A Dad's best Day

While I was deployed to Iraq, my young children changed a great deal and did a tremendous amount of growing. Of my three awesome kids, my daughter, Carlie, experienced the most significant change and growth. More significant than her baby brother, James's successful potty training and more significant than Jay Allen's two advanced belts in Taekwondo, Carlie accepted Christ as her savior and became a Christ follower. Only those who have experienced this personally understand the significance. Only Christian parents can understand the emotion and righteous pride (through Christ) that a dad feels when his children enter into that relationship with Jesus.
Most of my days in Iraq were very similar and are a blur in my memory - months of my life that seem to have vanished. This past Easter stands out from all those days. It was the only day I was able to break free from my routine and attend the protestant services at the main chapel. It was an awesome service and I can remember being filled with a spirit of humility and thanksgiving for all that God had blessed me with. The music, the message, and the fellowship of my brothers in arms made me feel twenty feet tall, but that was just the beginning. As I left worship and returned to work, my euphoria continued. I hummed praise music in my head and had a much better attitude than I did before going to worship, and then, I got the news. Cammie sent me a note that Carlie had accepted Christ.
I emailed everybody in my address book to share the news. Though I am known to be a little over-enthusiastic, my enthusiasm surprised me and seemed completely appropriate all at the same time. It was my best day in Iraq and why not, God had sacrificed His Son to save my daughter and it happened all on the same day years apart.
Most new believers are baptized at their current place of worship. Because I have served in the Army for 20 years, we do not worship at a home church, but have worshiped with over a half dozen churches during that time. So, Carlie could have been baptized at our current church in Virginia, but Cammie and I recognized that as much as we love the people there, we are only a year away from another permanent change of station that will take us away from Southview. We have no roots there at all and wanted to have Carlie's grandfather baptize her in Alabama. Luckily, that is exactly what Carlie wanted, too.
Well, Carlie's baptism was my best day back in the states. My father pastors Chulafinnee Baptist church, which is near our hometown. It is also near our last duty station, Warner Robins, Georgia. The people of Chulafinnee Baptist are an amazing congregation of believers who could not have made us feel more at home. So, without a real claim to a hometown, my daughter was baptized in front of all of her grandparents, all of her aunts and uncles, and her cousins. We also were thrilled to have friends from Warner Robins, Todd and Nancy Howell, bring their daughter and Carlie's best friend from Georgia to the Baptism. Cammie and I were honored to have in attendance many of our friends from high school (Paula Barker Brooks and Sandra Roberts) and friends from our home church, Pine Grove (The Truetts) and friends from past military assignments (Margaret Kucia and Bob Poling) and friends from all of the above (April Truett Poling). A home church could not have done more than Chulafinnee did by welcoming all of us.
All of our friends, family, and fellow believers overwhelmed our family with the outpouring of affection and support for our daughter and her decision. As a church we had never attended hosted the biggest event our family had experienced together, it was a great reminder that we are truly citizens of Heaven and only visiting here for a little while. God's hand was involved in that day in ways large and small and some ways that we may never know. We are thankful for having such a day to reflect on our many blessings and for all who helped. We would especially like to thank Gail Barker for stepping in to help Carlie in and out of the Baptismal pool at a time when Carlie's baby brother, James, appeared to be on the verge of shutting down the entire service. Gail freed up Cammie to take charge of James and quell the rebellion that almost broke loose. Everything from that point on went perfectly.
I usually like to incorporate a lot of humor in my writings, even on serious subjects, but this time, I really don't have much humor to share. I will say that could have been different if AJ and Jennifer had managed to convince Carlie to do a cannonball into the water. If you wonder why an aunt and uncle would encourage such a thing, I have a confession to make. Though it totally slipped my mind this past Sunday, it seems that I might have offered a monetary reward to my nephew, Aaron, to cannonball into the water at his baptism. It seems that the negotiations by his parents to get him to fore go the cannonball were a lot more intense than I realized and the final decision whether to cannonball was in doubt until the very last second. So, now, AJ and Jennifer have two more opportunities to repay me for that little gesture as I await the day of decision for my two sons. Even if one or both decide to cannonball into their citizenship of Heaven, it will still be one of my best days!

