Chance Encounters

Sometimes while we are busy cruising through our lives we have those special moments that just happen. It's something someone does or says that totally changes how we look at things or how we feel about something. I'm sure if you really sit and think about this, you can dig up a few times in your life when something totally remarkable has happened. If you're like me you can also remember the time, place and faces that were involved. It can be a pretty wild thing, and sometimes you just have to share them.

Here is mine; correct that, here is OURS!

This past fall while attending LifeLight 2009, my wife and I were busy cruising through the vendor tent chasing Isaiah and his little friend Anna. While also fighting the crowd and deciding if we really "needed" to buy anything, Anne picked several things. Isaiah and Anna ended buying flashlights for themselves and Anna's sister. We kept on moving and as we passed a table at the very end of the tent we were both drawn in to the hats they were selling. They had a selection of hats that were a modern day way for people to spread His "Word" while wearing a very fashionable hat. The brand was called SpiritDomes. They had 8 hats to choose from and each one told a story. The coolest thing about the hat was it was created to define a specific Bible verse that was printed underneath the visor. Can you think of a better way to get young people today excited about showing their faith than on a hat!

I debated and tried to convince myself I had enough hats, which I probably do! However, Anne had other ideas. She marched up to the man working Craig as we know him now, and asked about the hats. She also asked if there happened to be a hat with the verse Isaiah 40:31 on it. This being our son's verse, she thought that would be pretty special. He said that there wasn't a hat with that verse but they are open to suggestions for future initiatives. He gave us his card and said to email him and they would consider that verse at some point. As we turned to walk awaywith me carrying my new SpiritDome in hand; Craig called us back.

He noticed that we were all wearing the same Isaiah 40:31 shirt from Isaiah's fundraiser. He wanted to know why we had the shirts on and why the verse was so important. We introduced him to my son Isaiah and explained why the verse was so important to us. We briefly mentioned Isaiah's story and also how we had recently learned of Isaiah's visits with Jesus while in the hospital. Craig was in awe and said he wanted me to contact him after LifeLight. He said he felt compelled to create a hat for Isaiah.

A few days after the festival I found Craig's card and decided to take a shot to see if anything would materialize. Not really knowing if anything would come out of it, I sent a message saying who we were and that we had talked to Craig at the festival. I promptly got a message back from the founder of the SpiritDomes brand, Tom Demitry, requesting that I call him so we could chat.

Tom wanted to hear about Isaiah's story and wanted to know about our family. He asked about where we were with our faith. While talking with Tom, I got to hear his story as well. This spun us into realizing a whole list of things that brought us together---God Things, if you will!

We talked for 45 minutes that first time, and have been in constant contact ever since. Tom and his partners decided that they wanted to create a hat in honor of Isaiah and his story. They took the verse Isaiah 40:31 and Craig created the front of the hat to resemble what he had envisioned when he thought of that verse. It looked Amazing!

Next, he took it one step further and used Isaiah's visit with Jesus to put a picture on the back of the hat. It looked Incredible!

Tom and Craig with SpiritDomes have been an amazing group of people to work with. They have created something that completely embodies the story of Isaiah's life and it only gets better.

They have decided that they will give a portion of the proceeds to the charity of our choice. And what better way than to say thanks to the place that has allowed Isaiah's story to be told. We will be donating the funds to the Children's Hospital of Minneapolis. The very place of which we were able to walk out of the door with Isaiah in tote and able to share his miraculous story with you all.

Obviously this is an exciting thing for us! Isaiah thinks it is pretty cool to have a SpiritDome with his name attached to it. Someday he will fully understand what has really transpired and how awesome a story he has to tell. For now, we are ecstatic to be able to share with you the Isaiah 40:31 SpiritDome and hope that you would consider supporting this ministry effort in helping us say thank you to the Children's Hospital of Minneapolis.

You can check out the featured Isaiah 40:31 hat here at: http://www.spiritdomes.com/ or contact Anne or myself to purchase oneto help support a worthy cause. The SpiritDomes team has made a huge leap of faith in trying to get the "Word" out to the younger generation and I feel that this is an amazing way to accomplish that goal. SpiritDomes are also quite stylish for people of all ages!

Please check out SpiritDomes today and help us disciple for Him while spreading His good Word to the world!