My week started off normal, well normal for me anyway. On Wednesday I was informed that Brandon, a.k.a. Fight Pastor would be going to Disney Land, or the Hershey Chocolate factory or something like that for 2 days. Normally I would not mind, (I could hang up a hammock in the woods outside the church and enjoy the siestas I have been missing since I moved back from Mexico) until he told me that there was going to be a news team from Germany here for the weekend and I would be in charge of making sure they got all the footage they wanted of me being a chaplain for a fighter before the fights on Saturday. This posed a problem because we had no access to the fights, especially with a news crew on short notice.
If you know me at all you are well aware that I can be a silly goose most of the time, I try my hardest to make the people around me laugh. The only problem is that when I am on camera, I become terrified and have the on air persona of a hostage reading a queue card. I freeze and struggle through sentences like George W. Bush during a Harvard Commencement speech. Needless to say I was a little nervous.
I went to see the promoter about getting the film crew in the venue and was told that we could not get in on such short notice. I completely understood because it was 3 days before the fights and he had no idea what exactly we were doing. I went back to the offices as discouraged as Kristy Alley’s dietician. After a stressful brain storming session, we called Demico Rogers and asked if we could get some footage of he and I training. He agreed to meet up with us the next day. Now all I had to do was fill 3 more days with the news crew.
On Thursday they called me and they came to the church to get a feel of things and meet me. They wanted to see what I did during the day and when I explained that I do maintenance at the church, they decided that they would rather not film a guy alone in the church cleaning, they said it would be too sad and boring. They left to go film something more interesting, and then we met up with Demico at his gym. He gave me a private lesson while they filmed. We would be in the middle of a drill and they would stop us and ask me questions. I was as sweaty as a polar bear in a sauna and completely out of breath as I struggled my way through the answers. Demico was not sweaty at all and was able to answer their questions without any problems. There is some great footage of him catching me in a triangle choke, and then an arm bar, and then a key lock, and then guillotine choke, and then a heel hook, I might have had better luck if I were wielding a hammer, or a fist full of angry hamsters. After 1 hour the camera man commented on how wet my t-shirt was compared to Demico’s which looked like he had just pulled it off the rack of some expensive futuristic t-shirt emporium. I emphatically thanked Demico for his flexibility and willingness to help, another example of what a great guy he is outside the ring.
The next morning I met the crew back at that gym to meet with one of the guys who would be fighting the next night. When he came in to the gym to weigh in, the camera crew was right there filming him, he had no idea that the camera crew or I would be there, which was a bit awkward to say the least. I introduced my self and explained that we were chaplains for MMA fighters and I asked if he would be willing to have us pray for him before his fight. He said he had a strict pre fight ritual and didn’t want to veer from it, which I completely understand. I asked if I could pray for him at the moment and he agreed. It felt a little staged having the cameras there but, I was glad I had met him. The rest of the afternoon was me walking the streets of down town Seattle with the reporter asking me questions about why we were doing this ministry. I never knew how long it took to film a 2 minute interview. They filmed us walking from behind, the front, the sides, just our feet, and I think they held the camera upside sown for one shot. They filmed me walking in to a boxing gym that they had pre arranged, with the promise that they would under no circumstances film inside the gym. This of course was broken the second I walked in and they followed me with the camera. The guy behind the counter was obviously upset, but I can understand the eagerness of the crew to get the best shots, especially when the only thing they have on film is me.
The next day they met me at the church where I had put the word out to try to get around 50 guys to come. The reporters wanted to film me showing a fight to a crowd, and then have me talk about it. The crowd turned out to be 4 people. I showed my fights and talked through them with explanations like “this is where I punched him real hard in the face’ ‘This is where I start to get tired.’ ‘This is where I lost consciousness.’ ‘This is where my mom stands up and starts boo’ing me.” They had me share a little bit about Christianity and fighting, and I was actually doing an amazing job when the reporter cut me off to ask the same question he had asked me 4 times already. We then had a group discussion, because crowd feedback was out of the question with so few people, I guess it could have been a posse, but not quite a good mental image when you put the words fight, church and posse together. It conjures up images of random hooligans riding horses and shooting kangaroos from pick up trucks, or maybe I’m thinking about Crocodile Dundee.
We got to the fights earlier than anticipated, so we waited for a while, and then we waited some more. I introduced my self to as many of the fighters as I could, just to get our name out there. I also ran in to someone who I had trained with a few years ago. They were selling hot dogs at the entrance way for $1.00 each. For some reason, hot dogs at sporting events are like my Kryptonite. I bought 2 before the fights started (and another one halfway through the night).
I did not get a chance to pray for the fighter before he went out, but he had an impressive win, and Demico allowed me in to the locker room afterwards to pray for him. We met with more fighters and then we went home.
On Sunday morning the news crew came to the church and started filming. I was impressed with Brandon’s ability to focus as the camera man circled him like a lion circling a wounded 2 legged gazelle. They had that camera everywhere, they were like ninjas on crack getting the shots they needed, I must say that I was impressed with their ability and determination.
It was a crazy weekend, and I was thrown in to the mix of the media frenzy surrounding Fight Pastor alone after only having worked here for 2 weeks. I was so nervous and scared the entire time, the last thing I wanted to do was slip up and say one of my off color jokes and get black balled in the European media. I believe this experience has helped me grow in my confidence. Next week, we will be visited by a French station, I say bring on the French, Kermit is ready; if this goes well I will be bigger than David Hasselhoff.
