I’m going to start blogging about things that matter (on a regular basis) again soon. No really, I promise, I am. But for now I’ve got a funny story from today at Fuller.
Our class took a bit of a field trip to hear from a woman, Jean Burch” who is the senior pastor of a church that has done some truly remarkable things in the Pasadena community. The church of about 100 has helped turn the drug and crime center of Pasadena into a beautiful apartment complex. It was truly inspiring to hear the story of the ways God has used this remarkable woman and this remarkable church. Following her lecture, she took our class on a tour of the expansive apartment complex her church managed. It was a low-income housing area, but it was nonetheless very well maintained and aesthetically pleasing. The complex stretches across a few different streets, and there are a handful of homes located between different parts of the complex. As we were standing near one of the streets, Ms. Burch starting describing what was nearby.
“If you look down there past the trees, that is where our church is located. And that house across the street, it has been rebuilt since then, but Jackie Robinson used to live on that lot. There’s even a plaque in the sidewalk saying that he used to live there.”
At that, about ten grown men in the class (myself included) were instantly transformed into the cast of the movie The Sandlot and were overcome with excitement at the fact that we were standing next to the childhood home of such a legendary sports figure. We scurried across the street and took out our Blackberries, iPhones, and cell phones to get a picture of the plaque. One by one we took our pictures, most certainly looking ridiculous to anyone passing by (why on earth are those guys taking pictures of the ground while chattering like nine-year-olds???) Here’s mine:
While I am not the world’s biggest baseball fan, I have been a Jackie Robinson fan since I was old enough to read his amazing story. I can still picture the cover of the children’s book that I read I don’t know how many times. I did my first school report on Jackie Robinson in third grade, and have been fascinated by his story throughout the rest of my life.
Fortunately, that was the end of the tour, because from that point on all we could do was talk about Jackie Robinson and how cool it was to see his childhood home. The Australian in our class was thoroughly unimpressed since he had never heard of Jackie Robinson, so we tried to fill him in. Not exactly a typical day at Fuller Seminary.
