A Bigger Plan

This is the first article I've written exclusively for this website. Every other article here first appeared on another website or in another publication.

by Mickey Seward

The doctor's words temporarily knocked the wind out of me. I didn't sleep at all the night before, instead spending the entire night praying that he would say something entirely different.

Just the day before, my wife Kristie and I went to the doctor's office for a routine examination, still nearly a month from the expected due date for our first child. But the doctor noticed a lower-than-normal level of amniotic fluids in Kristie's system, and the doctor wanted her to spend the night in the hospital to receive fluids. Most likely, we were told, the level would rise, everything would be fine and we would be sent home. There was a slim chance, though, that the levels would not increase. If that were the case, the doctor would have to consider delivering the baby immediately.

As we drove to the hospital, neither one of us wanted to admit the fear inside us. Not only was it entirely possible that the baby may be delivered a month early, but we just weren't prepared.

"We don't even have a car seat," one of said - although I honestly don't even remember which one.

That was our way of saying, "We don't have much of anything." Some clothes and a bassinet. That was pretty much it.

This couldn't happen now. We just weren't ready. This was not going according to our plans.

Ready or Not, Here She Comes
That night, as the sound of our unborn daughter's heartbeat played on a monitor next to Kristie in the hospital room, I tried to make myself comfortable in an uncomfortable pull-out chair. Not that it mattered anyway; there was no way I was going to be able to sleep.

For hours, until the sun came up, I prayed that those fluid levels would rise, that the baby would be more safe now than ever before, that we would get to go home and do what we needed to do to prepare for the baby's arrival in a few weeks. I prayed that our plans would work out.

When the doctor came in that morning, I couldn't believe what I heard him say. He told us Kristie's fluid level had actually dropped overnight.

"So we're going to go ahead and deliver the baby at 2 p.m. today," he said.

Immediately, I tried to choke back the tears that filled my eyes. I began to pray for safety for my wife and our baby. And I wondered what happened to my prayers from the previous night.

"I can't believe this," I silently told God. "We're not ready! You know this!"

Ready or not, this baby was coming.

Something Bigger
A nurse came in and spoke with Kristie, and while that was going on, I sent a text message to a few people to let them know what was going on and to ask for their prayers. Within several minutes, a few of our friends and one of Kristie's sisters was in the room with us to give us support.

Eventually, the time came to move to the room where the baby would be delivered, and less than 35 minutes late, we were introduced to our daughter, Kendall Page Seward.

When news of Kendall's birth and Kristie's safe delivery spread, phone calls and text messages began pouring in and visitors began stopping by to see Kendall and us. Some of those people we'd known for nearly a decade, others just a few months. But all of them were people that we came to know through a common love of Jesus Christ.

I could never express how much it meant to us to have all those people express their love for us.

But, along with the blessing of friendship and family that was shown to us, something else happened, too. All those things we didn't have began pouring in. A car seat. A stroller. A crib. A changing table and a chest of drawers to hold Kendall's clothes. A monitor. More clothes than we know what to do with.

My plan was to go get everything. To provide those things for Kendall. But God had another plan. A bigger plan.

God used all those friends and family members - His people - to bless us beyond imagination. He used them to provide everything we needed. He used them as an example of what his love is like. He probably even blessed those people - His people - as much through this as he blessed us.

I never would have thought of that.

A Reminder
God tells us, "My thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my ways," (Isaiah 55:8). He made that crystal clear during this process.

It's amazing how God reveals Himself during the most difficult times. At those times, He reminds me how great He is and how puny I am. And He uses those times to remind me that no matter what happens, living with Him - for Him - is the most incredible, thrilling thing you can do; a guaranteed way to not waste your life.

Even when I forgot to trust Him, God had something huge planned for my family. It's crazy to think that every time I share my testimony of how I came into a relationship with Christ, I share what Jeremiah 29:11 means to me. In that verse, He says, "For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. To give you hope and a future."

But for awhile there, I was too focused on my plans. And as big as my plans were, they never even came close to comparing to His.

"Watch Me Be The Father"
Looking back on things, I can picture God hearing my prayers the night before Kendall was born and saying, "I have something better for you. You be the husband your wife needs right now, and watch Me be the Father that you sometimes forget I am."

Now my wife and I have a beautiful daughter, and I could never express how much I love that little girl. The funny thing is, I'm not sure she even knows who I am yet. That's ok, though. I'm still going to love her with all my heart, and delight in her and do everything I can to protect her.

It's the least I can do. God did the same for me before I knew who He was, too.

And, soon enough, I'll get to hear Kendall say, "I love you, daddy."

Mickey and Kristie Seward would like to express their thanks to all the friends and family members who have called and visited us. The baby gifts, the meals, the words of encouragement and the love that has been given to us is almost incomprehensible. We want you all to know that God has used you to bless us beyond anything we could have ever imagined. We love you.

West Rome Baptist Names Rev. Jarrod Roberts Pastor

I was asked to write a news release for West Rome Baptist Church about the calling of Jarrod Roberts as pastor on May 4, 2008. The text from that release follows.

