Take Me Back

…What A Privilege. This past summer I had the experience of a lifetime. My wife, my son, and myself flew to Finland, my wife’s parent’s homeland, and Ireland, my birthplace. Finland wasn’t at all what I had expected. Beautiful landscapes, rolling wheat fields, the people looking so healthy. While in Finland we felt a little like we were in a relay race, that we were the baton in this race, as we were passed off to different relatives. There was a prize at the end of this relay that we were unaware of. Knowing what the prize is now, and the importance for us to finish this relay, has made me wonder what relay race are you in. Our prize keeps coming to my mind every time I think of Finland. My wife who had been corresponding to her Aunt finally got to meet her. She was a petite lady who had just celebrated her 90th birthday. So-o-o sweet. As we had tea and birthday cake she reminisced to my wife about her mom as together they look at old back and white pictures. This reunion was so incredible, as I stood of to the side and watched two family members who have never met come together. I was told later that Aunt had been praying for years, hoping that one day she could meet her sister’s daughter before she died. This small woman who had raised 10 children of her own, her prayers were answered. I was so blessed to see this happen, to be able to watch as they hugged for the first time all I could do was wipe the small tear from my eye. God can do far more that we can imagine. The race you are running is important, you may not know the out come at the starting line, or the importance of finishing .So much of what we are doing in life we unknowingly are doing on faith. You don’t have to be a Christian to be doing things on faith, I believe that we all have a hope inside us that thing are going to workout. Who would have thought that a little 90 year old lady would be my prize at the end of my relay race in Finland.

Ireland … We all have roots, some good some bad. Roots nonetheless I was just a little nervous going to Ireland it had been 43 years that I had walked there. Someone once said that when you go back that far you can be disappointed in what you find. That place where we played as a child, no longer exists or we wouldn’t feel welcomed in a country that is no longer home but still holds deep feelings inside. I will be forever grateful to my cousin who showed us Ireland and some of her landmarks. But more that that showed me and thought me the importance of family. That each part is needed. This Blog was given to me as a gift for fathers day its taken some unexpected turns its helped me to realize how important each one of us is .In a funny kind of way it’s given me a voice I never thought I had and I’ve come to realize that I can never be complete as I try with Gods help to build this house. Not many people have the opportunity to travel to their birthplace with their wife and son. We’ve rediscovered family, history and culture. Every were we went we were welcomed and hugged often. There is a move of God maybe a renewing that I never new as a small boy .We were privileged to tour one new church with over 700 hundred members and growing as people are curious to know what is going on in side this new building. There is defiantly a hunger for more in Ireland.

1 Corinthians 13 (New Living Translation)
9 Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! 10 But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear. 11 It's like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now. 13 There are three things that will endure -- faith, hope, and love -- and the greatest of these is love.

‘You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the man.” Author unknown.

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