It’s Father’s Day. In honor of my dad, I wanted to share a memory that I have on the field because of him.
We are in Myanmar and I decided to FaceTime my dad after dinner. It is about 8:30AM his time, so I figured he was out working already. I open the screen and immediately recognize his surroundings. He is at the local Chick Fil A.
Kelly Keprta goes to Chick Fil A essentially every morning he can. He prefers to go to the location closest to our old home, so he drives 15 minutes out of his way most mornings. He is greeted warmly every time. You see, he is the most friendly man I know. He speaks with the cooks in broken Spanish and brings them some extra duck from last weekend’s hunt. Last time he came for breakfast, he said he had never tried it.
He then picks up his usual, The Kelly Bowl, custom made for him in the mornings. He sits down to talk to his friend, Mike, the manager of the restaurant. Mike tells my dad all about his honeymoon. You see, last month, my dad drove to Colorado to go to his wedding and celebrate Mike.
He leaves with some flirty sass from the older lady that works there and a big ole “See you, Kelly!” from the rest.
When I go to that Chick Fil A, I hear, “Hey! It’s Kelly’s daughter!” To which I say a big, “Heck yeah, I am!” He makes it really easy to be a proud daughter. I also hope that this simple truth scores me some free nuggets one day. I am out here learning about love, acting out love, declaring the truth that God is Love. I’m realizing that people love my dad because he loves them like Jesus does.
When I called him on an early Monday morning, he soon had nine girls screaming into the phone to “SHOW US THE BISCUIT!” He laughed the kind of laugh that adds years to a life. He teared up and, of course, I did too.
I miss him almost as much as I miss chicken biscuits and sweet tea. The good news is that in just four short months, my mom and dad will be meeting me in Guatemala. They will get to live the World Race for a week. They will get to see love in action in a whole new way. I pray that they will go home and love even harder because of it.
Happy Father’s Day, Dad. It truly is “my pleasure” to be your daughter.
