I AM A CHAMPION!!!!!

Best part of this?  It was for a JV championship game.  I bet you the high school coach said "Man we could have least used this for a 1st round varsity playoff game."

Get ready to want to fight hell with a water pistol!!!

Urban.

I was ask to write an essay on defining a word in my own tems. I picked the word urban; some of it because the word is close to my heart. As most of my life I have lived in placesm most people would call urban. Some of it was because most people would consider the kids I work with to be urban. Some of it is growning up in the setting I did, I learn to see words assoicate with the poor and the city a little different. to this day I dont see black and white as race but more of a mindset or a way of living. So this was a short essay; it had to be only 250 words on me trying to define what the word "urban" means in 2011.

URBAN

Over the last five years in the United States, there has been a shift in the meaning of the word “urban”. In the past, urban meant that you were from the city or a place where the population was high and near a city center. Now the word urban is more of a lifestyle. Urban in the last five years has turned into a term that has come to mean cutting edge.

You can be urban these days and still have a 15-25 minute drive to work. Urban is no longer about location but style. Urban is about clothes, types, and being up-to-date. A term that just a few years ago was tied to mostly inner city poor seems to have emerged overnight to mean a young person who owns something made by Apple. I have a friend who does urban missions, which brings to mind pictures of ghettos, poor people and crime. Now the group of people he works with are predominantly white and middle class. Being urban is being “in the know”. It is how Starbucks is out of style because a couple of rad dudes opened up a bar down the street where you can surf, chill and choose between coffee or beer, as long as they both are fair traded.


Now with the world at our fingertips, urban will continue to be about products, fashions and style. I think we live in a world that is evolving. As that happens, stereotypes and words that conjure up certain images will change. The word urban is changing, but it is changing for the better. It means new, united, and fresh. It is a word that draws up images of black, white, brown, and Apple.

The Duke Way

Sorry for the ones who read this earlier: I copied and pasted the un-edited essay to my blog. This one should read much better!


So I love my class, I get to write about things that I love. This essay's assignment was to write an evaluation essay. So I pick why Duke's men's basketball team has been the best college basketball programs over the last 20 years. It was written before Coach K 903rd win. Now I have even more to support my case. But then again we all know Duke Basketball speaks for itself.

The Duke Way!

On November 15th, basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski will attempt to break the NCAA record for most wins by a Division I coach by getting his 903 wins, 73 wins came at Army. Coach Krzyzewski said in an interview on ESPN this week that a record like this is not a coach thing but a program thing. Duke Men’s Basketball has become the premier program in the NCAA over the last 20 years. Due to Coach K’s leadership, the program is committedto recruiting good players who are good students, and to upholding their unwavering standards to do things the right way have set the program apart from their competition.

In 1980, Duke Basketball hired a little known coach from West Point University with a funny-looking last name - Krzyzewski. For 31 years now, Coach K has been the head of Duke Basketball. Coach K has won 4 NCAA Championships, been to 11 Final Fours and 25 ACC Conference Championships (conference and regular season). Coach K has done it his way. Coach K’s offense and defense styles are great but they are nothing special. It has been Coach K’s leadership that has lifted Duke to the top of the basketball world. Coach K has an uncanny ability to motivate his players to be their best every day. For example, one year during Midnight Madness, the program announced that they were going to take a team picture. In order to let Duke's student body (known as the Cameron Crazies) know how much he appreciates them, Coach K came over the PA system and said, "That's right, and you guys are a part of this team." He invited the whole student body to be in the picture, and Duke's team picture that year was an overhead shot of a couple thousand "teammates". Coach K’s leadership also has gotten a lot of attention in recent years because of his work with the US Olympic team. Coach K had a tough job ahead of him trying to make all the NBA superstar egos become a one unit. Coach K did a beautiful job of having those players buy into the team concept. Now Coach K is a gold medal winner. Coach K’s leadership resume is a testament to the level of Duke’s basketball.

“Duke’s basketball players” over the last 20 years reads like a who’s who list. Duke players are some of the most notable names in college basketball; they are known on a one-name basis. If you say names like Laettner, Hurley, Hill, Battier, Williams, Redick, and Wojo; people won’t say “Who are they? People would know you are talking about Duke basketball players. Duke rosters are filled with All-Americans but those rosters are also filled with academic All-Americans. Duke has more players in the NBA than any other college currently. Many of Duke's players have chosen to graduate early so that they could pursue their NBA dreams. But they did not quit before receiving their college degree because it was important to them. When a GM boss met a 17-year-old Shane Battie,r he came home that night and told his wife he met a future president of the United States today. Coach K is quoted as saying he only recruits players who he would want his daughters to marry but who were smart enough to know that he would kill them if they would tried. Duke players who don’t go on to the NBA have been very successful in life. Duke does not lower their expectations for student athletes. Duke tries to put them in a position to succeed. According to a U.S. News and World report “College Sports”, “Duke Succeeds by first admitting students who stand a decent chance of graduating and then providing them the academic support they need”.(U.S. News and World Report March 2002) On and off the court, Duke puts their players in position to succeed in basketball and in life.

