Road Trip

Before we get into the story here, a reminder that Soup Supper and Lenten Evening Services are tonight at 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. respectively.  We've been hearing wonderful stories from our church family folks throughout Lent at these services and tonight's will be no exception.  If you're missing them, you're missing something.

Now, providing weather permits I will be departing immediately after this evening's service, taking a brief road trip to Portland.  The occasion is a special Trail Blazers game.  It's not special because of the opponent or because of how well the Blazers are playing.  Instead it'll be a special night for a few kids.

Almost everybody knows by now that I also write a blog about the Trail Blazers that gets a fair amount of attention.  Five years ago the site was getting big enough that we figured we should hold a get-together.  So I arranged for a block of tickets at a game to be reserved for purchase by our readers.  We sold several dozen and were looking forward to getting together at the arena, getting acquainted.

That's when I got an e-mail from a reader.  He had purchased a couple tickets in our section but it turned out he couldn't go.  He said he'd send them to me.  He figured I might know somebody who could use them...a poor college student or something.  I really didn't, but I figured I could find somebody.  So I put up a notice on the blog, saying we had a couple extra tickets to give to somebody who needed them.  I got a wonderful e-mail from a guy named Dan.  He said he worked with underprivileged kids.  They knew all about the Blazers, of course.  Several of them were fans.  (Keep in mind this was just after the Brandon Roy-LaMarcus Aldridge draft, so the Blazers had hit big in the local community again, especially among youngsters.)  He said he knew I must have several requests already, but it would mean a lot to one of these kids to be able to go.

I read his letter and called him up.  We talked for a while and he explained the work he did through an area church.  I asked him how many kids he worked with who fit the description he had given.  He said 16 or so.  I told him I wasn't assigning the tickets yet and asked him to hold on.  Then I went back to the blog.  I explained this guy's situation and request.  I said I was going to give him the tickets but noted that several seats in our block remained unsold.  I wondered if we couldn't surprise him by donating enough tickets to send all his kids plus a couple chaperons.  We needed 18 tickets to accomplish that.

We got 46.

A couple days later I called up Dan and gave him the good news.  We weren't sending a kid, we were sending all his kids plus a couple adults.  I asked if he knew any more children in need because we had about triple the number of tickets we had asked for.  He didn't right away but he said he'd call and check.  Through his network among schools and social agencies he collected enough kids and adults and our very first site get-together included 60-odd readers and 46 wide-eyed and enthusiastic kids who couldn't believe they were actually at a real Blazers game.

The stories we got back from that night were incredible.  Teachers told us how their students--hard and mistrusting and many of them dead silent all year--all of a sudden began to talk to them about the Blazers.  We saw again and again how the weariness of lives we couldn't even begin to imagine--lives that made these kids grow up far too quickly--melted away when they walked into that huge arena, heard the music, saw the court.  For one night they got to be kids again.  It was a side that many of the people who worked with them said they had never seen before.  We were rewarded 100 times over for the effort.

That's how our blog's night at the Rose Garden started.  We kept the tradition through the years.  Dan became our official ticket coordinator, managing requests and distributing our tickets.  As the years went by we saw a curious thing happening.  Everybody gave up going themselves in favor of buying tickets for kids.  We'd announce which night the event was for the year and ask people to write us if they worked with children who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford a game.  Those e-mails would come in, wondering what they had to do to get tickets for their students.  When we told them, "Nothing, we just give them to you," they were somewhat disbelieving.  Then they'd ask how many of their kids could go.  We'd reply with, "How many you got?"  They'd say 5 or 15 or 23 and we'd tell them that we'd send them all.  You could hear the jaws drop.  When we said we'd send chaperons for free too because they deserved it for their hard work, people would come near to crying.  And we always have...as many as ask, we send.  As far as I know, we've not turned away a single request.

On Thursday night 705 kids and their chaperons will attend the Portland Trail Blazers game against the Memphis Grizzlies.  For almost all of those kids this will be the first and only time they'll get to go...their chance to be normal and have fun like everybody else.  Of course everybody at the site is delighted to be able to do this.  They're already asking if we can reserve 1000 tickets for next year.  We just might.

In any case, as long as the snow doesn't destroy my chances at driving, I'm heading out tonight at 7:30 and driving to Portland so I can be there at the game tomorrow.  I'll drive back on Friday, so I won't be gone long.  But it should be a fun time.

It just goes to show you that ministry can happen in the most unexpected ways and places.  And people want to be involved in loving their neighbor like we always talk about.  If you give them the chance, you might be surprised what happens.

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)