ROME, Ga....West Rome Baptist Church named Rev. Jarrod Roberts as its pastor Sunday. Roberts had served as the church's interim pastor since July, after replacing Dr. Glynn N. Stone, Jr., who moved to Longview, Texas to become senior pastor at Mobberly Baptist Church.

Roberts joined West Rome Baptist's staff as associate pastor in 2002, and has been responsibile for overseeing, among other ministries, WRBC's college, young adult and small group ministries.

"I'm very excited to be a part of what God is doing here at West Rome Baptist Church," Roberts said. "I know God has huge plans, not just for this church, but for Rome and Floyd County."

"God has called my family and me here, and over the past six years this has become home," he said. "It's become very personal to me that everyone in Rome and Floyd County knows that no matter what has happened in their life, good or bad, God has a plan that's bigger and better for them than any plan they could have for themselves, and that they can have a relationship with God."

That message is gaining momentum. In the past nine months, West Rome Baptist has seen 134 new members and 73 baptisms.

Roberts also serves as the lead pastor at XL, which meets Sundays at 6 p.m., at the former Church at Northside building, located at 3006 Martha Berry Highway, just north of Mount Berry Square Mall. He will continue in that role, as well.

Prior to coming to Rome, Roberts served as the minister to college students and single adults at Fielder Road Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas. He was licensed to the ministry in 1990 at Central Baptist Church in Bryan, Texas, and ordained in 1994 at Highland Terrace Baptist Church in Greenville, Texas.

The Greenville, Texas native is a 1990 graduate of Texas A&M University and earned a Master of Divinity degree in 1994 from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Roberts and his wife, Tiffany, have three daughters: Taylor, 7; Jordan, 6; and Makenzie, 18 months.

When Home Plate Meets Unlimited Dinner Plate

This article appeared on HometownHeadlines.com, a regional news and business website, on April 4, 2008. I was asked to write about my experience sitting in the all-you-can-eat seats section at the Rome Braves' 2008 season opener.

by Mickey Seward

It seems like such a good idea, it really does. Combining the national pastime with an unlimited pass through the food line, all-you-can-eat seats for Rome Braves' games at State Mutual Stadium has "winner" written all over it.

But I gotta tell ya, I'm miserable. Sure, it's a "Wow, I can't believe I ate that much food ... and I can't wait to do it again!" kind of miserable but it's still miserable.

You see, when you put a kid in front of a bowl of candy, he's going to eat until you tell him to stop--or at least until he gets sick. And even then, he's still going to try to get more.

When you put a baseball fan in a ballpark and tell him to eat as much as he wants, the result is going to be similar. It was Thursday night, anyway.

That was the plan all along. My buddy Jarrod and I went into this thing with a simple goal: we wanted to ruin this promotion for the rest of Rome. It's nothing personal, we just wanted the Braves' staff to at least consider the fact that allowing a couple of guys into the ballpark to eat as much as they could might not be a great idea after all.

Making the money back from the $25 tickets (the seats are in the $8 section) wasn't going to be an issue for us. The real challenge was going to be how much over the $17 worth of food we needed to eat to break even would we consume.

When scorecard meets menu

For the first time in my life, I went to a professional baseball game thinking as much about the concession stand as the ballgame. There were going to be two winners this night. One would be a baseball team. The other winner, I knew before the game even started, would be me. I was going to beat the concession stand.

And once I entered the ballpark, my game began.

First, we had to learn the process, since Thursday's game marked the first time this promotion has taken place in Rome. It's not hard to figure out. Section 117, located as far down the right field line as you can go without getting grass stains on your pants, is the all-you-can-eat section, and when you enter a tent that leads to your seat, you're given a wristband.

The wristband is to signify that you are an all-you-can-eater; to me it's a badge of honor, a signal to anyone who cares to know that I am here to dominate my friendly rivalry with the concession stand.

Inside that tent is a small buffet, filled with hot dogs, hamburgers, barbecue, beans, coleslaw, soft drinks and, rumor had it, fruit. You can also pick up nachos, popcorn and ice cream bars at the concession stand behind the tent.

Before the game started, I filled a plate. Hall-of-Famer Bruce Sutter threw out the ceremonial first pitch. I celebrated by eating a hot dog. After Scott Thompson of Peachtree Station belted out the National Anthem and the color guard left the field, I toasted our great nation with a hamburger.

And that's how the night went. The ballplayers played, the managers and coaches managed and coached, and the all-you-can-eater ate all I could eat. And more.

By the fourth inning, a thought came to my mind that soon had me nearly trembling in fear. I scanned the ballpark.

'Let's play two'? Please, please no

I was looking for Ernie Banks.

Banks is a National Baseball Hall of Famer who loved to play the game so much his oft-used phrase, "Let's play two!" became a cliché.

For me, a doubleheader could be disastrous. There's no telling how many hot dogs I might be able to finish over the course of 18 innings.

Ernie always wants to play two. At this point, I was praying I could get through just one without breaking my seat.

But something happened as the game went on. And, honestly, it didn't take long. Sure, I was still munching here and there. But, you know what? It wasn't about the food anymore. I won that matchup early.

