My First Place Ballers!

I’ve been waiting to write this post for a long time!
As we started settling in here in Raleigh 9 months ago, I knew that God had a huge purpose for us moving here. Even aside from starting a great church here. I immediately started sensing the things that God was going to change about me, and I also began experiencing the ways he was going to bless me as we desperately trusted our wellbeing into His hands.

On a random craigslist search for a co-ed softball team, I was connected with Kelly from “The Ballers”. I would need to try out for the team, both at the batting cages and on the field. I was nervous, but I KNEW I needed to get on a team to meet new people, so I jumped on the opportunity. Also, something about being where NO ONE knew me made it a lot easier to take risks, as odd as that seems. I guess I just figured if I had a bad tryout and wasn’t welcomed onto the team, I wouldn’t have taken it personally since no one there knew me anyway! Thankfully, I didn’t have to search for another team. Everyone graciously welcomed me on as their second baseman and I was excited to play!

At our first practice of the season, I noticed that the group of people I was about to give a few days of my week to were VERY different than me. The only way I could describe my first impression of the Ballers was “wow, these guys have some EDGE!” They definitely did not fit the all of the southern stereotypes I was expecting! I went home after the first practice thinking, “these guys are so different from any group of people I’ve ever met!” I spent a while thinking about what my role would be on the team. Not just what position I’d play, but since I was making a “first impression” I really wanted to be intentional about everything! A couple of options that floated through my head:

1. Be a Jesus freak. Jump off the edge and just let it be known that I have a relationship with God and make it known that they need Jesus too!
2. Be a hard ass just like all of them and take it and dish it like I’m perfectly capable of doing!

I knew option number 1 was risky…just for the mere fact that if I SUCKED on the field or struck out on every at bat, I’d pretty much make Jesus look like a wuss!
Option 2 sounded a little easier for me, but truth is, I gave up my “tough gal” routine a long time ago. Not to mention this option would ALSO make Jesus look bad whenever they find out we moved here to start a church! So… I decided go for my back up plan of just being…hmmm…myself! Wow!! Can’t believe it took me three tries to come up with THAT decision! And HEY, what do you know…it worked out!

Me, Kelly, and Christian hit it off immediately. We all had SO much in common. Christian is from Alabama, Kelly is from North Carolina, and I’m from southern Cali, and it was kind of scary to find out all of the similarities between the three of us and our childhoods. I remember my first “this is soooo amazing” moment when we went out to celebrate Christian’s birthday. It was my first time hanging out with the girls outside of softball. We were in Kelly’s car, driving down the road…she had her satellite radio tuned to the 90’s station! We spent most of our first few moments outside of softball singing at the top of our lungs to Bobby Brown, The Cranberries, and Keith Sweat! It was the coolest feeling it the world. Like the three of us had known each other for YEARS! I immediately felt so much love for them, and I knew they loved me! Since that day, we’ve spent so much time learning about each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we’re constantly encouraging each other to make the most out of every moment we have on earth!

The girls were both raised knowing who God was, but they had both reached a point where they we’re pretty much bored with the typical southern Baptist church. (There are literally churches on every corner)! Everyone on the team pretty much learned why my family moved to North Carolina. And although I really wanted them to check out what I knew would be a refreshing experience with God at Church at the Triangle…I wasn’t ready to make any public intercom announcements about our service times! I would pray on my way to games “God if you’re alive in me, then please somehow reveal yourself through me and make the whole church inviting thing come naturally.” It wasn’t long after that…I think our second or third game, God did His thing and opened up an opportunity. It was definitely not my most “spiritual moment” but more of an example of how God uses our brokenness for His purpose! It’s actually pretty amusing to think about the way it all played out! We lost one of our first games in our first season. After the game…everyone was just bumming! I was so mad at myself because I hit poorly on my three at bats. As we walked off the field, a PG13 rated expletive slipped out of my mouth (under my breath)! Immediately about half my team turned and looked at me, and Chris, the macho man of them all, turned to me and said “woah, did you hear that language out of the church girl’s mouth?!” “Oh CRAP” I thought to myself. I’ve done it now. I just pretty much contradicted everything I believe in and now these people are NEVER going to take my relationship with God seriously. I had to come up with something to say after Chris called me out in front of everybody. I remembered praying for God to use my brokenness to show Himself, and in that split second moment, He DID it! I turned around and was able to say “That’s what’s sweet about my church! You don’t have to be a perfect person to come learn about God and sit in service. The reason I love God so much is mostly because He loves me in spite of how screwed up I am!” On the walk to the car, Christian mentioned she wanted to find a church like the one I described! Before she attended even one service, she told me about her career in Public Relations and that she wanted to help out in that area if we needed the help!! She came to one service and immediately jumped right into a serving role. It has been such an amazing thing to watch God just tweak with Christians life!! You can read more about her awesome story here. Kelly came on our first launch service and has been coming to Church at the Triangle ever since, too! We’ve had sweet opportunities to pray with other teammates and the rest of them all pretty much know they have a standing open invitation to come with us to church every Sunday if they want! It has been so awesome to just be me and watch God work in crazy ways! He has placed a crazy passion in me for every single player on my team. I love them all so much. I’ve had the opportunity to see through the “edge” of these people, and have come to find out that they are the most CARING, KIND, and GENEROUS people that I’ve ever met! They love ME for me! They don’t judge my character and I don’t EVER feel like I have to pretend to be someone else when I’m with them. We hang out a lot and our husbands get together to talk football and bag on each other! So wonderful!

I know for a fact that when I get back to San Diego, I’ll NEVER find a team like the Ballers. This team was a God’s biggest blessing to me while we’ve been here. I hate thinking about leaving them. They’re all supportive and we’re already talking about visiting each other once we get home. I don’t even want to think about leaving them yet! We’ve only lost one game in our second season together! We’re in first place with a big lead!! We still have a few more games and rain make ups, that we need to win! I’m confident we’ll take first place this season, just because that would be an AMAZING way to end this season of softball and this season of life for my family.


I love you Chris, Luke, Timmy, Jessica, Derrick, David, Stacy, Brittany, Bradley and Josh – I’ll miss you guys so much. No one will ever replace the spot you have in my heart!












Christian and Kelly, my girlies… you have rocked my world! I couldn’t have asked God for two better friends! I love you so much.VM’s for life, baby!

GO BALLERS!