A fight

This week, Bob invited me to his house to meet an electrical engineer from Monterey, Mexico who is working for one of Bob's friends at a metal plant. This engineer lived in Canada the last couple of years and met his girlfriend there, and he's only in the Unites States temporarily. Unfortunately, companies in the United States and Canada don't recognize his degree because he earned it in Mexico, and his current job involves managing several guys in the metal factory. We talked about the possibility of getting a master's degree here, which would enable him to get a good engineering job. Since he is in the U.S. temporarily and doesn't have a driver's license yet, he was staying in a hotel. When Bob found out about that, he invited him to stay at his house indefinitely, which profoundly impressed this guy.

There is a professional boxer named Jimmy Campbell who hails from England but lives in Indianapolis and works out at Bob's gym, so of course Bob knows him. On Saturday, there was a big match for local and semi-local boxers, and Jimmy had the last and most important fight. Bob invited the Mexican engineer, another friend who lived with Bob for an extended period of time, and me to the match. Bob never called it a boxing match; he always called it a fight. "We're going to see a fight on Saturday!" It was Bob's and my first time seeing a boxing match, and we both enjoyed it. But Bob said wouldn't like to see another fight because he doesn't like to see people get hurt. It doesn't bother me—I mean, they kind of asked for it, right?

Jimmy Campbell has an interesting story. According to Bob, he used to have a shady lifestyle which landed him in jail, but then he found God, who transformed his life. He goes to the local Vineyard church, and his pastor joined him in the ring before the match to support and encourage him (in the picture at right, the pastor is on the left, and Jimmy, the "British Assassin," is in the middle). Bob also knew one of the more amateur boxers named Ronny because he used to come to Bob's basketball program.

Speaking of boxers, one of the two lay pastors at my church is named Alphonso Bailey, and he also is an accomplished boxer who made poor choices in years past which landed him in jail. He has an inspirational story and is an outstanding pastor who can relate to people from all walks of life.

Finally, here are the four of us; you should be able to figure out who's who: