Golfing

This past Monday afternoon was the Greg Arends Memorial Golf Outing. The purpose of the outing is to provide scholarships for GCMS high school students to attend FCA leadership camp. There were over twenty teams of 4 that played. Pictured at left are my 3 golf partners, Dave, Dave, and Brian. Our score did not garner much attention from PGA golf scouts looking for some senior players, but we did laugh a lot. We had been misinformed, we thought the highest score won the tournament.

After playing, the teams gathered for a meal and to hear a couple of high school students describe their experiences at last years FCA camp. One of the students was Steve Massey, a young man from our church. The keynote speaker for the evening was Trent Meacham. Trent plays basketball for the U of I and is a devoted follower of Jesus. He has interned with the FCA through this summer. It was a delightful ending to a delightful afternoon.

And yet. It was also a bit of a bittersweet experience. The outing is in memory of Greg Arends. An exuberent young man whose life ended while he was 17. The events unfolding the morning of his death are seared into my memory. At his funeral, I said "If you came (to this place) hoping for an easy and quick answer to those questions (which you are asking), you will leave disappointed. But, just as those questions are real, so the ultimate answer is real. That is, in the midst of this agony, in the midst of this tunnel, there is a very real and powerful HOPE." I believed that on January 22, 2003 and I believe that today. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies." The golf outing and the subsequent monies used to send young people to FCA camp where they either come to know Jesus as their Savior or grow in their knowledge of Him is a testimony that out of deep tragedy, the Lord can bring great good.