I was writing for an application about influential people in my life. I read back through this and saw it was pretty nice to think about. I love these two.


My mother taught me to pray and was an example of spending time in daily prayer at a very influential stage in my life. Her prayers, conviction, and willingness to forgive are the reasons my parents remarried one another after over 2 years of being divorced. She is the source and reason for any service and compassion within me. She feels things very deeply and she has great conviction. She’s the most generous person I know. She is capable of incredible compassion, she seeks to understand those different from her and is a great listener. She volunteers her time at a homeless shelter and Helping Hands food ministry. She reads Richard Foster, A.W. Tozer, Henri Nouwen and Brother Lawrence. She taught me to sew. She is an amazing cook and taught me how to make pies.
My father is very smart and practical. He’s always, always fair and honest. Although he didn’t know how to show us love very well as children, he gets behind us and champions our cause, doing anything he can to see us succeed. He’s a very proud father. His care for the earth and love of the outdoors was passed on to me. He loves history and so do I. In all of the places we’ve lived he has become the caretaker of the neighborhood stray cats- nursing them back to health, getting them fixed and making them soft beds in the winter out of old t-shirts on his work table in the garage and giving them names like Whitey, Blackie, and Calico. He can fix cars, fix leaks, fix roofs, install doors and floors and make tables and desks. He knows how to do just about everything and is constantly learning how to do more. He fixes the homes of old widows in our town who can’t afford it, installing wheelchair ramps for them and finding the funding to get them a new heater and A/C. He’s great.
These two make up much of me.




shalom