10 Years Ago

On Thanksgiving Day 10 years ago our son John set off on a great adventure. On November 19, 1999 he wrote this in his journal.

Next week is Thanksgiving week; there will be another big party on Thursday. I won't be there, just as I haven't been to any of their parties. I feel like a kill-joy, and I don't know how to tell people that I really do enjoy having a good time, just without alcohol, pot, sex, and gossip. For one of the two holidays that might actually have some meaning for me, I will be isolated again out of a need for self-preservation.

Instead of sticking around for the "party," John decided to hike across the valleys of the Kohala on the northern end of the Big Island. He meticulously studied the route and knew that he would not have a clear trail across the whole area. He was prepared to bushwack across the portion that had no trail. He had actually visited the area a few weeks before with some of his colleagues and he found it intriguing. I'm sure it reminded him of his beloved jungles of Brazil where he grew up. There were guava in abundance and he had eaten his fill and reveled in the beauty of the place.

So it was a good choice for a "get-away" and he anticipated he could do the arduous hike in the long 4 day Thanksgiving holiday. He packed his backpack with the essentials. As far as we know he took food for the 4 days, sleeping gear, a machete, miscellaneous camping and cooking gear, his Bible and perhaps some other reading material. He also carried a bamboo pole in which he carried maps. He did not anticipate the heavy rains he was to encounter. He was simply looking for a profitable and enjoyable way to spend the long weekend - an option to preserve his integrity by removing himself from the party scene.

He had written us an e-mail telling of his plans - an e-mail we didn't have access to until after his boss called us Monday evening to tell us John had not returned from his hike.

We often wonder what life would be like if John had not disappeared. I'm sure everyone who has had a loved one go missing can identify. But every Thanksgiving we thank our heavenly Father for the incredible gift that was John and for the 22 wonderful years he was with us.

You can read more of John's story in our e-book Aloha is Forever.

What do you do with an "OOPS?"

What do you do with an "OOPS" when it involves another person? We just received an email from someone our son mentioned in his journal which is on our website as "John's Legacy." We thought we were being so careful to change every name he mentioned - or at least most of the names and there was one name we forgot to change that just so happened to be critical that we do so. Yikes! How did we let that one slip by? I guess that just highlights the importance of a really good editor!

All we can do now is send a sincere apology and change it as quickly as possible! And hope we don't make the same or a similar mistake again.

Maybe you have an "OOPS" you'd like to share. If so, please feel free!

35 Years Ago

Today is the anniversary of the day we went to Brazil exactly 35 years ago. Anticipation and excitement along with a healthy dose of fear joined us on that first trip. We were young - yes, we really were quite a long time ago. We naively believed we were going to Brazil, never to return to the USA to live. So we packed up all of our earthly possessions and shipped them all in big metal drums and packing crates. If we had realized there was no house there waiting for us we might not have been so enthusiastic. Most of those possessions remained stored in the barrels for many, many years before we had a place to call home and to unpack them all.

Our son John was one of the main reasons we finally purchased a home. Moving into any and every available home and packing up everything each time we traveled into one of the Indian villages was definitely getting old. And John seemed to be the one who felt it the most. When we finally purchased a home and moved into it, we could see an almost immediate impact on him in a positive way.

The house was small, but the backyard was surrounded on three sides by virgin jungle. It was wonderful. We were frequently visited by monkeys and exotic birds. The strip of jungle around all the houses became the boys' paradise. John and his buddies built tree houses high up in the canopy. (Fortunately we parents never saw them and didn't even know about them until much, much later.)

Brazil became our home and even though John was actually born in the USA, he claimed Brazil as his home...until God called him to his forever home. Read about it in Aloha is Forever.

Never Stop Learning

My son John had a passion for learning. I'll never forget the summer he decided to do a catch up home school course in math so he wouldn't be behind the rest of his class when he went to boarding school that fall. How I admired his self-discipline and his ability to stick with it and get it finished before the summer was over. He could have done so many other things that were fun - and he did, but never instead of doing his studies. He was the ideal home school parent's dream child.

I thought about that today as my daughter and I have taken on the challenge of attending a child rearing class together since we are jointly rearing and training my grandson. I read through the first lesson this morning in preparation for the class, DVD presentation and discussion on Friday evening.

What are you doing to "never stop learning?"

The Value of One Life

This evening I was listening to comments on "For Faith and Family" by Dr. Richard Land as I drove home. Dr. Land was our Sunday School teacher here in Dallas a long time ago. I was impressed with his lessons and his wisdom then; even more so now. Among other things he was discussing the health plan provisions that were slipped into the economic stimulus bill unbeknownst to almost everyone. As he talked, I began to ponder the value of a life.

How do we place value on a life? How are we to say that one person's life is more valuable than that of another? Apparently one of the objectives of the new health plan provisions calls for evaluating medical procedures based on the age of the patient. If those procedures are not economically advantageous depending on the age and perceived potential contribution of the patient to society, they would be denied. The next step could be euthanasia. Why not? We have as a society already approved taking the lives of the unborn.

But that's not the point. The point is that any life is valuable. The Bible says in Genesis 1:27,

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

The reason it is valuable is that each and every individual is stamped with God's image. Granted, that image has been perverted and distorted by sin. In fact in Genesis 5:1-3, we read this:

"When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them 'man.' When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image, and he named him Seth."

By the time Seth came on the scene, he had lost the perfect image of God and was born in Adam's likeness - complete with a sin nature. Without going into a long and involved treatise on the fall of man, and his subsequent redemption, I hasten to say that even man full of sin nature inherited from Adam is valuable in God's eyes. So valuable in fact, that God chose to give his only son to pay the penalty for each and every man's sin through his death on the cross.

When our son John Reece disappeared in Hawaii in 1999 we spared no expense to try to find him. Even though we had no funds to get to Hawaii, God opened the doors and through the generosity of acquaintances, we were able to fly to Hawaii and spend almost all of December there helping with the searches. Our total expenses were nothing short of astronomical (close to $20,000) but by the time we left Hawaii every single bill had been paid in full.

Many people have noted that never before had so many resources been mobilized and such an intense search made for someone who was lost in Hawaii. (People getting lost is not an uncommon occurrence there.) We would have given much more to find our son - he was our son and infinitely valuable to us.

In much the same way, God values each and every one of us. He is our Father and He seeks for us diligently, spares no expense, gives His all. Each one of us is infinitely valuable for we are his beloved sons and daughters.