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Okay, I admit it. I talk pretty fast. But maybe that's because I lived in the New York area for so long. Everyone there talks fast! Or maybe it's because I always have so much to say before the time runs out. But I am sort of a, I guess, a verbal machine gun. But I did come across someone who finally succeeded in slowing me down by about maybe two-thirds.
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Well, it was our first weekend after we had moved to the New York area, and it was the fourth of July. So, we thought it would be a good weekend to see New York City. A lot of people will be gone, and it was a good weekend. We didn't get all jammed up in traffic, we got to see a lot of the sights and get familiar with the streets. We kind of braved it. When we headed home, we drove up the West Side Highway, which runs right along the Hudson River headed for the George Washington Bridge.
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A lot of what goes into winning a football game is behind the scenes. Oh, we see all the plays and all the action, and all the heroics on the field. But a lot goes on we never see.
Let's take our local high school football team that I worked with for example. Each week someone from the coaching staff was out scouting the other team during the season. And sometimes I'd show up at the locker room and I'd ask, "Well, what are we up against this week? Tell me about the team we're playing this coming weekend." Almost always I'd get a rundown on what that team was good at, who their high scorer was, and what we would have to do to contain them, where their weaknesses were, and what we needed to go after. See, those scouting reports helped our coaches know how to best play that other team. Now, unfortunately, a lot of us are playing as if we haven't heard the scouting report on the other team.
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Man, when I see my grown children eat now, it surprises me they ever needed help! But they did. And, of course, they're doing great now all by themselves. But there was a time when they had to be fed. And then I watched that with my grandchildren. See, sometimes - especially the very little ones - they need help, especially when they have this big piece of meat or chicken placed in front of them.
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It is almost as if God had sent us an angel. We were coming back from a Christmas party years ago. All five members of the Hutchcraft family together with the families of the youth ministry I worked for had been there for the annual Christmas party.
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Well, somehow I ended up speaking for the FAA Pilot Safety program. Now, you really wouldn't want to fly in a plane that I taught anyone to fly; I don't know nothing about it. But I think they invited me because of a book I wrote called "Peaceful Living In a Stressful World." Stress is a real issue to pilots, so they kind of sneaked me in for one of the programs.
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The occasion was a silver anniversary buffet for our 25th class reunion from college. Of course I was much younger than any of those mid-life folks that I graduated with. What happened to them? But anyway, the location was our alma mater, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. That was a great training place; it was founded and named after the outstanding evangelist of the 19th century, D. L. Moody.
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We were shooting some video footage of a group of teenagers and they were kind of surprised when they saw the result on a TV screen. We were seated in a little cluster on the floor discussing various youth issues, and what surprised them was the fact that when they saw it on the screen they realized we had focused close-up on each individual as they were commenting. Of course, they went, "Oh, no! Look at me!" See, they thought it was going to be this big group shot. We didn't want the viewers to be distracted by anyone else, so most of the time we would zoom our telephoto lens in a real tight close-up, so you would only see one person. The telephoto effect actually makes a big difference.
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Funny things happen when church youth groups go on summer missions trips. Suddenly these comfortable American kids are facing a totally unfamiliar situation, maybe for the first time in their lives!
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I had a funny conversation with the owner of a local restaurant one day. The restaurant was close to our office, so I was there pretty frequently. I usually ran in and grabbed the quickest thing I could and ran out. Well, I was at the cash register and there were two or three others waiting to pay when Tony, the owner, said, "What do you do anyway?" Well, I wanted an opportunity there, and I thought this might be the first chance I've had to really let him know that I know Christ.
