Jun 11
19
My Next Chapter is Helping Others
I’ve been writing this blog for a year now … and from time to time WILL make timely entries as events unfold in my life and yours.
But something has come into my life that is so exciting and so beneficial I am compelled to share it with you. Enjoy this 10 minute video… here’s a “look” into the NEXT LEVEL in online communication… Check it out, I know some of you will “get it” and be excited to learn more and share this new technology with those whom YOU love.
So until my next written entry, I pray you will find this posting one of the most exciting things in your online “Life.”
http://www.livebusinessvideo.com/
God’s Blessings,
Mike & Shari
Email: mike@mikeradford.com
May 11
17
We Have to Say “Good-bye” Again!
As the years pass it seems that time itself is accelerating faster and faster! But then, our Lord Christ Jesus told us it would do just that in the last days leading to His returning for those who followed His plan for salvation. And so with a sad heart we have to say “good-bye” once again to TWO of the sweetest friends we ever knew, one is the most fanatical baseball fan I ever knew named Vicki Allen, a woman of unequaled love for her family and the game of baseball, the other an icon in the Hall of Fame. The fan said good-bye to John, her loving husband of 40+ years on May 11, 2011. Harmon Killebrew passed away 6 days later on the 17th day of May. I could write a book filled with warm words and fluffy feelings for Vicki and John Allen. They were a true love story that began in high school and endured the years John was serving his country in Vietnam. He the soldier, she that loving gal waiting his return from battle. He did, and she was the epitomy of a loving wife and devoted mom and doting grandmother. Miss Vicki will be remembered forever for those and hundreds of other wonderful qualities she was blessed with. As for Harmon I could write the same … but I think I’ll let the talented and professional writer named Steve Rushin fill in the rest-of-the-story on Harmon, a man everyone respected and loved for the genuine friend he was…
Harmon Killebrew & Vicki Allen Remembered
Nobody had more wrong names than Harmon Killebrew, whose nickname –Killer — always seemed ironic, in the way huge bikers are called Tiny, or sweet puppies are called Mad Dog. When Killebrew retired from baseball in 1975, having circled more bases with his head down than any player in baseball history, he became the first Killer on record to sell insurance in Boise, Idaho.
Harmon’s first name was no better, as it always got shortened to Harm, an ill-fitting verb for a guy who — 30 years after teammate Danny Thompson died of leukemia — kept alive a golf tournament in memory of the Twins shortstop. Killebrew died of cancer Tuesday in Scottsdale, Ariz., at age 74. Worse still was that surname, Kill-a-Brew, which inspired a college drinking game called Harmon Killebrew. Never mind that the Killer’s beer of choice was the one he marketed: Killebrew Root Beer, a phrase underscored on bottles by the words “Old-Fashioned,” which would complete the public perception of Killebrew — Loyal Friend, Insurance Salesman, Root Beer Aficionado — if he weren’t also a Hall of Fame Slugger. There was something Old-Fashioned about the 573 home runs he hit, the second most of any righthander in American League history, behind the decidedly New-Fashioned Alex Rodriguez, who admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. Killebrew was Pez, not PEDs, square in body — 5-foot-10, 213 pounds — and square in spirit. Asked in a 1963 Sports Illustrated profile if he had any unusual hobbies, Killer replied: “Just washing the dishes, I guess.”
“Killebrew is so quiet that sportswriters have given up trying to jazz up his image,” Time magazine lamented the following season, in a brief, rare, never-to-be-repeated profile. “There is nothing especially exciting or colorful about Harmon Clayton Killebrew,” Baseball Digest concurred, the same summer, “except that he hits home runs farther and more frequently than any one else on the current scene.” By then, Killebrew was averaging a homer every 12 at-bats, the best rate since Babe Ruth, and the nation’s scribes could scarcely ignore him.
