(Why is Jesus in the subject field?  To get by my uncle's spam filter.)

IN WHICH An Entire Arena Is Evacuated In Ten Minutes, We Discover The Fun Of Spilled Beverages, An Impassioned Sermon Is Delivered, AND A Fateful Catch Is Made.

When the final buzzer sounded, the home team had defeated the visiting Heat by a large margin, thanks to their complete domination in the second half.  The fans stood and cheered as their Sixers improved to 9-0 on the year, and then they all seemed to leave at once.  We had been asked to stay in our seats for a while before going down to courtside for the "Word of Life" section of the "Word of Life Super Bowl."  Not wanting any more contact with either the angry Asian men who had looked willing to fight to the death for their rightful seats or the mean-looking gentlemen near us who had advised them to find a security guard in the first place, we waited even longer than they to leave our section.

Still, when we went out into the walkway surrounding the arena, it was packed.  Most everyone went in to use the bathroom; I again stayed outside with the few children who did not have a pressing need to empty their bladders.  When we collected everyone, we made a sort of snaking line that slowly moved through the hordes of people down the escalator.  It seemed like no one was actually moving, yet the whole throng slowly oozed toward the escalator.  We got down to the lower level and walked into the sections they had designated for the church groups.  Noticing a whole row available in the middle section, we quickly grabbed it and I walked down, counting off the number of seats we would need, stopping when we reached our number - 12.

Below the 12th, 13th, and 14th seat was a large puddle of unidentified liquid that had half-dried and half-congealed into a slimy, sticky, slippery mess.  I angled my body toward the rest of the group, and had a smaller kid sit next to me to preserve legroom.

One of the smaller girls in our group had made contact with a clown at some point in her travels through the building, and she had been given a rather large balloon hat animal thing.  It really wasn't identifiable as anything, but if you moved it around just right, it could fit on your head and look pretty cool.  She had been wearing it on her head, but at this point, it was cramping her style - so she ordered me to wear it.  I enjoyed it, especially the odd looks I got from 'cool' 14 and 15-year-old boys who couldn't believe anyone would wear something so ridiculous.

	Mike and some of the kids - note the balloon hat!

Some of these were sitting directly next to me, as another group had come in and taken the remainder of the seats in our row.  It was very hard to follow the action that took place on the court - there were a lot of games that I couldn't understand, a lot of things thrown into the crowd that I couldn't reach, and an interesting sermon delivered by an intense man.  It must be one of the toughest settings to do that sort of thing - kids aren't paying attention, they all want to get out and go bowling, they're all looking at the PlayStation 2 you've told them you're going to give away - and at the end, though they all get up for the altar call, you have to wonder if it was God, or pleasing the chaperones, or following the cute girl, or being like everyone else.

After they all came back from the altar call, they started throwing prizes into the stands like there was no tomorrow.  Although lots of expensive stuff was being thrown, the kids got most excited about the cheap rubber basketballs being heaved into the stands.  They'd bounce off people and hit others in the head, and there would be a wild scramble until someone gained control.  I was watching them fired everywhere but towards our group, when suddenly one rather large man started to throw it in our direction, with more than enough force - it seemed - to reach us!

It hung in the air forever, and started to curl toward the annoying teenage boy near me.  Still wearing the balloon hat, I leaned to my left and reached out to make the catch.  Years of practice with Jeremiah on making catches while falling onto something soft benefited me, for just as the ball hit my arms and chest, the two of us slid in the huge puddle of spilled liquid - but I held on.  I ended up leaning sideways on top of the kid, who was half in his seat and half on the floor, and all annoyed that I had held on to the ball.  It was a truly amazing catch, and after I extricated myself from the sullen youth, my group celebrated for just a second, before every single kid asked me to give them the ball.

TO BE CONTINUED

Part Ten

NHS Speech

"My View" Editorial

The October Surprise
|  Round 1 |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |
|  11  |  12  |  Final Bell  |

Journey to Jersey II
|  Intro  |  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |

Journey to Jersey I
|  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |   6  |  7  |  8  |
|  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |
|  15  |  16  |  17  |  18  |  19  |  20  |

An Epic Saga
|  Act  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |
|   6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |
|  12  |  13  |  14  |  15  |  16  |

Christian Rock Email

Freshman Room Draw
|  Part One  |  Two  |
|  Three  |  Four  |  Five  |