There goes my hero...

"V-Cox is back from Iraq". Although that sounds poetic, his stay there was not. He is my hero.

Our student body was fortunate to be able to hear from Vincenzo Cox on Tuesday during the middle school and high school chapel times at the school where I teach, Westbury Christian School. He gave several stories from his experience to express to the students how truly fortunate they are to have the lives and creature-comforts that they have. He told stories of physical and emotional pain.

I was fortunate to be able to have Vincenzo come speak to my Health classes as well. If the kids were in chapel, they only know about some of his war stories. They don't know the whole story. Vincenzo is a world-class athlete. He grew up in Miami. He was a self-proclaimed sub-par student who didn't take advantage of opportunities as a teenager. He was offered a scholarship to run track at Arizona State University, but could not qualify academically. He joined a program in the army for athletes and became a member of the National Guard. Later, he latched on to the track program at the University of Houston and a coach that has trained some of the great track athletes of all time; Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell, and Mike Marsh (among others). He succeeded on the track. Later, he took up soccer and was able to work out with two English teams and the Columbus Crew of the MLS. Recently, he has been a teacher in the Alief district working with special educational students.

He was able to speak candidly in class about his concerns about the war, about Army politics, about being persecuted in Iraq for his religious beliefs and practices as a founding member of the Church of Christ in Tikrit. He was singled out and sent to Mosul for a hearing regarding those practices, but thanks to letters from higher ranking doctors at his base, he was not "punished". He was relocated to Kuwait, where he started a church that now has between 40 and 50 people in attendance every service.

As our students watched, and hopefully listened, to Vincenzo talk about his greatest achievement being the gift of the Holy Spirit at his baptism. You could tell they couldn't believe after all his accomplishments, that his baptism would be the one thing he pointed to.

I asked them to ponder two questions and comment before the end of the day on Friday. If you would like to share stories of people that you know that are heros by answering the questions...feel free.

Question #1; Share your thoughts on Vincenzo's experiences. What stands out to you?

Question #2; How do you think these experiences affected Vincenzo in each of his four types of health; Physically, Mentally, Socially, and Spiritually?