My dad

I wrote about my mother a few weeks ago. She's quite a remarkable lady, who happens to be married to quite a remarkable man.

My dad is a bit of an adventurer. He has travelled on mountain roads in Pakistan which local jeep drivers avoided, and he always wants to go over 'just one more sandhill'.

My dad takes the 'eighty-year perspective' on life. He figures you only live for eighty years - a tiny speck in light of the eternity to come - so you might as well make your eighty count for Christ. If that means taking the challenging route, so be it. If it means giving up worldly things and security, that's great.

My dad always sees the potential. He thinks large and dreams well. At times, it's completely impractical (a home built out of a huge water pipe, embedded in the ground so that it will be cool in the heat, a 'sports tractor' with a trailer for transporting people around the desert... don't ask!!) but it means that the people around him are always being stretched and expanded in creative ways.

My dad has been a tremendous encouragment for me. Rather than limit me, he's always pushed me to think bigger, dream wider and live closer to the edge. Also, he's proven to me that God does change people. From being a young man with a hot temper, he's been transformed into a patient, caring old(er) man.

I think he's pretty cool.