Two major issues for NCAA basketball are graduation rates and coaches breaking NCAA rules in order to get the better players. Duke refuses to let these issues describe their programs. During the NCAA tournament in 2010, while much of the NCAA basketball was being rack over the coals for their graduation rate, but not Duke during last year NCAA basketball tournament. Arne Duncan wrote in his “The Blind Side of March Madness” article points out when talking the graduation rates from school to school. “Discrepancies that large have to have a connecection to a program’s practices and an institution’s priorities. In last year sweet 16, Butler, Duke, Xavier and Cornell all graduate more than 80 percent of their men’s players.” (U.S. Department of Education news March 2010). Duke has never had a major NCAA violation during Coach K tenure. Duke’s commitment to doing things the right way is a solid rock to the foundation that has built Duke into a major force in college basketball.

When Coach K was asked where the ball would go when he wins game 903, he said it would go in a Duke Basketball room at the University where it belongs. He credits the players, the fans and the school's commitment for winning those games. Coach K turned down 40 million dollars to coach the L.A. Lakers to last summer. Coach K said that when you work for a place that stands for the same standards that you want to live by in your personal life, you don’t leave places like that. When you’re the best, why would you leave?

My Inner Teenage Girl

So I had to write an short evaluation essay for class about a song, singer or band. So I choose Natasha Bedingfield's song "Strip Me". It was a moment of weakness, I felt rushed and figured most of the music I listen to like all my manly music would not cut it. So I found my inner teenage girl and wrote this essay about the song. DONT YOU JUDGE ME!!!


Strip Me


Natasha Bedingfield’s song “Strip Me” is written for the female audience mostly, I would assume. From the “La,la,la,la,la” opening line, to the girly undertones, You see that the song is written for females. Even the title “Strip Me” after hearing the song brings to mind a woman who is stripped of her self-worth due to the fact that she is taken likely for being a pretty women. This is a problem from Mrs. Bedingfield’s own perspective as she is easy on the eyes. I have no reason to like the song. I am not a girl, in fact, some would call me a man’s man. I have been voted most likely to not shower or shave for days at a time because I was too busy doing manly things like watching T.V., playing sports, grilling meat and burping. But I love this song because of the redeeming message of self-worth and the anthem that cries out for you to never give up.

The line in the song that says ”and if you strip me, Strip it all away what you would find? If you strip me, Strip it all away, I’ll be alright.” is a great line. If you take everything that we hang our self-worth on and remove it, we are still someone. We are still ok. The song proclaims that we are worth more than our titles. This is a message for me, a 30 year old male, whose ego is fluffed up by salary figures, flirting girls, and three-pointers just as much as it is for a struggling teenage girl who has self-image and daddy issues. It is a beautiful reminder that even through our flaws we have redeeming qualities.

You could get caught up in the fact that the song lyrics could get old in a hurry from the repeating of words, the repeating of lines. But I think this isn’t a song sung for the lyrical hall of fame. It is a song to remind people to keep going, even when you don’t feel important. The lines are made to be catchy like a creed or anthem. It is made to give hope for those dreaded steps that some of us have to take daily. The lines are easy so you can march to the beat of “I’m only one voice in a million but you ain’t taking that from me”.

I understand the song may be too girly and some guys just can’t get by the voice of a girl. Some guys can’t get by the image of “Strip Me”. It might ask some guys to be too emotional, or get in touch with their feelings. But if you strip all that away, you will find more than a catchy feel-good song. You will find power in the words. The power to know that when pink slips comes, bad days happen and your feeling like a nobody, there is hope. Rob Bell says “Sometimes we speak to change the world, and sometimes we keep speaking so the world does not change us.”

Define: Leadership

Here is an essay I wrote for class on Leadership. I try to define Leadership with my own terms. I only had to write 700 words(But I went way over) so it is not all my complete thoughts on leadership but i believe it is a start.



What if I told you that the people who can teach you the most about leadership; Their titles were titles like nun, teacher, newspaper owner and a shoe marker from California is were you can find some of the best leadership principles. It might come as a surprise because surely CEO’s of billion dollar companies or the people running the nation should lead the way in leadership, but they are not. Leadership is more than a title: it is the ability to influence by creating a compelling vision, striving for relentless consistently, and by asking the question what can we do better than anyone else in the world is doing.