Though they both wore number 3, Killebrew was never going to be Ruth. He didn’t go out, he didn’t go ballistic, he didn’t go anything but bald. And yard, of course. Killebrew went yard in ways that few hitters ever have. He was the first man to hit a ball over the leftfield roof at Tiger Stadium, three decks and 94 feet off the ground. He hit the longest home run in the history of Metropolitan Stadium, home of the Twins. When it finally landed in the bleachers, 520 feet from home plate, the Twins painted that seat red, which had the same effect on Killebrew’s face.
In 1969, when he hit 49 home runs and drove in 140, Killebrew was at once the league’s Most Valuable and Least Voluble player. He even led by silence. A simple glare from Killebrew conveyed to Twins teammates that they shouldn’t throw their bats, or helmets, or comport themselves in any way that was — the worst possible word — unprofessional.
The ridiculously long home run, then, was his sole expression of immodesty. His very first homer, as an 18-year-old rookie with the Washington Senators in 1954, was literally a tape measure shot: The team’s p.r. director measured it out the next day. The Senators were getting killed by the Tigers — Washington would lose 18-7 — and Detroit catcher Frank House told Killebrew, in what was likely an effort at reverse psychology: “We’re going to throw you a fastball.” It says much about the square-dealing young Harmon that he took the catcher at his word, and sat on Billy Hoeft’s fastball, which he promptly hit 476 feet. There would follow, over the next 22 seasons, 572 more home runs, 11th most in history. It’s a happy coincidence that Killebrew grew up in Idaho to become synonymous with taters. He was born in Payette, the fourth child of Harmon, a housepainter, and his wife, Katherine, whose three boys often played baseball in the yard. When Katherine complained that they were tearing up the lawn, Killebrew’s father told her: “We’re raising boys not grass.” Killebrew was still a boy, just 17, when he signed with the Senators as a $30,000 bonus baby. In 1961, he moved with the team to Minnesota, to Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, where I grew up. By the time I was attending games at Met Stadium, Killebrew had retired, and so I remember him as an occasional Twins broadcaster, face framed by a fringe of white. I remember his soft voice, pronouncing the surname of Twins infielder Ron Washington as “Warshington.”
Mostly I remember that the street leading to the stadium was renamed in his honor, so that I — and a lot of other Minnesotans — associate some of life’s happiest memories with Killebrew Drive. It is one of a handful of monuments in Minnesota to a man who — without a bat in his hands — never called attention to himself. There’s a bronze statue of Killebrew outside the Twins’ new home, Target Field, that is exactly what the 11-time All-Star never claimed to be: Larger-than-life. Killebrew knew, as he endured esophageal cancer, that life was larger than he, and released a statement on May 13 expressing his “profound sadness” that this “awful disease” had “progressed beyond my doctor’s expectation of a cure.”
In the end, that dignity and humility were what endeared Killebrew to Minnesotans. They will serve as his signature — along with his actual signature, which was the cleanest in baseball. When he went into hospice care, several Twins and ex-Twins said Killebrew admonished them as young players for the sloppiness of their signatures. The fan that waits for a player’s autograph, Killebrew believed, should be able to read it. And so the man with the imperfect name signed that name perfectly. Thanks to him, so do Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau. That legacy of class and quiet decency is the true measure of Killebrew’s tape-measured life. Which isn’t to say that Minnesotans don’t love the long ball. Of course we do. When the Met was razed, and replaced by the Mall of America, Killebrew’s red bleacher seat was bolted high above the mall’s central atrium, in roughly the same space it occupied at the ballpark. It is there to this day, a permanent testament to one man’s baseball-crushing powers, on a street still called Killebrew Drive, now and forever a Boulevard of Broken Seams.
Steve Rushin is the author of The Pint Man, a novel. Check out steverushin.com.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/steve_rushin/05/16/harmon.killebrew/index.html#ixzz1Md4vrCYf
Apr 11
20
Remember to Whom WE Owe Everything!
Click here: http://youtu.be/jABIjfkRVxI
Nothing else needs to be said.
