Registers. Running. Remembering.

About a week and a half ago, Fellowship had the privilege of helping out with the Sam Bomar Night at the Jackson Generals.

Sam was a student in FSM that was tragically killed in an accidental shooting a little over a year ago.  He was just a year younger than me, so I pretty much grew up with him in the youth group.  Specifically, I got to experience his zest for life during Student Impact my senior year of high school.  He was a wacky kid, but when he started opening up about his walk with the Lord, you couldn't help but listen intently.

Love these people.

Because he touched so many lives during his short stint on this earth,  a volunteer team of parents and friends began the Sam Bomar Memorial Scholarship Fund.  Sam was taken up to Heaven just a week shy of graduating from Madison Academic High School, and his dream was to go to UT Knoxville.  Sam's parents wanted to give other student the opportunity to fulfill their college dreams even though their only son was not able to.

Mommy the volunteer doing her sorority pose.

To raise money for the scholarship fund, the Jackson Generals (a minor league baseball team based out of Jackson) has allowed a night to be dedicated to him for two years now.  Fellowship's role for both years has been to work the concessions.  It is just as crazy and fun as it sounds!  Personally, I was in charge of organizing the volunteers for this year.  I was blessed with a team of FSM leaders and students that were more than willing to sacrifice their time.  Some were even still jet-lagged from a mission trip to South Africa! Yet, everyone joyfully served.  It was beautiful to see the Body of Christ come together.  And, let's be honest, we had a BLAST doing it.

At the 5K with Sam's mom...such an amazing woman.

The next morning was the Sam Bomar Memorial 5K.  It was also held at the ballpark, and all of the proceeds benefited the scholarship fund as well.  Jen, Bailey, Sophie, Hannah, and I ran the race together.  Well, ran and walked.  I'm going to break this down for a second:  3.1 miles + Becca legitimately not being able to remember the last time she worked out = not an award winning performance that morning.  However, with the constant encouragement from my beautiful friend Bailey, I finished it, only needing to walk a few times (much less than I anticipated).  We all considered the morning a huge success.  Oh, and let's not forget that Jen Howell got a MEDAL in her age division.  This is a Momma of four that thought she might never run again after a back injury last year.  SO inspiring. 

But, the best part of the weekend, and the weeks of organizing leading up to it, was the encouragement that I received from everyone involved.  My contribution was so miniscule in the grand scheme of things, yet I was blessed with sweet encouragement from organizers that had much more on their plate than I did.  From Sam's mom's emails, to Donald literally telling me good job a hundred times (he was one of the jet-lagged ones so we cut him some slack),  I felt so humbled by the experience.  The person who showed the most joy that weekend was Rayna Bomar, Sam's mother.  She is a true testament to the healing power of the Lord.

Becca