An old proverb says “Where there is no vision, people will perish” in India that was the case, in fact, children, the mentally disabled, and the handicap was dying until Mother Theresa came along an inspired people with a vision that would change the world. Mother Theresa's vision was to let her and her people take care of those who could not take care of themselves. The vision caught on, so money, food, clothes, shoes and some of the most influence people in the world came to India to see what she was doing. As result people started caring. In leadership you can’t do it by yourself, many have tried and burned. You have to learn how to multiple yourself so other people can help. The best way of doing this is casting a vision. A vision so big that people will sign on the dot line; to commit giving their all to this cause. Visions are compelling when people say this is worth my time, treasures, and talents. Since these are the things that people hold dear. When Steve Jobs was starting Apple he needed a partner, so he went to the CEO of Pepsi and ask him to join him. Steve Jobs pitched this idea of selling personal computers in the garage of his house. He ask Steve why would a man with a penthouse office that over looked the city of New York, making hundred of thousands a year, leave? So he told Steve, No! As Steve Jobs was leaving he turned around and ask the CEO one more question, “ How long are you going to be satisfied with selling sugared water, I am offering you a chance to change the world”. The next day the CEO of Pepsi was starting a company called Apple. Leadership is casting a vision that will make you give up the things we hold so dear, for a chance to be apart of something bigger then ourselves.

At the age of 24 I started running a youth community center, one of the first lesson of leadership I found in running the community center is that more then the stuff you teach, how you decorate, or even how delicious your homemade cookies are for snack. The lesson would be that the consistent structure to your program from day to day is the most important part. It is the leaders job to make sure that day in and day out your area of influence is the same. The Oxford English dictionary points out that the word leadership is “The action or influence necessary for the direction . . .of effort in a group undertaking”(“leadership”). True leadership is you making sure that the group or area that you have been put in charge of is the same everyday. In my center you can come in on a Tuesday during the school year and you would see the same structure everyday. I call it my 20-mile hike; it is the goal I have to reach my destination. There are days that I could do more and there are days I could do less. But I do the same so the kids, staff and volunteers know what that get from me as a leader. It helps establish, set and maintain healthy boundaries. Jim Collins says, “the number one factor in business being mediocre is not lack of Innovation, but it is chronic inconsistency”. Leadership is being faithful day in and day out to the ones you lead and what you do.

If a leader is not trying to be the best in the world at something related to what they do, then something is wrong with the mission that the leader is in charge of. If Burger King chooses today to accept the fact that they will always be second to McDonald’s then you would see a decline at Burger King. Burger King mission now is to be the best costumer service fast food place in the world. It is in fact why I can have it my way at Burger King. Sometimes in leadership you have to face the reality we can't be the best in the world at this one thing. But your mission should be to be the best in the world at something. The nonprofit that I work for, is like a Boys and Girls or YMCA. When we first started putting our mission together, we realized we would never be able to offer the programming that the Boys and Girls Club or YMCA could because of staff, budget and building space. But we did decided that we could care for the group of students that walk into are doors better then anyone else in the world. So we get the question a lot “what are you doing here?”, when we show up to ball games, birthday parties, and band concerts. The answer is always the same of we are here to see, you can fill in the blank with one of the kids name from the center. But what we really are doing is trying to care for our students more then anyone else in the world.


Leadership is not about titles but it is about the testimonies of changing lives and outcomes. It is changing the world you live in or the area you are in charge of. The title leader is flawed because with the same word we talk about MLK JR., Abe Lincoln, and Winston Churchill. Also with that word we can use to talk about Gaddafi, Bernie Madoff, and whoever is the manger of the Yankees. Leadership is different it is changing the world that you apart of even if that world is only a 10,000 square foot office, a 3 person team with a dream, or a group of 8 year girl soccer players. The titles of boss, coach, mom or president are nice but in the end it is the fact that you left the world a better place. When you take what you have leftover long after the title of leader is gone, then what you have left is leadership.

You'll Be In MY Heart

(This is the last of the articles I wrote for LNF Newsletter. My next post will be back to normal whatever that means.)



One of my first Bibles was given to me by my youth minister when I was in high school. The Bible was an Easy-to-Read version that I liked because I could understand it better. I think the Bible was given to him and whoever gave it to him wrote this on the inside cover: “To be in a child’s heart tomorrow, you have to be in their life today.” I remember those words a lot when I think about the type of person I want to be. One of the things I see in the life of Jesus is that he was always in people’s lives today, so he could be in their hearts tomorrow.


