A Gentle Reminder...

I started my day as usual, checking emails, reading various news articles and reading through some blogs. I normally read Keao's, Nely's, Bryce's, the Advertiser's UH Football one and most recently John-John's.

As I was reading Stephen Tsai's (the Advertiser's one) blog I noticed he had an article written by Chris Shinnick, a former UH football player.

Me with Stephen Tsai (left) and Ferd Lewis (right) in Las Vegas.

I met Chris probably sometime around 2000-2001. At the time he was the youth pastor at Moanalua Gardens Missionary Church and some of the kids in my High School MiniChurch wanted to check out their youth group called the Firehouse. So I went along and I'll never forget the first thing he said to me. I walked in the door (and he probably thought I was some creepy guy since I was considerably older than everyone else) and looked me straight in the eye with an outstretched hand and said, "Who are you?" He didn't say it in a threatening way, but rather matter-of-fact genuine way since he didn't know who I was. I explained why I was there and thus began a long friendship.

Take the time to read his article. You can read it here. It's worth reading. It tells the tale of unselfishness and heroism. I can only hope that if I'm ever in the same situation I would act the same way as that young man. Thanks for the reminder Chris.

Chris (far left) with Senor Pablo and Liz at camp in December, 2003.