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CBN.com – Rosco Backus: I think being a young man and being the center of attention, I enjoyed that. Being in the limelight, hitting that home run or making that play and getting the adulation and the applause of people…
Lisa Ryan: So sports was your dream.
Rosco: Sports was my everything.
Lisa [reporting]: It was a life that Rosco Backus loved. As long as he was playing amateur ball everything was perfect. When he met his wife, Amy, he made it clear if she married him, she married the ballpark too.
Amy Backus: His life consisted of working, playing ball and drinking beer. That’s what he did when I met him, seven nights a week.
Lisa [reporting]: At first, it was fun. Amy enjoyed the amazing success of her husband. But it got old fast.
Amy: I said, “Well, this guy’s gone seven days a week. I need something. What am I going to do? I know what’s going to work. I’m going to have a baby. That’s going to change our life.”
Lisa: That’ll bring him home.
Amy: He’s going to want a baby. So we had our first daughter, and it didn’t stop.
Lisa [reporting]: Rosco continued his seven-nights-a-week ball schedule. Eleven months later, Amy was pregnant again -- this time with a boy.
Amy: I thought, Oh, this is the cat’s meow now. I am going to give him a son. I am going to give him the ball player.
Lisa: Right.
Amy: So that doesn’t work. Then we had three and then we had four.
Lisa [reporting]: But Roscoe didn’t change and didn’t want to.
Rosco: This is about me and my game and me glorifying myself.
Amy: I got to the point where I didn’t want to go to the ballpark anymore. It wasn’t fun for me. He played ball all day. I was pushing babies in 100-degree weather.
Lisa: Raising them by yourself.
Amy: Raising them by myself. It didn’t matter how much I cried. It didn’t matter how much I stomped my feet. It didn’t matter how many times I packed up the kids and left.
Lisa: Really?
Amy: Oh, I can’t tell you how many times I packed up and went to my mom’s or wherever and said, “I am not living like this anymore. I will not be a ball park wife.”
Lisa: Rosco, did you realize that? Did you have any comprehension of how much of your children’s lives you were missing?
Rosco: I really did not know. I was in such a bad state of “all about me.” Didn’t care about anyone else.
Lisa [reporting]: The pattern continued. Amy raised kids; Rosco played ball. Then one night during a softball tournament, Rosco met an unusual fan.
Rosco: This man had a hold of my hand and was shaking my hand with such life and vigor, introducing himself and how he loves the Lord and how he loves watching us amateurs play softball. This guy was so alive. He asked me if I knew Jesus Christ. I told him I didn’t know Jesus Christ.
Lisa [reporting]: Rosco repeated the sinner’s prayer. But his self-centered lifestyle never changed.
Lisa: So what did you think, Amy? Here he makes this decision for God and yet there’s no change whatsoever in him.
Amy: I didn’t believe it, even at the time. I went along with it but I knew his patterns. He had said lots of things over the years to appease things for a few minutes and then he would go back to the same way.
Lisa [reporting]: But one person believed Rosco would change: Amy’s father. He was a Christian and had been praying for Rosco for years.
Amy: Then he floored me when he told me, “Your husband’s going to be an evangelist someday.” And I said, “Are you nuts? Have you lost your mind? Do you know what kind of man we’re dealing with here?” He said, “I know those kind of men. I was one of those kind of men.”
Lisa [reporting]: But a minor change in Rosco’s workplace was about to have a major impact on his life. He was assigned a new partner, a sold-out believer in Jesus Christ.
Rosco: He opened up the Bible and we would read. Things started coming off those pages into my mind. For the first time in my life, I got to see how much of a mess I was -- full of sin -- and how holy and righteous God is.
Lisa [reporting]: His change of heart came too late. Amy wanted a divorce.
Rosco: When she looked at me with cold eyes and said, “I just don’t love you any more. You’ve used me as a doormat for 10 years, and I stood here waited for you.” That was a wake-up call. I laid on the floor at work, and I gave my life to Jesus. I said, “For 38 years I’ve messed up everything I’ve tried. This time come into my heart, take control of my life, and I’ll live for you. I’m not going to do anything but pray that you will heal my family, restore my marriage and bring my wife’s heart back to me. Everything that I’ve messed up, would You please fix?”
Lisa [reporting]: Amy began to see amazing changes in Rosco. She began to think maybe Jesus Christ can change a person. So one night, quietly in bed, Amy too gave her heart to Christ.
Amy: We lied there, and we hugged each other. We both cried.
Rosco: She fell asleep and I went back downstairs in that kitchen. I raised my hands up to heaven, and I said, “You are a God who’s in the miracle business.”
Lisa [reporting]: Rosco and Amy began building their relationship on Jesus Christ. They sought Christian counseling, found a good church, and prayed together every day. Today, they thank God for His faithfulness.
Rosco: It’s awesome. We are truly one. The kids are seeing the example of the family God intended it to be. He brought more joy.
Amy: Restoration.
Rosco: He’s buried things. He’s thrown them as far as the east is the west, not only in His mind, but in our minds. We press onward; we press forward. It’s a wonderful life. It’s a wonderful life. Praise God.
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