Day 4, June 7, 2024

There were so many aspects to this mission trip to Uganda with Amy For Africa that highlight reels from what happened were sure to be abundant.

Seeing the AFA Christian Academy with my own eyes was important. But here is another one that has been equally big: Having my brother, Tim, serving the two weeks with me. I have written about him before so most of you know how I feel about him. In short, he’s my hero on this earth – and I mean it.

We are different in a lot of ways and that can be unusual for brothers who grew up under the same roof. He is three years older than me, didn’t play youth sports and had nothing to do with sports, listened to some funky music growing up and played in the band. He was an introvert and looked for ways to fit into the world. Although playing tuba in the high school band, Tim was a drummer (even playing for the great Coco the Clown). Meanwhile, I played sports, watched sports, listened to sports and eventually wrote about sports.

Our father bought us A2000 baseball gloves from Ben Williamson at the ages of maybe 12 and 9. I wore mine out to where there was a hole in the leather. I’m not sure Tim used his. Ever. I looked years for it hoping to find this unused A2000 and call it my own, but never found it.

Before this trip, the only other time I can remember being on a trip with Tim was when mom and dad put us on a train in downtown Ashland and sent us to an aunt and uncle in Louisville for the week. I was a little fella so I’m sure I was clinging to my big brother all that week. He has always been important, even once showing me a Christmas haul early that morning but making sure I did not tell mom and dad that the whole Santa thing was phony. I kept our secret for a few years.

And for good measure, we also don’t look alike. At all.

We do have some similarities and they are important: Both of us married above our paygrade. Way above. Tim lost his precious wife, Pam, in 2017 to brain cancer. I’ve never seen anybody hurt like he did over that loss, but God has taken good care of him. I have been away from my wife, Beth, longer on this trip than since my last visit to Uganda in 2017. We have been inseparable companions over that seven years because of my working from home. We honestly love that life, too. I have missed her a ton!

Our most important brotherly trait? We are both born again believers who love the Lord passionately.

I asked Tim about going with me to Uganda last fall and he quickly agreed even though he had three or four mission trips out of the country scheduled. And it has been epic for us. We have been closer the last 10 years or so than anytime in our lives, calling each other often and leaning on each other when it was needed. My brother can do anything. Amy Compston knows that too. She has him preaching or speaking on 13 days of our trip. Ride the horse if you have one.

On Friday, he was the speaker for the AFACA chapel service that included 400 excited children. When I say excited, I mean EXCITED! After some praise and worship that was out of this world with the children singing at the top of their lungs while bouncing and dancing in place to the rhythm of their flamboyant leader. The whole room was busting with praise to music and the beating of the African drums. Tim had eyeballed the drums the day before, even telling the worship leader he had one like his.

Tim walked over to the corner where three boys were pounding on the drums and asked one if he could step in and play (remember, he was a drummer). He kept the rhythm going in true African fashion as the children shrieked with joy. Then he stopped and walked over to his chair, grabbed his Bible and spoke to the children with calm assurance. He asked them how many of them thought he was 100 years old? A few raised their hands. But then he delivered a gospel message on their level about taking the right or wrong path in life.

He’s such a good pastor and a friend to so many. His wise counsel has been instrumental here on several occasions to others already. On Saturday, we are both scheduled to speak at a dedication of the field where the AFA high school will be built – me as the president of AFA and Tim as the one who gives the dedication sermon. That’s after we visit the place called “The Ghetto” and feed hungry children – after Tim presents a gospel message.

I have the best Big Brother and we are having the best time ever. He continues to build hero points in my book. And I think Clarence and Peggy would be proud of how their boys turned out.

Day 3, June 6, 2024

This was the day that could make me an emotional wreck and I knew it.
Like many other followers of the Amy For Africa ministry, I have seen the breathtaking photographs of the AFA Christian Academy in Uganda.
But this was going to be different. My emotions were on edge riding up the big hill to where the school is so perfectly located for all to see. We could catch glimpses of it riding up the bumpy road.
What was it going to look like in person?
When our driver pulled around to the front of the school, the celebration was about to begin. The schoolchildren greeted us with cheers and song and dance. The older ones were on the front lawn and the others were lined up on the balconies of the massive school.

