Maya got beat up

This is a lame posting about my dog, but there is drama, action, flashbacks, and other things in it that make it like a B film hollywood movie.

I took the dogs to a school that has a soccer field late at night to let them run and throw the tennis ball to them. Just as I was leaving with them two dogs came out of no where and I thought for sure they were going to attack my two dogs. I yelled no and ran towards them, but I heard the owner say, "It's ok, their friendly ... blah, blah, blah."
Now I had been out of town at a kicking and punting camp for the last five days, and the dogs had not had a chance to get out; plus we were watching Brianne's grandmother while her husband was out of town visiting his sister who has cancer in three organs. So I thought it would be great if the dogs could run around and get some more energy out (the night before they stayed up all night in a unfamiliar house and Brianne could not sleep at all).
Little did I know what would transpire about five minutes into the future. The other guy had two friends with him (a guy and a girl), and he also had some beers that he offered me which I gladly accepted - Just kidding! I told him, "No thanks," and there was small talk between him and myself (he was from LA before he moved here, blah, blah, blah). One of his dogs was a mix between a great dane and a pit bull (he told me). This dog hogged my dog's tennis ball, and at one point after I had taken it from him to throw, he snapped at Maya. I should have been smart enough to realize it was the tennis ball which he was trying to take ownership of. I felt like I should really get going. As I grabbed my two dogs, I also asked if he would get the tennis ball out of his dogs mouth. He did this and gave it to me, and as we were leaving, his dog and Maya got into it. This dog was a full shoulder, neck, and head above Maya and would easily have killed Maya if we let them continue to fight. Maya tried to fight, but was kind of whinning as she fought. I ran in and grabbed his dog by the neck with both of my hands and picked him off the ground shaking him and yelling no. Now in the code of dog owners (which I know nothing about and think is retarded), it is not cool to try and discipline another persons dog. So this guy came up and pushed me as he grabbed his dog and told me to calm down as if I were overreacting.

My thoughts were, "This dog is going to kill my dog; I'm going to break it up; if I am going to break it up and I don't know this dog or how it is going to react - when I grab it, I will grab it with such force it doesn't want to mess with me, and then let his owner take over." For a split second after he pushed me I was tempted to get physical with him there on the spot (is that not the worldly manly thing to do), but it was probably the Lord that made me realize that that would solve nothing. Plus, the dogs would have been loose to go at it also. He tried to blame it on my dog, and I of course thought it was over the tennis ball that had just been taken away from his dog. I will never be sure. I just grabbed my dogs and said to them, "We'll see you later." I went home to find out later that poor Maya had a bite cut under her eye and it was pretty deep; I myself had five teeth bite marks on my hand which were not deep and I hadn't realized through the ruckus. I know it wasn't a big deal and I should have forgotten it, but I kept playing the situation over and over in my head and how I could have done things differently (maybe how I could have beaten this guy up but still been able to share the love of Christ with him - just kidding) . The most frustrating things was I was about to leave... I was on my way leaving the school when they came; if only I had left.

The lesson learned is don't let your dogs play with dogs you don't know.

Ministry at the BSU

Short time after the global impact celebration:), David Englehart gave me a call and asked if I would be in a position to act as the interim director for the BSU at Western New Mexico until the end of the semester. I was extremely happy to be blessed with this opportunity, and when realizing that David had looked for two months and could find no one who was willing to fill that position, I decided that it was something that I needed to do.

It has been a great time, and a time where I am being challenged and stretched. It has forced me to grow a great deal. The very first day that I drove west with David to meet the students, God used him to convict me about scripture memory and the importance of it. It was like a bell went off in my head, and I finally understood the importence of it (after 9 years of being a Christian). Scripture memory allows you to deeply have the Word of God in your heart so you can meditate on it all day, and God can use that to mold and shape you more so than I ever imagined. I always haphazardly memorized a scripture if I was interested in it, but as the years went by I slowly just ended up reading God's Word but not really memorizing it. It has been a blessing to finally understand the importance of scripture memory and it is something that I will not let go of. If this was all that would occur from my deciding to fill in at Western until the end of the semester, it would be worth it.

The last three weeks have been great, and we will be trying to reach out to the campus in many ways that up to this point we have not. We are setting up a time to cook burgers for the entire football team during one of their spring break practices and talk to them about the Lord; we passed out fliers and put fliers on cars on campus for a Tuesday night late night food, internet access, and fun for those who normally do not come. We really need to evangelize and use the relationships that God has helped us establish with others to share the gospel with them. I have personally sat down and met with a bunch of the students, but really need to disciple them and help them see how vital they are in reaching the campus for Christ. If you all could just pray about it, that would be great.