Love,
Mike & Shari
Apr 11
1
“Miracle Date Night” Trailor
We’ve received so many requests to produce a “movie trailor” about the show, “Miracle Date Night” … So, here is the first one … we’ve got about 3 planned. Thanks for all your wonderful encouragement and kind remarks.
Hope you like it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryYqnE7CRLA
God Bless, Mike
PS: I’ve been working with WordPress and finally got the “Comments” tab to work! Sorry for the delay. Please pass this along to every pastor you know so we can take our message to the nation.
Mar 11
24
Years Keep Pick’n Up Speed!
Church photo at Saddleback '91
It’s truly hard to believe that 21 years have come and gone since Miss Shari Ann Knott agreed to become my bride! Is it just me or does it seem that the years are picking up speed? Please forgive me for posting this short story about “us” when I should be sharing things that are more for “you.” But then, I cannot think of too many things more important than having a happy home life. And for that I thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for allowing me to share my life with Shari Ann.
Those of you who have known us since we first wed on March 24, 1990 will recall the nickname given to that young couple attending the start-up church called Saddleback … you affectionately referred to us as, “The Gag-Me Twins!” Why? Because we were floating 6 inches off the ground in our blissful joy of finding one another. In 21 years, I can truly say there are times when Shari enters the room and she literally takes my breath away!
Thank you for allowing me to share my heart with you … It’s my prayer that you too have a happy, healthy, and joy-filled marriage and your breath is taken away too when your husband or wife enters the room.
Till next time,
Be Blessed.
Mar 11
16
Ever Ask Why?
As I began sharing a few thoughts about the question posed above, my mind flashed to the images of the devastation in Japan. The sadness and heartbreak is overwhelming.
One of my “whys” is why did this happen to these wonderful people who place the highest value not on money or material possessions but on family and honor.
The most tragic of all events was watching the village on the northern shore completely wiped off the landscape. The news media called the inhabitants of this area, “peasants” (a non-derogatory description in Japan) the lower class of society, the ones who lived by the old ways where each family lived together in one home. The generations spanned were often three and sometimes four, all living together, taking care of one another, each helping lighten the burdens of the other. But that all changed in the 9.0 catastrophy of Biblical proportions. Babies were ripped from the arms of screaming mothers, great-grandmothers eyes filled with terror as the entire family was violently swept inland in a tidal wave not unlike a blender set on “high” and their human remains then taken out to sea.
What does all this mean? The “whys” far out number the answers. “Why Japan?” “Why not Iran with evil abounding with a madman in power vowing to wipe the Jewish nation off the map?” Or, “Why was it not some other place that God knows deserves His wrath?” Why Japan? Or maybe… just maybe this is the first of what we Christ-followers call “The beginning of sorrows” as written 2,000 years ago in Matthew 24:8? No human has the answers.
I pray you are prepared for what may be destined for your land, your family. And I especially pray that you are prepared for the eternity that awaits us all. The events of the past two weeks prove everything can indeed change in the ‘twinkling of an eye’ …
Feb 11
26
Heaven is Richer Now
Shari Celebrating Lo-Dee's 93rd Birthday
Her name was Lo-Dee Hammock. Her mission on earth was to share love in everything she did. Her passion was to shine the light of Christ on every dark spot she could find. And on Feb 24th she made the grand graduation into Heavenly Glory after 94 years of “Love spreading” on earth.
Please allow me to share MY vision of what took place as she entered into the Kingdom. Of course this is all flowing from my heart as I pray the Holy Spirit gives me the words to somehow impact your life with the love Lo-Dee unselfishly gave to everyone she met. Here we go…
It’s a normal day in Heaven, angels by the Trillions singing praises to the Risen Lord as countless souls share in the endless celebration.
