By Tom Jenkins on 1/24/2009 4:03 PM

    Upward Basketball is in full swing at FBCC. We have over 200 boys and girls playing on 9 teams and 65 cheerleaders. With the teams and family members that come to watch the games, over 800 people come through the Family Life Center each Saturday. Upward teaches basketball skills but it also teaches life skills. Bible verses are memorized, prayers are offered, and spiritual counsel is provided for the teams. The players learn that it’s not all about winning. Developing character is more important than winning.

    A devotional is delivered at halftime each Saturday. Ralph Seagrove, one of our active deacons, gave the devotionals today. He said that in learning to play basketball we have to listen to our coaches, practice faithfully and learn from our past mistakes. Those are good lessons for life, too. We have a coach, Jesus Christ, we have the opportunity to work with him and thus “practice” this matter that we call Christianity and through his grace we learn from our mistakes and grow in our faith....

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By Tom Jenkins on 1/7/2009 9:17 AM

     I’ve allowed too much time to pass since last coming to these pages. I hope that grace is extended if I promise to be more faithful to my writing tasks.      Cheryl and I enjoyed time with our family over the Christmas holidays. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day with our son and then we flew to Key West to visit our daughter, son-in-law and their three children. For many years the entire family was at our house for Christmas. As children get older, move away and marry, and cultivate relationships among peers and move in their own circles beyond family, scheduling the holidays together as a family is difficult.         Our church family, FBCC, gave us many gifts, too. I’ve been writing notes of thanks and am overwhelmed as I am reminded of the generosity of so many people. The church surprised me in 2008 with a special luncheon and money to buy a new clerical robe. I wore it for the first time at our Christmas Eve service. I don’t wear a clerical robe often, but each time I use it will replay for me the mental tape of that celebration.

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