| At the Arnold 2007 |
| At the Arnold 2007 |
| Wow! Where to begin? Well, how about the
beginning? We planned the Arnold trip '07
right after the '06 event. We knew we were
going back without a doubt! However, this
time, with more fervency! And we did! Team
players remained fairly the same with some
new editions. Brother Calvin couldn't make
this year but newcomer Trevor Howell did!
Joe Meeko, Anibal Lopez and his wife Maribel
were there manning the Ironage booth with
many other stars of yesteryear including
Sergio Oliva, Steve Michalik. I got to meet up with Vince from Vince's
Muscle Shop again and I truly feel
a friendship
has developed there, especially since
I let
him convince me to enter the Xenia
Strongman
competion in September! Jimmy Choteau from Team Extreme drove up from Missouri with his family. His wife, Cynthia and two kids stayed with Val and Jon-Jon at our house while we were at the Arnold. They are a must go next year! Someone needs to witness to those women! Jimmy and family arrived and he ate something quickly and we were on our way. Joey Meeko beat us to the hotel, coming in from Pennsylvania by a few hours and got a chance to get some shut-eye before we arrived. Not knowing what room accomodations would be needed, Val managed to get a room that had two beds and a pullout couch! A room for three please? God definitely is the Master planner! We had a smooth ride over to Columbus and arrived in time for Joey and I to hightail it over to the Ironage banquet honoring Roland Kickinger with the first ever Chuck Sipes award. It was awesome seeing all the the bodybuilders that I used to read about all the time all in one room - these guys were my idols growing up! Sadly one of my all time favorites - Dave Draper couldn't make it as he had just had open heart surgery. He is penciled in for next year though and there were rumors circulating that he was already giving training advice to the people at the hospital! Please keep Dave and Laree in your prayers as he travels the recovery road. With banquet ended, we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.We had a big day ahead of us! We awoke the next day to pack all of our stuff into the car and head over to pick up Anibal and Maribel and head to breakfast. We all ate and headed to the expo where we were able to pack all of Joe Meekos stuff onto a cart. Jimmy and I walked through the expo with the cart like a couple old hands heading to the Ironage booth while Joey got his badge. Totally cool! With photos and whatnot delivered, Jimmy and I headed back to the loading docks and went to park the car. We ended up getting a side street spot and didn't have ot pay the fees! Thank you Lord! Once we entered the expo, as spectators and not workmen (hee hee), it was overwhelming. Bodies everywhere wandering around with no specific direction in mind, just looking at stuff in the various spaces. We, on the other hand, had an agenda: To witness! And witness we did. As we walked up and down the aisles I prayed for souls to be placed in our path to speak with and this happended on a continuous basis! In between witnessing, we stopped at various boothes where Jimmy tried his hand at winning supplements for a year by holding to cnas at arms length (the crucifix stance) for the longest amount of time. The second time he did this, he had to do it against another competitor, They tied and both got a 5 lb jug of whey protein! It was awesome and of course, not wanting to miss a chance to give Him some glory, that's exactly what I would shout! Give Him some glory, Jimmy! Give Him some glory! Trevor Howell came into the Arnold but we didn't get a chance to meet up on day one. I advised him to get used to the goings on and drink it all in since it is a little extreme on the senses. We met up with him on day two and we all witnessed together. (You can read about Trevor's experience in an article he submitted titled Celebrating the Body: Lessons Learned from my 2007 Trip to the Arnold Classic On Day two we set out once again to do the same: Win Souls! The day went the same with us praying for souls to whom we could witness. What a difference this was compared to last year! God had planted a seed in me to speak to people that I didn't know I had. I had prepped for a month before, listening to The Way of the Master series every single day and I was ready. I even went up to the guy who totally blew me off last year! He was sitting at the same table, same seat as the year before. I took a deep breath, blew it out and went up to him. Funny thing, or maybe nt, I got the same reaction as the year before with a "do you mind, I'm working here!" Except, no one was coming up to him. Well, this time, I turned around and thought, "No devil, not this time, you WILL NOT stop me! As I said these words a couple of guys walked by and one was wearing a Johnny Cash shirt. "Thank you God!" I thought, just what I needed! I shouted to the two and invited them over to me. As I handed them a couple of pennies with the 10 Commandments stamped into them, I commented about the one guy's shirt and asked if he knew that Johnny was a good Christian man? That was all I needed and the memory of being blown off was far away. I witnessed to the two while Jimmy was witnessing to a group of three about 4 feet away from me and Trevor Howell, to another about a foot to my left! What an awesome thing it must have been to see! Right in the middle of the huge crowd at the Arnold, the things of God being discussed like we were the only people there! Well, as the afternoon closed in on us, it was time to leave and head back to Indianapolis. We ventured over to say goodbye to our friends and then head out. Steve Michalik looked at me and grabbed me and told me to keep in touch. This is the same guy that scared the you-know-what out of me when I was a kid. Boy, what God can do! These same people that I idolized and read about growing up were now my friends! In the case of people like Joey Meeko and Anibal & Maribel, like family! I know that next year, the team going out will be even bigger! Won't you join us? Well, the weekend didn't end there for us. Jimmy and I teamed up for a Team Xtreme event at my church and put on a little exhibition, which the church enjoyed. I got to roll a frying pan up like a burrito, snap a bat over my leg by pressing on it until it snapped and pop a full can of soda with my hands! And, of course, give a little testimony! God is so good! I cannot wait to see what He has in store for us next year! |
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