Suddenly on February 24th, 2011 everyone turns to see the newest soul to enter the Kingdom. “Who could this be?” everyone asks. The light from this soul is only surpassed by that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Is it an angel? Is it someone the likes of Billy Graham, the Pope or Jack Van Impe? Heavenly souls look at one another with questions on their faces for there has never been a “light” so bright since the day Roy Rogers and Dale Evans took up residence in the Heavenly realm. Everyone turns to look, it’s similar to those moments back on earth when everyone fell silent and turned to see what “E. F. Hutton” had to say. The light begins to grow in intensity and then a face begins to take form. With each step they can see clearer and clearer as a woman’s smiling face comes into focus. Her beautiful face glows as she addresses the mass of souls who have come to welcome her “Home.” She smiles and proudly says in a voice that sounds more like a song than a statement, “Helloooo ya’ll … I’m Lo-Dee Hammock from Beaumont, Texas and I want to see my Lord Jesus first, then begin my eternal celebration with all those I have loved and all ya’ll I will have the honor of knowing forever and ever.“ Suddenly the singing gains in volume, the praising intensifies as Jesus steps toward Lo-Dee. He extends His arms toward her and says, “Welcome home, well done my good and faithful servant. I love you so much and I know YOU have known that for nearly 100 years of earth time.” Lo-Dee steps back from God’s loving embrace, looks into her Savior’s eyes as tears flow down from her own. She is young again, the cancer cannot inflict any more pain for there is no sickness or suffering in her new home.
Shari and I pray that you too can feel and experience the love that can only be found in salvation through Christ. My favorite scripture, and the answer to living in victory was also one of Lo-Dee’s favorites — John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one gets to the Father except through Me.”
Lo-Dee called Shari and I her adopted kids, and “The Oak Ridge Boys” called her their very own “Branson Mom.” Now finally, Lo-Dee gets to be where she has always wanted to reside. And we know the mansion promised her has to be one of the grandest and brightest in Heaven because while on earth she was one of the greatest living examples of Christ’s love.
Feb 11
14
Did You Ever Wonder “Why?”
I’m sitting in a wonderful family restaurant in Eau Claire, Wisconsin looking around at folks sitting, eating, chatting, laughing. Sadly, a few of them look like they just lost their puppy. Others have expressions of joy, some deeply engaged in conversation. But it’s the lonely lady three tables away who looks so lost… it’s her sadness that makes me ask the question, “Why has God so blessed me with a wife who is not only my best friend but everything anyone could ever ask for in a loving mate, and life partner?” So, yes … I often wonder “Why?”
Earlier this morning I received the following words from my pal Jerry D. down in Dallas.
The title: Your Unique Voice
You are a unique voice. Use that voice to say what you truly mean, to express who you really are. The value in your life comes from your desire to live it in your own special way. Feel the substance of those deeply held desires, and give them life in each moment. The most meaningful and helpful gifts you can give to others come from your own unique perspective. Celebrate and joyfully give life to that perspective in new and creative ways each day.
Within you there is immense and unique value. Don’t be ashamed or afraid to let it flow out from you, for it can brighten and enhance every circumstance. If others choose to place negative judgments on you, that’s their problem, not yours. Keep right on expressing your own special perspective, and you cannot help but create impressive, exceptional value.
Sing your own songs with your own distinct voice, and give the beauty of your joyful, creative self to each moment. Let your very own light shine brilliantly today, and every day, on all of life.
For the answer to “Did You Ever Wonder “Why?” I would change Jerry D.’s last line a wee bit to be more focused on the one who created us, and look at it from HIS point of view. My edited version would read;
“Let your own beautiful “music” flow from you and allow the joy and light be a beacon of hope, faith, peace and love that I have given to each of you.”
February 14th is tagged Valentines Day. My prayer is that each of you who has a wife or husband realize that every day is the one single day that we need to celebrate our Valentine. I’ll leave you with a quote my G’ma Harriet always would tell me… “Mikey, when you grow up and get married you better court your gal every day or some other man will!?” I try to live by her teachings to that little boy who still lives inside my aging body! Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
Feb 11
2
Packers are America’s Team!
