“My Matthew 3:17 Son”

My Matthew 3:17 Son                                                                          

    As I sit here trying to put my thoughts together to guest write this blog for Philip, we are wrapping up the celebration with some family of Philip’s 19th birthday.  It is the last get together with all of his siblings, some cousins, and maternal grandparents before he leaves for nine months on his World Race mission’s trip.  I’ve done quite a bit of thinking about his leaving over the past few weeks.  It brings about a large range of emotions when considering that our oldest child is about to leave the nest.  Nineteen years ago this very night, my wife, Heidi, and I were brand new parents.  We had only been married for 11 months at the time, and already our lives had gone through significant change.  When we got married, I was teaching at a Christian school in Connecticut.  That turned out to be a rather disastrous year, but that is a story for another day.  We moved back to Fort Wayne, IN once that school year ended, and in August I had accepted another teaching job in New Kensington, PA at another Christian school, which I was to start after our son was born in early September.  Heidi had spent that summer working to help make ends meet.  While at work on September 2, 1999, she started to experience her first contractions.  She came home and, shortly afterwards, we began to make our way to Parkview Hospital.  By that time, Heidi was having extremely difficult labor pains in her back, so my mother-in-law drove us to the hospital while I tried to massage Heidi’s back to make her as comfortable as possible.  I love my mother-in-law, but I still feel fortunate to have survived that somewhat frantic drive that evening.  Suffice it to say, when we go anywhere together these days, I drive.  J  Anyways, we made it, and in the early morning hours of September 3, Philip arrived.  

    Within two weeks, we had moved to Pennsylvania, and were settled into an apartment with our small family.  Philip, as babies tend to do, grew quickly, and was soon moving around and getting into everything.  He never crawled.  He had this weird way of arching his back and butt off the ground and pushing himself around on the bottoms of his feet and top of his head.  That was our first clue that he was a bit strange.  

    Philip grew up going to a Christian school, where at different times, both my wife and I worked.  He became quite the social being over time, and blossomed when our pastor asked him while in 5th grade to be part of the high school spring play.  He loved it, and caught the acting bug.  Ever since then, he has loved performing.  When we moved to Texas after his sixth grade year, he was devastated.  It was tough leaving behind the friends with whom he had grown up.  One thing he wanted when we got here though, was the opportunity to act again.  He began going to an acting class at a homeschool group called One Day Academy.  He excelled in this class and became one of the stars of the plays they produced.  These opportunities really helped build his confidence and love of studying people.  

    Another passion he developed from a young age was a love for traveling.  We took family vacations occasionally when he was young, traveling to Florida and the Great Smokey Mountains in TN.  His paternal grandparents live in far off country of Canada, namely Niagara Falls, so trips to this foreign land were always exciting.  With all these long trips, which we drove every time, along with our move to Texas, Philip has traveled to a majority of the 50 states.  We also took the family on a cruise where we visited Cozumel, Roatan, Belize, and Costa Maya, Mexico.  This was to let the kids get a glimpse of other cultures, and to allow them to see how blessed they are to have grown up in this country.  Heidi and I later took him on a senior trip to Los Angeles, CA which combined his love of travel and his interest in film and acting.

    Perhaps the most memorable of his travels, however, was the mission’s trip he took in his junior year of high school.  After returning from a cruise that just my wife and I went on, where we spent an eye-opening day in Belize, we wanted our kids to experience the mission field.  Heidi started a painting business in order to raise money to take each of the kids on a trip as they got older.  She and Philip worked hard for over a year to raise the money for their trip to the Philippines.  They were going to work with missionary friends who run an orphanage on the island of Mindanao.  They were able to experience life in a different culture for two weeks on that trip.  Along with the smaller village in which they spent most of their time, they also experienced the bustling city of Manila, as well as a stop in Beijing, China to spend a day exploring the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.  This visit to the mission field sowed the seeds of desire for the nine month journey on which he is about to embark with the World Race.

    There is so much more that I could write, however, emotions are starting to get the best of me when thinking of his leaving, so I will end with this.  Philip, we love you and are proud of you.  You’ve grown up to be a good young man, and although we will miss you immensely, we know you are going to do a good work.  I’m reminded of the passage telling of Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3.  The chapter ends with God the Father basically presenting His Son to the world to begin His ministry, and He says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Now clearly, I will never be the Father He is, but as a father, I completely understand the sentiment.  You are my beloved son, and I am certainly well pleased with you.  I’m proud of who you have become, and I’m proud that you have made this decision to spend the next 9 months sharing the Gospel with others around the world.

    To those of you reading this, I ask you to consider supporting Philip on his trip.  He has raised a substantial amount already, but will need to continue raising money as he leaves to go on the mission field.  Whether you can help with a one-time donation or perhaps a monthly donation of support, every little bit helps and will be much appreciated by Philip, and his concerned parents back at home.