I was overwhelmed and so was everybody else in the van on this perfect morning. Many riding with us were like me, longtime AFA supporters who had only seen photographs of the school.
But it was more than the school itself, as magnificent as it was. And it was more than the dancing and singing of these beautiful children who treated us like royalty. We were showered with confetti as we exited the van, hugged by these strangers who did not seem like strangers with their smiles that seemed, well, grateful – not to us, but to the Lord Almighty. We reached for our cellphones and took pictures in every direction. Videos were rolling too.
They were all smiling and rejoicing because of what the Lord has done. You could not keep them from smiling.
I flashed back to 2013 when Amy Compston, fresh off competing in the Boston Marathon – the one where the bombs went off – decided she was going to run for Jesus and asked if I could help. We barely knew each other but I said yes. The first goal was to raise money for Christian schools in Uganda. She had seen videos that absolutely broke her heart.
Little did any of us know that it would soon be a life work for she and her husband Chris. Amy For Africa (she was not a fan of the name but a friend of mine and I were insistent) was launched as a fundraiser. That was the beginning and it seems to have no end.
So much has happened since then as God worked through the lives of Amy and Chris, calling them into the full-time mission field of Uganda as independent missionaries. They have become vessels of the Living God, leaving self behind and leaving the details to Him.
This Christian school, which educates more than 400 students and can eventually hold 1,000, stands as a testament to what can happen with faithful obedience. It is also a reminder that God can and does use ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
While admiring this beautiful building, the tears and prayers that went into it all came flash-flooding in my mind, too. So many victories, so many setbacks, so many answered prayers and oh what victories.
The calling on the lives of Chris and Amy Compston goes beyond breathtaking.
The live-changing education and, most importantly, the life-changing gospel that these students are receiving will resonate through eternity.
God has put many people from all walks of life in the path of Amy For Africa. Sometimes they came out of nowhere and met a need, sometimes it was simply an encouraging word, sometimes it was a prayer.
With AFA, it always came down to prayer. And the power of prayer is what built this school. COVID stopped the world cold in 2020 but not the building of God’s school in Uganda because the government said construction work could continue and it did to completion.
It is not a mirage or an AI image. The AFA Christian Academy is real – I saw it through my own watery eyes.

Day 1-2, June 4-5, 2024

My brother reminded us of these three little words as we were starting our mission adventure with Amy For Africa on Monday.

It may have to be our adopted motto for the next two weeks as we spread the gospel in Uganda. The first day is one of the toughest to “find the joy” with traveling 24 hours with little to no sleep, flight delays, airline meals and no way to make yourself comfortable.

But we also know this trip is not about our comfort. It is about introducing people who do not know the one who brings the ultimate comfort – Jesus Christ. We are going to evangelize and encourage, exhale and exclaim the name of Jesus and to see for ourselves what the Lord has accomplished through the ministry of Chris and Amy Compston, aka Amy For Africa.

We can “find the joy” in the passion they have for the Ugandan children and adults where they serve. We see it on the many photographs, videos and stories that Amy shares.

Several members of this team have been involved in multiple ways with multiple trips, mighty donations and many prayers. 

Having my brother with me makes it bucket list worthy. I have so much love, pride and respect for how mightily God has used him in ministry throughout a lifetime. He retired from being a pastor about a year ago but has not retired from being a witness for God. This will be his fifth mission trip since “retiring.” He has embraced the AFA ministry and Amy will be putting him to good use with 13 preaching assignments. That shows how much she thinks of him. He never flinched. It will also be the longest trip we have been on together since we were little boys going to Myrtle Beach with our parents back in the early ‘70s. 

“Find the joy?” That will be easy for me.

My guess is no matter what comes, it will be easy for us all to “find the joy” in the next two weeks. We will all be sharing in Bible studies with children and adults through the many outreaches of AFA.

