BINGO! Wait. What?!

Recently, I made a weekend trip to Danville, Virginia for Homecoming at Averett University (then College) from 1979-1983. I graduated with the first ever Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) degree ever bestowed. One of only two ever given before Averett stopped offering the degree. I also played Men’s soccer at Averett. Often we were ranked nationally in the top five programs in NCAA-III.

I got a text from a teammate, John Vigoreux, who now works in the administration, encouraging me to come to a reunion gathering in the spring of this year (2022). I typically don’t attend homecoming events every year. I only go to those events maybe once every 4-5 years. This year I was just too buried and besides gas prices shot sky-high and I just felt it would put too much strain on our budget. But, I let John talk me into coming.

Since 2018 I’ve been serving as Executive Director at Twelve3One Ministries, a benevolent organization that my wife Linda and I began in 2018. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February of this year, it has become almost a full-time job.

In the first week, we began receiving all kinds of communications; texts, IMs, emails, and phone calls from friends, friends of friends, and even people I’d never met before asking how they could help. Conversely, we also began receiving messages from friends and partners in Ukraine asking for help. I spent hours and hours round the clock responding to texts and social media posts tracking the whereabouts of dear ones in Ukraine. One dear friend went dark for nearly five days and I feared the worst. But praise God she emerged from hiding in a basement in a suburb of Kyiv after Russian troops withdrew.

In the first 10 days, our friends in Ukraine needed funds to move to safety across the country to the border and buy food, gas, and water. Some needed to buy vehicles to flee hotspots. Others needed funds to drive busses headlong into the hottest spots to rescue people trapped in basements. We were introduced to many new friends and partners in Ukraine and we started helping them as well.

I decided that after a couple of months of losing sleep and stress that I should go to the reunion event and connect with old friends. Afterward, I got a text from John saying I should expect a call from Averett Alumni Association’s Matt Bell. He wanted to write a story about our ministry and our work helping Ukrainians during the war. The article was published on the Averett Alumni News website (article link). If you want to read about how it all started, this is a good place to start. Matt did a great job telling our story.

Sometime later, I received a call from Averett’s President, Dr. Tiffany Franks. After a long phone conversation, she mentioned I’d been nominated for an award - the Distinguished Alumni Award.

I don’t get too wound up about such things. Nevertheless, I deeply appreciated that fellow Alums recognized the good work of our fledgling organization. But actually, winning? I didn’t really give it much thought.

I think life can be like Bingo at times. A whole lot of “whoop and holler” only to hear someone else yell, “BINGO!” That’s not to say I’m not happy for the person who won the bingo round. Unless you're a competitive Bingo player (if there is such a thing) or a sore loser let’s face it, it’s a game and supposed to be fun. I guess all that to say I don’t really let my hopes get too high about such things.

In fact, I’ve only won at bingo one time in my entire life! I was maybe 5 or 6 years old. It was at the ballpark in Estill Springs, TN. The town is so small. it had one flashing yellow traffic signal and one stop light and you could practically throw a rock from one city limit to the other. It was a very “Mayberry-esque town. I think it was the 4th of July, 1966, or 1967. There was a carnival at the ballpark where my brothers played little-league baseball. Nearby was a playground with a picnic pavilion. It was there that the bingo was being played.

I had exactly a quarter in my pocket. Just enough to play one round. I got my card and started filling in slots one by one as they called them. The suspense was building like a shaken-up grape Nehi. I thought surely some little old lady will win at any second. They called the next number and suddenly I was yelling “BINGO!! BINGO!! I got a BINGO!!” I ran forward as fast as my PF flyers could carry me. I remember all the old church ladies rolling their eyes in disgust at the scrawny kid beaming while walking up to claim his prize.

They handed me a huge box. I hoped it was something cool like a GI Joe set or…or…ripping and tearing into it to see what lay concealed inside. However, it revealed a set of…. Glassware. I might have been disappointed for a moment but I got the idea to give the set to my mom.

I carried the bigger-than-me box across to the ballpark and proudly gave it to my mom. With a puffed-up chest, I laid it on the bleacher before her and said something like “Here, Mama I won it for you!” And then I promptly went off to play paper-cup baseball with my friends at the dirt pile.

I remember participating in a leadership workshop years ago. During an activity, the instructor asked us to position ourselves anywhere in the room in any position that we felt best represented our idea of leadership. Most either went to the front of the room or got to some higher place like on top of a table or a chair, where everyone could see them. I remember some were around the podium.

That seemed like an uncomfortable place for me. I’m not really comfortable in high-visibility situations or places. My throat constricts. I get sweaty and dizzy sometimes even emotional. Instead, I felt REEEEALLY comfortable at the back of the room seated on the floor almost hiding behind the chairs, cross-legged and leaning against the wall. At the last moment, I decided to push my sleeves up. I’m not sure if it was in response to the exercise or if I was hot.

That leadership course instructor found it very curious that not only had I gone to the back of the room (as though pushing from behind rather than pulling from the front), not up high but instead down low lifting from underneath, almost out of sight but and my posture was relaxed and cross-legged on the floor and leaning back ready to work, sleeves pushed up.

I’ve since figured out that maybe I prefer not to be at the front of the room. That’s not to say I won’t take the opportunity to tell the story of our ministry in front of people. Because I will. I’ll take every single opportunity to do so. Because it’s critical. Lives hang in the balance.

You can imagine my shock when I got an email from Joel Nester, Director of Alumni and Constituent Relations, saying I’d actually “WON” the Distinguished Alumni Award.

“Wait, WHAT? I won?”

I read it again. At first, I felt like “Old Man Parker” in A Christmas Story when he won his infamous “major award” (the leg lamp). I suddenly felt the grin stretching from ear to ear. I felt all giddy and warm all over — like I’d won that round of BINGO. I couldn’t wait to tell Linda. But after a few days, I wanted to return to the back of the room, sit cross-legged on the floor, and push my sleeves up – a place that seemed more natural.

I prefer servant leadership. I prefer to give the limelight to God. If I have to give it to another human being then I prefer to recognize those I serve alongside or to those whom I serve. I simply prefer to push others ahead into the roles they feel led to step into and then help get them to the next one…and the next one. Like a stepping stone. All the while asking, “How can I help?”

As I made the 7-hour drive from Nashville to Danville, I had lots of time to think about what this award means to me. I’m humbled. Immensely humbled. I don’t ever see myself winning at Bingo or much else. And I don’t often win and I’m OK with that. I’d rather someone else win anyway.

But there’s this one part of being selected for this award that still warms my heart. It wasn’t by chance or sheer dumb luck like bingo. I received this award after being chosen. That’s a whole ‘nother thing. I have 3 older brothers. In my mind, they all stood out at something and I always felt like I was in one or the other’s shadow at any given moment. When we gathered all the neighborhood kids in the culdesac to play any kind of ball we divvied up teams. I won’t say that I was always last…but I was usually pretty close to the bottom of the stack.

And maybe that’s what makes this Distinguished Alumni award special and humbling. To those who provided nominations and to the members of the Alumni Association Board of Directors — thank you! Of all the people you could have chosen…and I’m sure there were so many worthy people who were nominated…you chose to give it to me. And of all the people God could have chosen for this work, He chose me. Feels like I got a "bingo." And for that, I'll lay all of this at His feet. “Here, Papa. this is for you! because of all you've done for me."

Related articles (links):

Averett University Honors 2022 Averett Alumni Award Recipients at Homecoming

Danville Register and Bee News Article

#averettuniversity #averettalumni #distinguishedalumni #danvillevirginia