It feels like fall and football, not summer and baseball. Today has brought fall-like weather to central Indiana for a few days, but that doesn’t stop my 30 days of catch! It’s still baseball season.
Rev. Dr. Aleze Fulbright serves as the Conference Superintendent of the Central and West Districts of the Indiana Conference of The United Methodist Church. If you are wondering, I serve in the Central District, which means she is my Superintendent. No pressure, even though I did play with my Bishop last week and survived. Dr. Aleze was kind enough to play a game of catch with me between meetings at Fort Harrison Inn at the State Park.
I always carry around a few extra gloves with me and a bag full of baseballs, so I gave one to Dr. Aleze to try on. I was hoping it would fit, and she immediately said, “It fits like a glove.” Perfect! Time to catch!
Now I already knew that her son is an athlete, but I didn’t know what sports Dr. Aleze had played growing up. I learned a lot about Dr. Aleze on a trip we both had the chance to go on with the Bishop’s Leadership Academy back in 2015 to Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Zambia. It was such a great trip and opportunity to get to know Dr. Aleze who was serving as the Director of Leadership Development at the time. I joked with her today that I didn’t know on the trip that she would later become my Superintendent, so you have to be careful what you say!
I do remember during that trip that she shared about her son who played basketball and football growing up and now coaches basketball, but what I didn’t know is that Dr. Aleze played softball in high school. And it showed! She could throw the ball! In fact, I stopped talking a few times to listen to the pop of the ball into my glove. I told her she has a nice hard throw and caught the ball well. We didn’t skip a beat!
As we played catch we shared about our different areas of ministry and her recent trip to Kenya. After we tossed the ball for a while, I checked our time. We were both surprised that it had already been 9 minutes. My goal is to play catch for around 10 minutes or so, but we kept playing for a few more minutes. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re enjoying a game of catch and the conversation with your catch partner.
Dr. Aleze shared that she had been in a number of meetings this week already and even today. I was up early speaking at a local Kiwanis group this morning about our Gleaners food distribution and my fundraiser and had a staff meeting. Our days had already been full, but it was nice to be outside, toss the ball, and enjoy some conversation.
Thank you to Rev. Dr. Aleze for being a part of my 30 days of catch fundraiser, for her leadership in our district and conference, and for her constant joy in her ministry!
A quick update on the financial fundraiser for Gleaners. As of this afternoon, we are quickly nearing $17,000. It’s really amazing! Thank you to everyone who has donated, played catch with me, and shared my fundraiser with others! I’m overwhelmed with the generosity of so many who helped to shatter my original goal of $15,420.
I think it’s time to increase the goal to $20,000. Let’s keep it going!
If you feel moved to share a financial donation for my Gleaners fundraiser, use the link below.
https://give.gleaners.org/fundraiser/4739257
Get outside. Play catch. Find something that brings joy and a smile to your face.
Thank you for supporting Gleaners and following my 30 days of catch!