Investing

In 1990, Julie and I had been married a couple of years and were members of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta. We had a great Sunday School class that we were very involved in and still have many friends from that class even today - including Matt and Diane Moffett.

Our class did a service project one Saturday at the Methodist Children’s Home in Atlanta - a home for kids whose parents were not able to take care of them. We basically just went to the home to play with the kids that day and I saw a boy playing by himself with a football. I went over to meet him and we had an instant connection. We threw the football and played all afternoon.

This was how I met Brandon Goins who was 9 years old at the time. Brandon had a tough life to that point and, even though he was a very playful kid with tons of spirit, you could see the hurt in his eyes. He never left my side that day and when we left I knew that I wanted to spend more time with him.

I called the Home and found out that they had a Big Brother program and I excitedly signed up to be Brandon’s big brother. We got to hang out on weekends and do the things that big brothers and little brothers do. We took many trips to The Varsity and I even got to take him to a Georgia football game. I always gave him a hug before I left and eventually he learned to hug me back.

After a couple of years Brandon left the home to go and live with an Aunt and Uncle who became like parents to him. He stayed with them through high school and became quite a good athlete. We had moved to Birmingham at that point and only sporadically stayed in contact but I did get to go over and watch one of his HS football games.

I lost touch with him completely for a few years when he went into the Army after high school but I got a call from him one day and he excitedly told me that he was going to graduate from Airborne Ranger School. He wanted to know if I could come to his graduation at Fort Benning. I was thrilled to be able to go and took Will with me. It was a very proud day for both of us.

I lost touch with him again after he was deployed to Afghanistan and other places. I honestly thought that he had been killed in action because I hadn’t heard from him in a few years and had no way of reaching him. I searched for his name online but was never was able to come up with anything. I resigned myself to the fact that I would likely not see him again.

And then one day I got a call from Brandon. He was out of the Army and living in High Point, NC where he worked as an electrician. He was a father with 2 young daughters and seemed to be doing really well. Ironically enough, I have a client that is located in that area so I was able to see him on my next trip up.

I’ll never forget the first time that I went to North Carolina to see him. We went over to his house and he told me that he had something to show me. He pulled out the program from the Georgia football game that I took him to over 20 years ago. He proceeded to then tell me everything that we used to do and everywhere that we went. He remembered it all in vivid detail because it meant so much to him.

Hearing that from him was very impactful to me. Brandon desperately needed someone to believe in those difficult early years of his life. I needed someone to “invest” in and God brought us together and met those mutual needs of ours. The fruit of our relationship is still being made today and I am reminded of that every time that I go up to see them. Brandon served his country well and is working hard to support his family - 3 daughters and Courtney. He is doing an excellent job!

Brandon inspires me to want to keep making great “investments.” God will lay the opportunities before us and we just need to be paying attention and make ourselves available. Little did I know that day 31 years ago what God had in store for both of us.

I saw a great quote from a missionary this week that really spoke to me and was my inspiration for wanting to write about Brandon.

I am not afraid of failure. I am afraid of being successful in things that don’t really matter.

May God give us all the wisdom to recognize and invest in the things that really do matter.

Stay hungry,

Big E

Matt. 5:6