Todd Family Haiti: April 2014

“IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR FOOTBALL!!”

About 20 years ago or so, on any given day I would be lying flat on my back on a green carpeted floor, “the green room" we called it. It was pretty much a given I was hurting just a little, probably a little tired too and that’s right when I would here it “IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR FOOTBALL!!”. It was our football coach, Bill Struble. Coach Struble always entered the green room yelling out the same thing be it sunny, raining, snowing, sleeting, overcast etc... It was always a beautiful day for football. Until this morning I always thought Coach was talking about the weather. I woke up this morning a little tired, not excited about the day and with a little pain and those words rang through my mind, “it’s a beautiful day for football” Coach Struble was close to my current age, he had a family, he had bills, he had alumni pressure to win, he had to be a leader to a hundred young men and coaches, he had to deal with discipline issues (not always me…) bottom line he had hundreds of things on his mind but when he hit that room it all turned off and football turned on.

The reason I’m sharing this is because after I whispered “it’s a beautiful day for football” I realized what it meant, I whispered “it’s a beautiful day to be a husband” “it’s a beautiful day to be a father” “it’s a beautiful day to be a friend, a co-worker, a mentor, a pupil, a listener, a leader, a son of God.” We all have those days when we wake up and it’s a fight to get your feet to hit the floor but I made a promise to myself this morning that when my eyes open I will whisper “it’s a beautiful day to be the man God wants me to be, today is a day that the Lord has made I’m thankful He’s going to let me experience it.” and of course, I’ll whisper it’s a beautiful day for football. Thanks Coach for lessons learned years later.

spent the last couple weeks hanging razor wire on top of our wall, I wish it wasn't needed but I also realize we need a safe environment to operate all of our outreach out of, good news is we're almost finished:)

actual conversation "I'm thinking we should put the older razor wire down in the field and the newer razor wire by your house, you know, cause it will look nicer" decorating Haiti style:)