands, the Creator's Hands. Even if that means His hands are taking us places out of our comfort zone and out of our own plans. I wouldn't want to be in any other hands.

Well we've been loving our time with Will and Lauren. They are so much fun and we've really been blessed by them. Our days have been pretty ritual lately, Daniel and Will leave for the baseball field around 6 every morning and come home around 12 every day. Daniel and I bought an inflatable pool to keep cool in this Arizona heat so we've been in that a few times. Will and Lauren are big 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S' fans and we've officially been hooked! They have all the season DVDs, so we've been watching those. And I've been able to cook alot since we've actually been stable at a house. (during the baseball season, we're always in and out and getting home from games by 11 at night or are on road trips, so it's always hard to cook meals). So it's been fun to have some 'stability' these last few weeks, but I am getting excited to get things going again with the season. I think it will be a bitter-sweet feeling though because I am going to miss being here in AZ, but I am also just so excited to see what God has in store for Daniel and I. Daniel goes in for an X-ray today and we'll be able to find out more of the game plan and when Daniel should be back playing again (& I'll be sure to post the results).

Well I hope you all are doing wonderful and having a great day!!
I'll be back to post later after Daniel's Dr. appointment.