If I could give advice to people who would like to be mentors in the lives of kids, I would give them this advice:
1. Remember the quote from above. You have to be with them today, to impact their tomorrow. One of the most underrated things about mentoring is not what you do, but simply that you are there. You do not have to come up with great games. You don’t have to be the coolest person in the room. It is as easy as showing up. Everyone comes in and out of their lives, from mom’s boyfriend to their father or even their own mother, in this day and age. They don’t need the people who are supposed to be a positive influence to come in and out of their lives.
2. Keep it simple- the level of your impact is not based on the complexity of your input. The message only has to be “Jesus loves you this I know for the Bible tells me so.” One of my favorite quotes about impact is this: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Let your message be simple with words and deeds. “I care about you!”
3. Interested is interesting – (If you know where this quote comes from, don’t judge me for loving chick flicks.) The quote is so true. The more you show kids that you care and you are there for them, the more they become engaged and tuned in to you. Come ready for fun and have intriguing questions for the student.
4. The last thing I would suggest is to be prepared to improve their lives, not fix them. Mentors get overwhelmed sometimes at how big the problem seems. It is not our job to fix them. Leave that to God. We are here to help God show them and prepare them to be the best possible version of themselves.


Mentoring at LNF is a life-changing thing for the students and the mentor. It does not take a superhero to be a mentor. It just takes a person who wants to be a kid’s hero. Here is a list of tasks that I have witnessed that have made a significant impact on our kids’ lives.: Working though 20 sight word flash cards and multiplication flash cards, teaching a girl how to bump a volleyball, sitting with a child and working though every detail of his math homework, letting a girl beat you in checkers to see her eyes light up and confidence soar, and just showing up to things that matter to them to let them know you care i.e. soccer games, baseball games, school assemblies. All of these things are done in the name of Jesus to show the students of LNF that we care.

We Pray for the children!

One of my favorite pieces of literature about working with children was written by Ina J. Hughes. In this poem, she does a wonderful job capturing all the joys, beauties, blessings, heartbreaks and heartaches that go into working with children.

A Prayer for the Children… by Ina J. Hughes

We pray for the children

who put chocolate fingers everywhere,

who like to be tickled,

who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,

who sneak popsicles before supper,

who erase holes in math workbooks,

who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those

who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,

who’ve never squeaked across the floor in new sneakers,

who never had crayons to count,

who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead,

who never go to the circus,

who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children

who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,

who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish,

who give hugs in a hurry and forget their lunch money,

who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key,

who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,

who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those

who never get dessert,

who watch their parents watch them die,

who have no safe blanket to drag behind,

who can’t find any bread to steal,

who don’t have any rooms to clean up,

whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser,

whose monsters are real.

We pray for children

who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,

who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,

who like ghost stories, 
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,

who never rinse out the tub,

who get visits from the tooth fairy,

who don't like to be kissed in front of the school,

who squirm in church or temple or mosque and scream in the phone,

whose tears we sometimes laugh at and 
whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those

whose nightmares come in the daytime,

who will eat anything,

who aren't spoiled by anybody,

who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,

who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried, 
and for those who must.

For those we never give up on,

and for those who never get a chance.

For those we smother with our love,

and for those who will grab the hand of anybody 
kind enough to offer it.

At Love Never Fails, we work daily with children whose lives, personalities, and struggles will make you cry one minute and the next make you laugh like never before in your life. One of those kids for me is Marcus. If I have ever seen a million-dollar smile, Marcus has it. He is a bright kid, but to be honest he is deeply troubled. Marcus is the youngest of 6 kids. His mother is way too young to have 6 kids. Marcus is a born leader, and I am so glad LNF is in Marcus’ life. The abilities Marcus has are seen all over the inner cities in our country. The sad fact is that most of these males turn out to be leaders of gangs and big-time drug dealers, rather than successful businessmen. The way of gangs is already in Marcus’ bloodline. Marcus’ dad was a former gang member that was killed execution-style by gang members. During a recent Principles To Live By, Marcus told the story of his sister’s birthday party where a drive-by happened. The result left him as a 9-year-old boy witnessing his grandmother’s and a cousin’s deaths. It is easy to see why Marcus has his moments of darkness and despair. Marcus has more bad weeks than good weeks. But make no mistake, Marcus is one of the most resilient kids I have ever seen. I think of lines in the poem like “we pray for those whose nightmares come in the middle of the day” and “whose monsters are real.” Kids like Marcus are the reason why LNF heads into dark, hard places to share the love of Christ. Because of LNF, kids like Marcus are prayed for and loved. And his picture is not only on our dressers. His picture is stamped on our hearts and his name is lifted to the throne room of God. Because we want Marcus to know the God who loves him and that love never fails or dies.