Luke’s Notebook

I have to be up in a few hours, because Fox 2 is going to meet us at Laderman Park in the morning in order to do a live broadcast on their morning show. Day Two has been really interesting as well, though! Let me try a quick recap.

Last night ended on a less-than-ideal note, as my power supply in my computer went out. I heard a very loud popping sound and then noticed a smell of something burning, so I just opened up the computer case, unplugged the power, and went to bed. This morning, I made a trip out to Best Buy in Fairview Heights in order to buy a new power supply. While out there, I also stopped by Lowe’s for Mom and then went to The Sports Authority, where I picked up an aluminum bat for our batting cages at the Softball Classic. Later in the day, I had another set of errands all over Belleville, and I managed to help Mom knock quite a few tasks of her long to-do list for the Classic.

TLC-wise, the crew spent pretty much the entire day here, covering different things going on around the house. Mark gave them a tour of the house, James was busy building a new game of skill for the Classic, they had me briefly explain what I do when I scope a deposition. Also, they spent quite a bit of time interviewing people one-on-one on the front porch. I’ve yet to really be grilled like that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s my turn tomorrow.

This evening, Paul, Jude, and I left with our Uncle Joe in order to drive out to St. Louis to pick up a pitching machine that a friend had volunteered to loan us for the Classic. It’s an extremely heavy thing, and it was all the four of us could do to load it up onto Uncle Joe’s trailer.

I did a lot more today, but that’s just the basic rundown. I hope I didn’t miss too many of the important happenings. Tomorrow should be very, very exciting. Two days from the Classic!

This morning, Mom, Jude, Jacob, and Nathan went to Sam’s in order to do some grocery shopping. They were accompanied by the TLC crew, and evidently a few people from KMOV (the St. Louis CBS affiliate, Channel Four) met them at Sam’s and followed them to our house. So I guess they’re doing a feature on the feature that TLC is doing on our family. Weird.

Anyway, both camera crews covered all of the goings-on as far as unloading the groceries into the kitchen and dining room and then putting them into the freezers, cabinets, and such. Shortly after all of the groceries were put away, both camera crews left.

A non-TLC-related story — this afternoon, James got a phone call from our neighbor who had asked us if we could run over and help, because the nearby orchards had a bonfire that had turned into a small brush fire, as the nearby dry grass and weeds were catching fire as the wind blew the sparks.

James, Philip, and I went over and brought a few of our garden hoses. We hooked them up to our neighbor’s hose, and we eventually were able to reach the site of the smoking brush and finally were able to, along with the workers of the orchards, soak the smoking areas. So that was a relief. Thank God there wasn’t any real blaze anywhere! The grass was dry and the wind was blowing, so that could have meant real trouble.

A little while after we had gotten back in the house and had gotten back to our work, one of the workers from the orchards drove a six-wheeler down to our driveway and delivered, as a token of his appreciation, a bag of the biggest apples that I have ever seen! These things are really about the size of a softball or a grapefruit. They are huge! And tasty, too.

Later in the afternoon, we were rejoined by the TLC gang, as a bunch of us spent some time out in the back yard, playing wiffle ball with the chubs, playing with our bunnies, and then eventually grilling supper on the back deck. They also managed to take time to put each one of us in front of the camera and ask us a few introductory questions.

They stayed through supper and ended up hanging around for a few hours in the evening, as we had a family meeting around the dining room table, mainly about the upcoming Softball Classic. They later had a chat with Mom and Dad, and that pretty much concluded Day One of this week-long setup.

Well, we’ll see what tomorrow has in store for us! The Classic is drawing nearer and nearer. I’m so excited! Please keep praying that God would bless us with a gorgeous day on Saturday!

It’s just about to start. This evening, we met with Tracy, the producer of this documentary, and he introduced us to his camera crew — the cameraman, the sound technician, and the utility man. All three (well, four, including Tracy) guys are friendly, and I think it will be a lot of fun getting to know them and hang out with them, even when the cameras are off.

Tomorrow morning, Day One of this adventure officially begins, as they’re going to start filming. One of the first things on the agenda is to make a trip to Sam’s in order to take care of some grocery shopping.

Let’s get this show on the road, huh? God, let Your will be done, and please orchestrate everything in the coming days. Let this whole feature be used to bring glory to You.

Psalm 115:1

Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

This is going to be one exciting week. The fun has just begun.

I’ve been thinking lately about what my anthem or theme song would be. Or, more specifically, what song(s) express how I want to live my life. One that keeps coming to my mind is “Amazing Love/You Are My King.”

I’m forgiven because You were forsaken

I’m accepted, You were condemned

I’m alive and well

Your spirit is within me

Because You died and rose again

Amazing love, how can it be?

That You, my King, would die for me

Amazing love, I know it’s true

It’s my joy to honor You

In all I do

I honor You

It’s a pretty well-known worship song these days — and it’s a very good one — but if I can just strip the music and the melody away and read the words, that’s the kind of mentality I want to have day-in and day-out. Every single day, I want to remember that it was my guilt, my sins that put Jesus on the cross. I realize I will know this every day, but I want it to be so fresh in my mind, where I just constantly marvel at God’s amazing grace.

Another great song is “I Stand Amazed/How Marvelous.”

