God's Big Cell Phone

Over the weekend, my wife and I decided to watch “Toy Story 5,” the latest story in the popular animated series. We clicked it on to watch and the familiar instrumental music of “When You Wish Upon a Star” started playing. A strange thing happened.

As the familiar song ended, I hit the pause button and looked over at my smiling wife. “Did you feel that?” I asked? She looked at me with wide eyes and said, “Yes!” I looked back at her and said, “I was just ten years old again sitting at home in our living room watching TV with my family.” She slowly nodded and said, “me, too.” We both let out a sigh and shared a few memories from our childhood and the excitement of the Disney show we were about to watch.

Most would agree that The Disney Company has become a far different enterprise than what we remember when Walt Disney himself was running the corporation. But that’s not where I’m wanting to go with this. What has intrigued me ever since we sat down to watch the animated show (which we have yet to complete), was that intense, nostalgic feeling from just a few bars of music and a familiar looking castle.

A photo application on my cell phone often gives me a similar “nostalgic” feeling. It just happened when I received a photo message saying, “eight years ago today” and there I was standing with my friend, Lazaro, in Cuba.

We were working on true missionary stories for a children’s book series at the time and I was intrigued by Lazaro’s story and ministry. He grew up in a very poor barrio of Cuba and like many young boys, grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player. As a little boy, he had never held a real baseball or glove. Instead, he and his friends made baseballs out of rags, bats out of sticks, and gloves out of pieces of cardboard.

Lazaro’s dream of being a professional baseball player never came true. “But I am playing on my dream team,” Lazaro told me with tears of joy, “and it is so much greater than any team I could have ever imagined. Jesus invited me to be on his team and my job is to invite other people to be on His team, too.”

At the time of this photo, Lazaro was running sports camp all over Cuba for young boys and girls. With barely any funding, he would wander into a new town and ask “who wants to play” and a little sports camp would be born. They would play, he would give some coaching, and then he’d tell them about his “team” and his “coach” named, Jesus.

What fun it was to bring Lazaro boxes full of his story titled, “Lazaro’s Dream Team” – in full color – for him to give out to some of the children he would meet. My eyes still fill with tears as he was overwhelmed in seeing his book complete with a clear presentation of the Gospel.

Another photo memory from that same time was of a couple who joined us on our mission trip to Cuba. I remember how thrilled they were to meet so many whose focus and joy came from the Lord despite the obvious hardships of life in Cuba. They brought special gifts of love and help and I often saw them quietly praying together off in a corner with tears flowing after meeting some of our Cuban brothers and sisters. We certainly didn’t know it at the time, but this was one of our traveling companions last mission trips as he is now living with Jesus himself.

I spent some time looking over these “old” photos from Cuba. There are many more from places like Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Mexico, Bolivia and on and on. As I looked, I also thought of all of you who are creating your own special “photo memories” stored up in “God’s big cell phone.” These would be photos of those you have helped and encouraged and blessed with your financial partnership and prayers. Maybe one day we’ll get to flip through his cell phone and take a look with awe and wonder. All we can say on this end is, “thank you” for investing in God’s work through LOGOI.

I suspect my wife and I will eventually finish watching “Toy Story 5.” It’s supposed to be about the conflict between traditional playtime and modern technology. At the moment, however, we’re both feeling a little nostalgic and looking through old pictures and videos. Then we’re going to read, “Lazaro’s Dream Team” and thank the Lord that just like Lazaro, He chose us to be on His team.

Forever!

Ed Thompson

President

P.S. You can download a copy of “Lazaro’s Dream Team” by clicking here: https://www.logoiministry.org/product-page/lázaro-s-dream-team-an-illustrated-childrens-book. It comes with a suggested donation of $10. Of course, if you’re feeling extra nostalgic, you could add a zero or two….

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