My brother will be preaching Sunday at Victoria Baptist Church in Jinja, which Harold Cathey built some 30-35 years ago. My father-in-law and mother-in-law were integral in that project from top to bottom and inside to outside. The beautiful church is a circular design and my father-in-law tells me how you can see Lake Victoria from the top of it. He knows because he was working on the rooftop when it was being constructed.

The thread to what the Lord did through Harold and Beverly Cathey runs directly through Amy For Africa. God knew all along.

Pray with us as we seek the Lord and “find the joy.”

(Originally written in 2009 on the silver anniversary of East Carter winning the 1984 state baseball championship)

Kevin Bair sometimes wonders what would have happened if that hanging curveball had fooled him.

But it didn’t. Bair got all of it, and then some. The towering home run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning capped a miraculous four-run rally that made a state champion out of East Carter.

Forty years later, they still talk about the home run in Grayson.

“There’s a lot worse things to be remembered for,” said J.P. Kouns, the Raiders’ coach that season.

They probably remember in Cynthiana, too, the hometown of Harrison County, the stunned victim in the 10-9 state championship game loss to the Raiders in 1984 at Johnson Central High School.

With one mighty swing, Bair made history.

While it hasn’t exactly defined his life, it does give him a bit of celebrity status, especially in Carter County.

Bair will always be the player who hit the home run that won the state championship for the Raiders in ’84.

“I think about it, I’m not going to say I don’t,” he said. “It comes back when I drive by the field. My son (Kyle) plays basketball for East Carter. I’ve been to Paintsville several times and always point out that Johnson Central field, which they’ve changed. He’s not near as interested as I am but I make sure he knows about it. He doesn’t want to talk about it as long as I do.”

It’s more than that magical home run that Kevin Bair remembers. The Raiders were a team built on good hitting, great fielding and crafty pitching.

They were improbable champions, having entered the 15th Region Tournament as a district runner-up to Rowan County. East Carter outscored three foes, 22-1, in the regional tournament.

But the Raiders got on a roll, winning seven consecutive postseason games to claim the only team state championship in school history.

“It’s definitely a blur,” Bair said. “I remember bits and pieces of it. If I see a photo, I can remember that.”

East Carter trailed Harrison County 6-0 in the fifth inning, but rallied for four runs to get back in the game. Then Harrison County scored three in the sixth to make it 9-4. Again, the Raiders rallied, this time for two runs, to make it 9-6.

But could they keep coming back?

“I know we thought we had a chance,” Bair said. “We had the top of the lineup (coming) up.”

Bair was the No. 6 hitter in the lineup, the designated hitter with a looping left-handed swing.

With one out, Cass Hall reached on an error and then Jamie Swanagan walked. A popup to second base brought the Raiders down to their last out.

Steve Lambert laced a two-run double to right center field that barely eluded the diving center fielder to make it 9-8.

Then it was Bair’s turn to bat.

With the count 1-1, pitcher Billy Fisher tried to get ahead with a curveball. Bair didn’t blink. He made him pay and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I can still see the pitch and remember hitting it,” he said. “Hanging curveball. I knew when I hit it it was gone.”

Bair was a junior on the senior-dominated team that included Art Daugherty, the best three-sport athlete in East Carter history. Daughtery was the shortstop and Hall the second baseman, a keystone combination that led to many double plays.

The pitchers were the durable Swanagan, who won three games in eight days over the regional and sectional tournament, freshman Craig Collier and senior Joey Thomas. At least, that’s the only pitchers they needed in the postseason.

The rules were different in those days and it’s a good thing for the Raiders, who finished the season 29-8.

“It was one of those special teams,” Kouns said.

Those Raiders grew up together, played on the same Little League, Junior League and Senior League teams. They played other sports, too. Daughtery was the quarterback and Bair the center on one of East Carter’s best football teams in 1983.

Others on the team were basketball players. It was just a good collection of athletes who came together.

“Those guys were close-knit because they played together for years,” Kouns said.

Kouns considers himself lucky to have won a state championship. He’s in the Kentucky Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame but the state title is the major achievement.

‘‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal when you can win that thing,” he said.