I owe my parents — both of them — more than I could ever explain. I wish I was a better woman so you could more accurately acertain what amazing people they are. I am a product of their constant love, prayer, patience, & goofiness. They’ve given me more than I can say & they have always partnered in their parenting, so each of them always reinforced what the other taught me. But though I can credit them both for so much, this one’s for my dad.
My dad is one of the hardest workers I know who is not a workaholic. He was always home for dinner & always helped us with our homework if we needed it. He tended to the gardens & took us with him to chop wood. He pushed us on the swings, played home run derby in the backyard, & chased us around inside pretending to be a t-Rex. I had a great childhood & the fun didn’t stop when I became an adult.
Every once in a while I have these flashbacks of things my dad taught us. Things like baiting a hook (okay, so he still does it for me sometimes :S 🙂 ), tilling the garden, & picking bugs off the potato plants. My dad was so patient as he’d teach me these things & that has always stayed with me.
One of the specific things was how to wield a shovel & weed the garden. This month in Lesotho we definitely got our hands dirty & I couldn’t help but think about my dad & how kind he would be when he taught me these things. In this picture you can actually see the edge of the garden where some of that training happened…
Anyway. When you weed, you grab it down by the root so that you don’t leave anything behind. Sometimes this means digging around the root a bit, but it’s generally pretty doable, even for a child. So this month as I weeded, I got to be like my dad as I taught Blessing — the daughter of the lady who cooked for us — how to do it the right way, just like my dad did for me. It slowed me down & took a lot of reexplaining, but it was one of the most precious moments I got to have. Not because I was a great teacher, but because it was like my dad was right there with me.
I know — that probably sounds weird. But when there’s an ocean between you & your father, these sorts of memories are pretty amazing. Here’s a look at the bed we were weeding — you can see the right side still has plenty of weeds but the left has been successfully weeded.
Or is it wed? That sounds like a marriage…I don’t know. But you get it — there’s a picture.
Another project that made me grateful for my dad’s training was when we basically just moved a bunch of dirt to help build a tree nursery. Some of the girls knew what they were doing, others not so much. I might be a little ashamed of my very World Race-ish outfit that day, but I am not at all ashamed of the work I got done. I didn’t struggle — I broke up the ground just like my dad taught me.
I know that is totally not a big deal — lots of people know how to do this. But being on this trip I’ve seen that there are a lot of skills that I think everybody knows & yet — a surprising number of those among us have never done this kind of work. So yeah, maybe it’s basic, but my dad taught me how to do something basic that helped me do a job this month, & I think that’s pretty cool.
Also not my first time with a wheelbarrow, but that’s one of those things that if you can’t use it intuitively, maybe your problems are deeper than not having a dad as great as mine.
If you are reading this & have never used a wheelbarrow, let’s chat later — we’ll get you there.
Another thing I’ve inherited from my dad is a love for outdoors. Any time my family would go on a walk (& this STILL totally happens, by the way), my dad always would tell us what kind of trees we were passing by based on bark & leaves. I haven’t camped a ton in my life but I’ve loved it every time I have & I think it’s because my dad instilled in me a love of the forrest when I was quite young.
This month we had Saturdays off, so this is a hike we took Friday night to get to our camp site — not in the forrest, but still — free weekend fun!
Knowing how to have fun doing free things has also come from my dad 😉
He has always built us awesome bon fires in the back yard, so gathering sticks for our camp fire was a pretty natural thing to do…
Apparently I’m also learning to wake up early in the morning as well, which is DEFINITELY him & NONE of me…
None of these things are a super big deal, but as I’ve traveled over the past 10 months I’ve realized that a lot of people don’t have good dads to teach them these simple but precious parts of life. But my dad did. My dad never stopped caring about the little things & teaching us in a patient, gentle way. My dad never stopped being an example of hard work & faithfulness. But it’s not just those things.
The longer I travel, the more I see how my dad helped ingrain in me respect for people & the necessity of being willing to truly serve. This month we had the privilege of visiting a church that meets down by a river. We sat outside & had a service together that Sunday morning & then after the service we helped do what they do every week after church — we shoveled stones from the river bed.
This church needs a building so they shovel stones into trucks for a few hours so they can someday have enough to make their building. Now, shoveling stones might sound pretty benign, but after going to town for a while it gets pretty heavy scooping them out of the water. I don’t have a picture of me doing it but I assure you that we all worked pretty hard to make it happen.
Even this lady with a kid on her back was doing the work! In fact — she was killing it! We were so impressed by her!
But the point is, we were visiting but we just acted like family & did the work, which wasn’t even a question to me because this is how my dad raised me. To answer a need by coming along side & serving with others.
& that’s my dad. He hasn’t just been there for me, & my mom, & my siblings, & my relatives — he’s just there for everyone — quick to work hard & serve no matter how tired he is or if he has other things going on.
This year I was across the globe for Father’s Day, but I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated my dad more. He’s helped me learn so many essentials & given me basic life skills to serve other people. I can thrive on this Race & invest in others because my dad ALWAYS invested in me & still does.
So this one’s for you, Pops — because you are my hero in so many ways. When I can take up a shovel to help build a church or teach a kiddo to weed or just enjoy creation — it’s because you’ve helped lay a solid foundation for me. Thank you for all you’ve poured in & for not just lecturing me, but instead modeled for me the kind of life I strive to imitate. You’re the best, Dad — & I can’t wait to come home & tell you how you’ve helped impact the world. I love you.
