Beneath the Psalm Tree

By Clay Ball and Tabitha Ball

There is a world beyond our comfort zone. How do we know what that world is like unless we step into it? We invite you on a journey into the broken lives of twenty-three teenage boys and the way God used us to reach out to them. It will give you courage and compassion and may even help you in your own journey of sacrificial love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512790276

Clay Ball

The authors are both graduates of the University of South Carolina. She has a degree in Elementary Education and he has a degree in English. Currently, she teaches at the South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind and he is a substitute teacher in Spartanburg County. They are active members at Central Church of Christ. Clay and Tabitha live in Spartanburg with their two daughters.

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Copyright © 2017 Clay and Tabitha Ball.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-9028-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-9029-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-9027-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017908971

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/12/2017

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Prologue

Chapter 1 Neil: Alpha Dog

Chapter 2 Daren: Scarred

Chapter 3 Riley: Surviving Again And Again

Chapter 4 Dimitri: A Cry For Love

Chapter 5 Jeremy: Basketball And Peanut Butter Slaps

Chapter 6 Dale: The Big-Hearted Teddy Bear

Chapter 7 Kenneth The 1St: Lonely Heart

Chapter 8 Jim: Boy Of Many Talents

Chapter 9 Brandon: Laughing With The Chef

Chapter 10 James: Divided

Chapter 11 Warren: Broken

Chapter 12 Julio: Gentle Giant

Chapter 13 Alan: Saxophone Blue

Chapter 14 Rob: Toes, Goats And Coconuts

Chapter 15 Arty: A Fresh Start

Chapter 16 Blake: Sunken Relation Ship

Chapter 17 Kenan: Drinking From The Glass Of Childhood

Chapter 18 Aaron: Searching For A Home

Chapter 19 Alfonso: Before They Walk Through The Door

Chapter 20 Terrance: Drums And Video Games

Chapter 21 Kenneth The 2Nd: Dancing Through Life

Chapter 22 Dennis: Fighting Spirit

Chapter 23 Cedric: Drowning The Pain

Epilogue

Dedication

This book is dedicated to William L. Post, my grandfather. Thank you for showing me the horizons beyond my own little world, Papa.

Foreword

Here’s some good advice to the newly married: make sure you come to know and trust each other early in your marriage. Do that before the honeymoon’s barely over. Do that before the kids start coming. Let it be just the two of you before there’s more of you. When we first got married, my wife and I moved 750 miles from our hometown. We didn’t know the place and we hardly knew anyone. But, we had each other. And in that couples’ solitude, a you and me together will make this work mindset became our reality.

Clay and Tabitha Ball did the exact opposite. Almost immediately after they wed, they moved into a home with six boys in a new town and as their first jobs after college. And this was no ordinary home. Six bedrooms with ten beds and six bathrooms. Commercial kitchen and its own private laundromat. Instant family - a group home for young men with challenging pasts. It was into that environment, that Tabitha and Clay started their life together as husband and wife.

What follows in Beneath the Psalm Tree is like a diary. Not a daily diary, but a series of biographies of the twenty-three young men in three years to whom this newly married couple became dad and mom. Some of these young men were unwanted by those who birthed them. Others were abused by those who were supposed to care for them. Each has a story and each story will break your heart. In step, Clay and Tabitha with hearts full of love creating a home filled with care, creating a place where each and every one of these boys was wanted.

These are true stories. I know because I saw this family every Sunday and Wednesday at worship at the church for whom I preach. I saw Clay and Tabitha with the whole group as well as with their charges individually. I saw tough love. I saw forgiving grace. I saw firm discipline from a tender soul. I saw the celebration of small victories. I saw joy – like the joy of the angels in heaven – when one after another of these lost boys gave their lives to Jesus and found an eternal home in Him. And Clay and Tabitha were there each step and misstep of the way, loving these prodigal sons as if they had given birth to these children of the Lord themselves.

Some of what you’ll read is very complex. Life is rarely simple. Some of what you’ll read is quite funny. Four or more teenage boys living together under one roof can make for great amusement. Some of what you’ll read is pretty raw. Life can be that way too. All of it is very honest. Names in this book of the young men are changed for more than a few very good reason. But, each of these are real people, with real challenges, and real soul-breaking burdens on their backs. Not every story has a happy ending. But some do. Not every child ends up whole and healthy, but there are moments when Clay and Tabitha act as the assisting physicians as The Great Physician works His supernatural healing on these precious young men whom God loves.

And I haven’t even mentioned that into this company of players, Clay and Tabitha bring their own first-born, Savannah. A baby girl with five teenage big brothers! Not the formula I recommend for a successful beginning to your marriage. But in these stories, in the lives of these young men, in the ministry of the Balls, we see the promise of our Lord fulfilled, "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13)

Reading this book gave me strength. Strength to see that all children are precious and all deserve the best our heart and soul and mind and strength can give them. I trust you’ll find new strength too as you read these little grace-filled stories of outcast people God loves. And Clay and Tabitha loved. As Jesus taught, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40)

One more piece of good advice. Read this book. You can thank me later.

Ernie Thigpen

Senior Minister

Central Church of Christ

Spartanburg South Carolina

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Preface

The title of this book is called Beneath the Psalm Tree. On one level, it is a pun on words (Psalm tree/palm tree). We might think of a palm tree accompanied by a relaxed day at the beach. But what are we to think of a Psalm tree? How does the title help flesh out the purposes of this book?

The Psalm tree is rooted in the book of Psalms from the Bible. This book has 150 psalms in it. There are psalms filled with peace and joy and contentment. But there are also psalms of anger, sadness, and cries for help.

The teenage boy on our front cover represents what many of our boys were feeling inside. Some had to be removed from their families.Others made choices to leave those families. They were clinging to the few comforts they had left. How can they move forward, past the label of a foster kid? Could they even make a new identity to rise from the ashes of a broken family?

We also chose the cover picture because the boy is sitting on a bench. The bench is big enough to where someone else can sit with him. Me and my wife did that. We sat on that bench with all of our boys and tried