he doesn't know sports. he knows Jesus...

So...I had an exciting and exhausting Saturday.
Actually, the exhaustion lasted from Thursday through Sunday.
But, the excitement was pretty much confined to Saturday.

I work for our local Chamber of Commerce and
we have an "Annual Benefit Dinner" each summer.
Saturday evening was the 4th Annual Benefit Dinner.

Each dinner has a high profile speaker...
someone who is sure to draw a crowd,
which means selling a lot of tickets...
which means the Chamber benefits!

Any-hoo...the first dinner's speaker was Steve Spurrier,
of SEC football playing and coaching fame.

The second speaker was Bruce Pearl,
of University of TN basketball coaching fame.

The third speaker was Pete Rose,
of Cincinnati Reds baseball (and gambling) fame.

And...drum-roll, please...

This year's speaker was...keep drum-rolling...

No...not a soccer star.
Nope...no hockey hero.
Negative...not even a badminton bad boy.

This year's speaker didn't even know who Steve Spurrier was!
Seriously.
He asked my boss, "So, who is Steve Spurrier?"
Isn't that great?!?

Okay...enough playing.

The guest speaker at Saturday evening's dinner was
KIRK CAMERON!

...of "Growing Pains" fame...
which meant nothing to my mother...
but, will translate to Mike Seaver for anyone
who was jr. high to high school age in the 70's and 80's.

Of course, he knows that he still has "adoring" fans
from his teen-idol days.
But, the last person he wants to talk about now
is Kirk Cameron aka Mike Seaver.

What he gets the most joy talking about is
how Jesus Christ has transformed Kirk Cameron.

There were over 1,300 people in attendance Saturday.
We had tables and chairs on the floor for 620 and
over 700 people came just for the program and
sat in the bleachers and mezzanine seats of a local high school gym.

Oh, there were plenty of ladies there who
rushed down to take Kirk's photo when he entered the gym.
One lady even had a "Teen Beat" magazine from the 70's,
in which the centerfold was...oh yeah...Kirk Cameron.

When she put it in front of him to autograph,
he just sort of smiled and folded the centerfold back down
and signed his name on the lower portion of the page.
It's a past he can't deny...but, it's not his identity anymore.

He had strong words for the crowd that evening.
Marriage was his topic and he didn't beat around the bush.

He clearly shared the gospel and
challenged married folks whose marriages were in crisis
that the only remedy is a heart change.

Oh, you can do outward stuff like Caleb Holt did in "Fireproof"
(Kirk played that character) such as,
making your spouse dinner,
making your spouse coffee in the morning,
calling and checking on your spouse during the day,
buying your spouse flowers or gifts...
but, none of those things will solve the problem.

Only a new heart, a heart of flesh filled with Christ Jesus
will be able to reach out to a spouse,
not seeking to satisfy selfish desires, but seeking to serve;
not first looking for the fault in a spouse,
but knowing the biggest problem is one's own sinful self.

Kirk also challenged anyone who was dabbling in
or addicted to pornography.
He said just as Adam stood by and didn't protect Eve
from the serpent...
husbands who are looking at pornography
are not protecting their wives and
are allowing the serpent to crawl in bed
and curl up right next to their wives at night.

He challenged couples who live separate lives...
separate checkbooks,
separate vacations,
separate friends,
separate mealtimes...
these are marriages that are in serious trouble.

He said bridges to sin need to be burned and
altars to God need to be raised;
and that's only possible through the cross.

One thing that really troubled people from the get-go was
Kirk would not allow any photographs to be taken
of himself with any woman or group of women
unless another man was in the photo, too.

All I could think was how safe and protected his wife must feel,
and how glorifying to God this was!

We heard comments like,
"What's the big deal?!"
"That's pretty extreme!"
"That's silly!"
and someone actually said,
"I think that's bordering on discriminatory!"

Unbelievable.

Some facts that Kirk shared...
people in the Bible-belt are more familiar with
Billy Graham than the Holy Bible.
When asking random people, who said they owned Bibles,
who delivered the Sermon on the Mount,
92% answered, Billy Graham.

Oh. my.

So...other than being reminded that we live in an area
of the United States where people are very religious
and sadly don't realize they are very lost,
it was a great evening.

Kirk's 13 year old son, Jack, came with him.
He's about 5'11" and wears a 16 1/2 shoe.
The doctor thinks he'll be 6'9" when he stops growing.
That's compared to Kirk's 5' 8".

Oh, yes...Jack is adopted.
Chelsea, Kirk's wife, was adopted.
So it was a very deep longing of her heart to adopt.
After they married, she and Kirk adopted four children
before having two birth children of their own.
Jack is the oldest.

One other anecdote...

Sweet Husband and I were going to have the privilege
of taking Kirk and Jack back to Knoxville on Sunday morning,
since we go to church in Knoxville.

However, while Rob was bringing them to Athens from the airport,
Kirk saw a billboard advertising "The Lost Sea"
and asked Rob, "What's The Lost Sea?"

Rob informed him it's the largest underground sea in the world.
Kirk looked at Jack and said,
"We've got to see that while we're here!"

So...Rob called the manager, whom he knows personally,
and she agreed to have some employees there at
6:30AM on Sunday morning
to tour Kirk and Jack around The Lost Sea.
Rob told me that he would be happy to take them.

Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed in the least.
I don't do closed in spaces well at all...especially at 6:30AM!

Here's a taste of Saturday in photos...

So...how do you photograph 1,300 people?

With a wider lens than I had!

I couldn't get everyone in the frame.

Nice problem for a benefit dinner!

These are the miracle people from Spice of Life Cafe.

They fed 620 people some mighty good food!!

 Darren Phipps is the chef...the guy in the red jacket.

Here is Kirk and Jack to his right.

Kirk addressing the crowd...

...and signing autographs.
  

Everyone had a story.

He listened to each and every one.

Then he took a photo with us Chamber staffers...

and we called it a night.

A good night!