This entry is courtesy of my friend Jerry down in Dallas, Texas. The wisdom and truth in these words are AMAZING. Enjoy.
Every Red Blooded American should jump in line to support the Green Bay Packers!
The Packers defeated the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon thus earning them the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl.
By doing so, they saved the Hard-Working, Red Blooded, Taxpaying Americans literally several million dollars of tax money.
How you say? Simple… we were told that if the Chicago Bears had won that President Obama (and probably his family) would be attending the Super Bowl to cheer on his hometown team.
Since the Bears lost…the President won’t be attending.
The money saved from not using Air Force 1, the limousines, all the additional security, and let’s not forget Michelle Obama’s entourage, is literally several million dollars!
Therefore every American should cheer on the Green Bay Packers at the Super Bowl to show them our gratitude.
With that said…let’s circulate this email to everyone we know so they can understand why they should cheer for America’s team…the Green Bay Packers!
Thank you Jerry … we WILL spread the word.
Jan 11
25
Times with Jack LaLanne
Jack LaLanne and wife Elaine go through the crowd at his birthday celebration at John's Grill on Wednesday, October 7, 2009. He turned 96 on September 26, 2011. Photo by Russell Yip / The San Francisco Chronicle
When Jack entered into glory his body was 96 years old “earth time.” But Jack LaLanne defied earth time by continuing his 4 hour workouts nearly every day of his life. Then came Sunday, January 23, 2011. The end of an icon. The beginning of the legend.
Shari and I had the high honor of being dear friends with Jack and Elaine for the last 20 years. We first met when I worked with Coach George Allen on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports. Every time we got together it was Jack and Elaine who were the last to leave. The hours following celebrity banquets would wind on until the wee hours of a new day as Jack would share his non-stop enthusiasm saying,”Go for it!,” “Be all God made you to be!,” “Eat nothing that had a face on it!” Even though we were many years younger we’d have to excuse ourselves and head to our room because we were exhausted just trying to keep up with Jack.
Elaine was his loving wife, life partner and Jack’s biggest cheerleader for 56 years. On one visit to Branson in 2000, we sat in the corner booth eating salad and cornbread. I think Jack ate the cornbread but cannot actually tell you he did. I’m not sure it was on his “list” of approved sources of nutrition. Shari and I had just finished our morning show and now leaned back in relaxed composure to spend a few quiet moments with our dear friends. Quiet moments was the goal but reality around Jack and Elaine was anything but quiet. I’ve never been around anyone with the level of energy and passion for what he promoted. His passion seemed nearly as great as what the Disciples demonstrated when walking around with Jesus Christ. It was more than eating right and getting exercise, Jack’s passion was for LIVING every day of one’s life to the fullest. The LaLannes were everything you imagine them to be, loving, kind, friendly, and consistent in their message.
Our Remember When Theatre was inside Branson’s IMAX complex and McFarlain’s Restaurant was one of those places where you could eat well and in large quantities. Both, high on my list of life’s pleasures. As we finished up our lunch a local magazine publisher walked up and asked if he could do a quick interview with Jack … and of course he was genuinely honored that still another member of the media would want to hear his gospel of good food, good exercise and good living. Jack was one of those rare people who never, ever judged another by his/her lack of physical fitness or station of life. Jack LaLanne was a loving human who once said, “You’d have to be an idiot to think all of life is a cosmic accident!” Fittingly, Elaine LaLanne would share her last, loving words about the man she loved so dearly. In a statement, she said, “I have not only lost my husband and a great American icon, but the best friend and most loving partner anyone could ever hope for.”
Sunday, January 23, 2011 is the date that will go on his grave stone. But it’s also the date he graduated into a life of glory where we are given a heavenly body perfect in every way, where there is no pain, no sorrow, no aging. While on earth Jack defied the aging process but in death he defeated the grave. I cannot wait to hear what Jesus said to him as he entered the Kingdom. One vision I see is Jack organizing the saints in straight rows in preparation for their early morning workout!
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