I realized that it was all about the game the whole time. I can dominate any buffet and for a lot less that 25 bucks. But, when Concepcion Rodriguez belts a line drive over the left field wall, I enjoy that more than any hot dog. There's more heartburn when a pop fly lands in front of the third baseman for an error than after any plate of nachos.

Food is great. Gimmicks are nice. But the game's the thing. When it all comes down to it, home plate is the only plate that matters. It always has been, and it always will be.

When I think about it, even though the Charleston RiverDogs, a Yankees' farm club, beat the Braves 10-4, I'm not miserable at all. In fact, I'm feeling pretty good.

Welcome back, baseball. I’ve missed you.

Mickey Seward moonlights as a Rome-area writer. Hometown Headlines paid for his tickets and asked him to write about the Rome Braves All You Can Eat Seats. Tickets are $25 per person and include admission to the game and a special all-you-can-eat-menu. You can add beer with a $40 ticket. Fans get field-level seating ($8 tickets) and ballpark food such as hot dogs, hamburgers, barbecue, nachos and more. For more, click www.romebraves.com. Photo by Mills Fitzner

Berry Dean Fixes Mistakes Before They Happen

This article was written for a regional magazine, The Druck Report, appearing in the October, 2007 issue.

by Mickey Seward

It’s not often a lunch invitation turns into much more than a quick meal and good conversation. For Dr. John Grout, the dean of Berry College’s Campbell School of Business, a lunch invitation 12 years ago ended up changing his life.

Who knows how many lives that lunch conversation has saved?

It was in 1995 that Grout, then a professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, accepted an invitation from a pair of doctors at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School to join them for lunch. The doctors were creating a proposal based on error reporting in blood transfusions for the National Institutes of Health, and they were looking for assistance from Grout, who already was one of the nation’s leaders in the research of “mistake proofing.”

Since that afternoon, Grout has devoted much of his time to mistake-proofing the health care industry. His work is so respected that he recently was asked to author a book for the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The result, Mistake-Proofing the Design of Health Care Processes, is now available to health care practitioners worldwide. It includes 150 existing examples of mistake-proofing in the medical profession.

The text has raised some questions, Grout says. The first one he often receives about the book regards its purpose.

“I’ve been asked if it is meant to be a catalog of examples or a catalyst for more examples,” he said. “My answer, of course, is both. It has a large amount of examples but I really believe that in the future, this book will be used as a catalyst to create even more examples.”

Grout said he doesn’t expect the book to become an overnight sensation. But over time, he believes, it will make an impact.

“This is very new to medicine. This is not one of those books where they will say, ‘Look what just came out!’ This is something they will grow into. The real test is what happens in the next three to five years. I don’t look at it and think, ‘If this doesn’t get big in the next six months, there’s a problem.’

“There’s a huge benefit for the worker – it makes him more at-home while he’s at work and creates a less stressful environment. Mistake-proofing helps free medical professionals’ minds from an endless stream of details on how to do their job and helps patients get better more rapidly.”

So far, local medical practitioners have been able to see first hand the positive results of mistake-proofing their environment.

“With mistake-proofing, the human element doesn’t have to become involved,” says Sonny Rigas, chief operating officer at Floyd Medical Center. “If mistake-proofing is automatically built into things, then we don’t have to think about making a costly mistake.

“We use a lot of different mistake-proofing measures” at Floyd, Rigas says. “For example, a portable x-ray machine cannot be moved unless a drive bar on the machine is depressed. There is an automatic exposure control on radiation devices that protects patients from receiving more radiation than what is prescribed. Those are a few big examples.

“There are more basic examples, too,” Rigas says. “We use bar code readers throughout the facility. There are lights over doors to indicate there is a procedure taking place inside that room. We use wristbands. There are examples of mistake-proofing all over in the health care industry, and specifically here.”

For Grout, mistake-proofing health care environments is an opportunity to assist a large group of professionals for which he holds a great deal of respect.

“I’ve been working with a lot of medical professionals over the past several years, and I’ve been so impressed by how much they care about their patients,” Grout says. “I don’t ever want it (mistake-proofing) viewed as denigrating those folks. They work in an environment that’s not designed for mistake-proofing, and errors can happen because of that. These are professionals doing the best they can, and ways are being designed to help them do it even better.”

Many of those new designs may be viewed on Grout’s Website, www.mistakeproofing.com, which also features a link to a wiki that he says will serve as a sort of “Volume 2” to his book, and allow other users to post their mistake-proofing designs.

Grout’s launch into the world of mistake-proofing came well before that lunch invitation.

“I first became interested in mistake-proofing from a manufacturing perspective,” he says. “I taught a class in quality management at SMU. In preparing for that course, I really became fascinated with the subject of mistake-proofing. I like the inventive aspect to creating mistake-proofing devices.”

Grout also likes what he sees happening at the Campbell School of Business, which last year became one of just 549 business schools worldwide to be accredited by the prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

“Now we are poised to move forward in new and better ways,” Grout says. “We’ve never had a stronger faculty then we have now. My job is to assist the faculty in making the Campbell School of Business better and better in the coming years. That will happen.”

Turns out, it doesn’t take a lunch invitation to get Grout excited about the future.