I stand amazed in the presence

Of Jesus the Nazarene

And wonder how He could love me

A sinner, condemned, unclean

How marvelous, how wonderful

And my song shall ever be

How marvelous, how wonderful

Is my Savior’s love for me

He took my sin and my sorrow

And made them His very own

And bore the burden to Calvary

And suffered and died alone

How marvelous, how wonderful

And my song shall ever be

How marvelous, how wonderful

Is my Savior’s love for me

When with the ransomed in glory

His face I at last shall see

Will be my joy through the ages

To sing of His love for me

How marvelous, how wonderful

And my song shall ever be

How marvelous, how wonderful

Is my Savior’s love for me

In this world, it is so easy to know these things but to not really let them hit you in a personal way. I just pray that God will let this be so real to me, that these truths will be so fresh on my heart, so that every day I feel like just falling to my knees to say “Thank You” to God. When we really let God’s amazing grace sink in, what else can we do? How can we repay Him, other than to just thank Him and surrender our lives to His control? I never want to lose that. I understand that life is challenging and there are plenty of things that can keep my mind occupied, but I want to constantly recalibrate myself and focus on the cross.

Honestly, I think this is so important, to always let God’s grace hit you in a very personal way. And when we do that and accept that, then it is certainly no wonder that we would have incredible joy and not become too rattled by problems in life.

Today, we took care of a lot of things around the house in preparation for the upcoming TLC documentary, and we also did a lot to prepare for the Softball Classic. I spent several hours outside sanding and staining our side porch, and I also managed to scope a couple of short depositions. This evening, I took a drive out to Fairview Heights and O’Fallon, where I went to Sam’s Club and to The Sports Authority. It’s amazing how many different details there are when it comes to the Classic, but I think we’re in really good shape.

The Softball Classic is seven days away. These are exciting times around here. We’re looking forward to another great Classic out at Laderman Park. Another interesting twist is the fact that a film crew from TLC is going to be out there at the park. So whether you’re wanting to meet some Cardinals players (Jeff Suppan, Adam Wainwright, John Rodriguez), get a few autographs, eat some delicious food, watch some exciting softball games, play some games of your own, listen to Adam Wainwright share his personal testimony, or you just want to see what the TLC crew is up to — then you have reason enough to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon/evening at Laderman Park in Belleville.

This evening, Paul, John, Mark, Jude, James, and I drove over to South St. Louis County in order to spend some time with the Perkins family and a lot of friends at the visitation for Christy Perkins. Again, I thank God that Mrs. Perkins loved Jesus and there’s no doubt about where she is now, that she is right now in heaven. She’s most definitely not suffering. My heart just goes out to Mr. Perkins, Todd, who just lost his wife overnight, and to Nathan, Jessica, and Timmy, who are suddenly without a mom.

Please keep the whole family in your prayers. Over the past few days, I was just thinking what would happen if we lost our mom — or dad, or anybody in the family. What a heartbreaking thing that would be. I can’t imagine how it must feel to lose somebody so close to you like that. It’s just… wow. Makes me want to be thankful for every day I have where my family is healthy, where we are all just living and breathing, where there aren’t any vigils at the hospital. Thank God for the health and the togetherness of my family.

No matter what else happens in life, it’s hard to match something as important or as meaningful as just having your family there with you. It never ceases to amaze me how something like this will put things back into perspective. Suddenly, the really important things are meaningless. So many things that would keep us up at night seem so trivial. But it’s times like this that remind me to never take anything or anyone for granted. While we have this life and we have this health, we should be praising God and making the most of it, instead of getting wrapped up in temporary things.

But anyway… let’s just all keep praying for the Perkins family. We love those guys, and it’s so sad to see them go through this extremely difficult time.

We had a couple of big wins in softball this evening, as we had a double-header scheduled to finish out the regular season. Our 8:30 game against the Kassly Stormers was actually a forfeit by them, so we just played around for fun. At 10:30, we played the really important game against the Killer Beez. We were fighting with them for the last of four playoffs spots, and it was the final game of the season for both teams. We each entered the game with a 11-7 record. The winner would make the playoffs and play next week, and the loser would be finished for the year.

Well, we were down 5-0 in the fifth inning, and then our team batted around in the top of the fifth, as we ended up scoring six runs and took the lead. They struck back, scoring a couple in the bottom of the inning. We managed to tack on a few more, and with some tight defense on our part, we pulled out a 10-8 win over the Beez, which means we’ll be in the playoffs next week. I had a pretty good game; I batted 3-4 with a single, a three-run homer, and a two-run triple. It was so great to be able to take that game.

Today, we moved FamTeam.com to a new server. We’re still ironing out a few different things, but the FamTeam Message Boards and most of the site in general should be up and running just fine. These site transfers aren’t a whole lot of fun, but I’m getting better and better at doing them, and it seems like I keep learning smarter and more efficient ways to handle the transfers.

In six short days, the crew from TLC should be here at our house, as they being filming the goings-on around here, as we prepare for the Softball Classic and just take care of the regular day-to-day activities/responsibilities that we’ll have going on. It’s going to be a very exciting time. The Classic is only 10 days away now. Things start to get really exciting and really busy in the homestretch, especially in the final two weeks like this.

Please keep the whole event in your prayers — everything from the weather, that it will be a beautiful day, to protecting the Cardinals players as they travel over to Laderman Park from St. Louis, that we would have a good turnout, that God would anoint Adam Wainwright as he talks to the crowd and shares his testimony with them. We would very much appreciate the prayers. It should be another great time, and the way the weather forecast is right now, there couldn’t be a much better way to spend a Saturday evening, especially if you happen to like the Cardinals.

Today, I spent a good part of the day working on the “Safe At Home” show. This show features a brand-new interview with Ronnie Belliard, the newcomer to the Cardinals. It also features Adam Wainwright and Jeff Suppan, both of which are planning to come to the Classic. I also spent a couple of hours driving around Belleville and Fairview Heights, as I had some errands to take care of.

By the way, we lost last night’s softball game against the East Enders, and I believe that knocks us out of the playoff hunt for the Tuesday night league. We have clinched a spot on Monday nights, and the outcome of tomorrow’s double-header will determine whether or not we make the playoffs in the Thursday night league.