Big Mug's First Baseball Game

The Benefields loaded up in our van, Lucky, and went to see our hometown team, the Braves, play in Baltimore. It was a great trip and the kids were very well behaved (by Benefield standards). Here are some highlights!
First, you should know that my girls had to go to the beauty shop the morning of the game. The beauty shop trip stretched into the afternoon, but we ended up getting there pretty much on time with two beautiful girls!
The drive was nice, but traffic was a little crazy for a weekend. We got to the stadium and parked a mile or so away and began the hike in. Everybody walked while holding hands with an adult and paid close attention to Dad's street crossing instructions - that is huge at our house!
When we purchased our tickets, I had to tell the ticket agent that we needed tickets based on economy and courtesy. We didn't want expensive seats or to sit near and disrupt anybody who might try to follow the game closely. I just pointed at our family and said, "we are a little rowdy." With tickets in hand, we bolted to the third base line to collect autographs and meet some Braves. We got Mike Gonzalez and Jeff Bennett to sign our gloves and I got to see John Schuerholz, though I was out of range for a signature or hand shake. We just missed getting the autograph of my mom's favorite Brave, Tim Hudson. He headed to the dugout right before we got into position for autographs. Mike Gonzalez and Jeff Bennett were kind enough to stay and sign autographs for every fan out there, lucky for us! That got us off to a great start.
The ticket agent hit a home run and put us in a deserted part of the outfield bleachers (there are a lot of those in Baltimore). On the way to our very well selected seats, we had to stop at the concession stand. I prepared my wallet for a traumatic experience and I even closed my eyes as the cashier totaled my bill, but miracle of miracles, it was under $20! They have a $1 kids menu at the Baltimore ballpark that is a budget's best friend. Dogs for everybody! I was feeling generous and offered to buy all the kids and Cammie a second hot dog. It was great. There are not many things in the world that make a dad happier than $1 hot dogs.
Working at this ballpark must be the greatest job in the world because all of the employees were happy and polite and very patient with our family of five as our discovery learning slowed things down. Of course, it wasn't overly crowded, but still. Every single employee was polite and friendly. Conversely, working at Turner Field must the world's worst job! Those of you who have been to Atlanta's ballpark need no further explanation.
We were in the upper deck and had a great view, but there was not much need for the gloves up there. Babe Ruth himself could not have hit a home run to our seats in left field. With no worry of catching home runs, James entertained all the people around us by dancing wildly to every song that came across the PA system: YMCA, Wild Thing, Crazy Train, I've Got the Power, Walk this Way, and many more stadium classics. Just when I thought he might run out of energy, Cammie brought him back from a concession stand run with a bucket - a full bucket of cotton candy. That gave him a full charge for the last few innings. He danced and ran around and cheered (with the Orioles fan) like an old pro. The big kids were extremely well-behaved, and even with James dancing like a Flash Dance cast member, the Benefields made it longer than the Braves did that night.
On the road march back to our parking spot, it appeared that the city of Baltimore was hosting "The World's Dumbest Driver" auditions. As our family of five waited at an intersection to cross the street, a driver with an assortment of save the planet and green power and Darwin legged fish bumper stickers on his Subaru decided to do a U-turn under a green light and head into oncoming traffic. You don't need to read that twice, he went from moving with traffic to making a left handed U-turn across two lanes, exposing the driver's side of his car for a perfect T-bone in the first lane and then playing chicken with the traffic in the second lane. This happened about five feet from my family and we began sprinting to safety to avoid getting showered with Subaru debris or having the whole car land on us (we can move pretty fast, by the way). I was not pleased with this driver. He managed to come to his senses just in time to avoid castastrophe, but I need a chance to discuss his worldview with him. This guy needs Jesus and the message of saving grace in the worst way because if he adheres to Darwinist principles, his entire bloodline is on a rocket booster to extinction. His driving skills do not bode well for his chances of natural selection.
It was a great outing and I recommend Camden Yards to all, but park as close to the stadium as you can, lest a liberal powered Subaru might get you.

Did Jesus Toot (2009)

Jay Allen was having a bad night this past week, so I spent a little extra time getting him settled for bed and trying to encourage him. When nothing seemed to cheer him up, I told Jay Allen that when we went to Alabama, we would have some man time with my brother AJ and his son Aaron. Specifically, we would go camping, eat beans and sit around the fire and toot. Jay Allen really liked that idea and was able to get settled for bed. Now that he was in good spirits, I asked him if he thought Jesus tooted. Jay Allen did not think He did because it did not seem divine.  I made the point that Jesus was fully human and experienced all the things that we experienced, but Jay Allen was unconvinced.

We didn't reach agreement so I asked Cammie. Cammie agreed with me that Jesus did toot because he was human. Carlie was giggling at this, so as I held my finger straight out, I asked her if she thought Jesus ever played pull my finger with his disciples (I bet he got Thomas every time).

Then, Carlie grabbed my finger and I tooted. As usual, Cammie got really mad at me for firing that shot. Normally, I don't make any defense, but in this case, I asked Cammie what would Jesus do?
She was still mad, but she had to laugh at that.