This is the story of a very lonely little boy, who moved to a new town at the age of ten where he had no friends. He had to leave his beloved Little League baseball team back home, and he lived for playing baseball.

The boy tried out for a team in his new town and made it easily, mostly because he could throw pretty fast strikes, a commodity not often associated with baseball at that age.

When the boy pitched his first game for his new team, he noticed a man sitting behind the backstop smoking a cigar. The man began to cheer for the boy as he pitched. With no other friends in town, the boy was thrilled. Somebody noticed!

As the season went on, the man was there for every game the boy pitched, smoking his cigar and cheering. By then he had learned the boy’s name and that made cigar-man’s cheers all the more fun. But the man was never at the games when it was not the boy’s turn to pitch.

Finally, the boy asked his coach why the man only came to some of the games and not others. The coach replied, “Son, we have no idea who he is, but somehow he got my phone number and he calls to find out when you are pitching. He cares only about you!”

That was 1957.

In 2013, think about all the lonely people out there. What if every one of them ended up with a buddy like that, rooting them forward, building confidence and self-esteem? What if the unity fostered by Streamside did that for thousands or even millions in a safe environment?

By the way, I was that lonely little boy whose summer was saved by a different sort of angel.

And to this day, the smell of a cigar is one of the sweetest aromas I know.

Think this is a strange analogy? 

Please grab a Bible right now and read 2 Corinthians 2:14-17.

This is the aroma of unity, a sweet fragrance to our common father.