They called him Ronnie when he was young. Although only 5'6" (1.7m), he loved basketball. Growing up in a small Texas Panhandle town, he loved spending summers at his Uncle Tom's ranch. And Ronnie loved to draw. You could find him doodling at any time. I remember being amazed as a boy at his sketches while talking on the phone, thinking I could only hope to draw that well after laboring for hours. Most were of cowboys and their horses. (Did I mention he loved Uncle Tom's ranch?)
And Faye, well, she was so in love with him, she would follow him to the ends of the earth.
So she did. First, she followed him all the way to Wyoming, where he had taken a job with the local newspaper (he majored in art and journalism) in order to work with a church led by his best friend.
Then she followed him across the planet to Perth, Western Australia, where they teamed up with two other couples to plant a church. Things were going so well for this fledgling church that young men were joining and deciding to become ministers themselves, but would go to the States to train and often end up settling in to the comfy American lifestyle. So my dad decided to return to the States himself in order to get more training so he could in turn train them in their own country.
What happened then is something that changed my life forever (as if four years in Australia hadn't already). For reasons I will never fully know till I see my parents again, Ron and Faye decided to take the "long way home". Rather than flying back east across the Australian continent and across the Pacific to the US, they chose to embark, with four identically dressed boys in tow, on a five-week odyssey that took us via ocean liner and train to seven different countries, from Sri Lanka to Egypt to the UK and points in between.
I saw real poverty for the first time in Sri Lanka and Egypt. I heard other languages spoken for the first time (unless you count Aussie, which by then this 9-year-old spoke fluently). I was completely enthralled -- and transformed -- by the whole experience.
My father's intentionality about encouraging us to be open to new experiences, new cultures, and yes, new languages left an indelible imprint on me and shaped the direction my life would take.
My dad was also a great thinker. I hope you know what I mean when I say he knew how to think well. He was good when it was time to think quickly on his feet, but slow in forming opinions on weightier matters. This, among so many other things, made him my hero.
On this Father's Day 2021, as I reflect on the greatest joy of my life -- being a father -- if I have had any positive impact on the lives of my three sons and the countless other young people I have been privileged to teach or interact with -- I owe much of it to the Renaissance man from Texas.
Happy Father's Day to all you fellow dads.