To My Earthy Father – Thank You

I want to take a minute and honor my dad. I give Yeshua HaMashiach all the glory for everything in my life, and I give Him praise constantly, but Scripture also teaches us to give honor where honor is due, and my dad deserves that honor. My parents have been married nearly 50 years, and for as long as I can remember, my dad was one of the hardest-working men I had ever seen. He was a good husband, a faithful provider, and because of how hard he worked, I had the blessing of growing up with a stay-at-home mom. He carried the responsibility of making sure his family had what we needed, and he did that year after year without complaint.

Growing up, Dad would go to church with us on holidays and things like that, and I always considered him a good man, but I would not have described him as a particularly spiritual man. Looking back now, I also understand that so much of his life was spent working, providing, fixing things, carrying responsibility, and doing what he believed a husband and father was supposed to do. He was never a man who had to say a thousand words. A lot of the way he loved people was through what he did. He worked. He provided. He showed up. He fixed what was broken. He made sure his family was taken care of.

Then about a year ago, Dad retired, and something happened that I never expected to mean as much to me as it does. I finally started getting time with my dad that I never really had growing up because he was always working. And over this last year, I have watched something in him change.

He has become an active part of what we are doing at Salvation Revolution Ministries. He comes out and handles my honey-do list. He helps feed and care for the ranch animals and the ministry animals. He helps with the day-to-day things that have to be done. He has met members of the Remnant who have come out and volunteered their time, and he has spent time around people who genuinely believe in serving God and serving others. And little by little, I have watched a visible change take place in my father.

I do not particularly like the word religious because Yeshua did not come to give us empty religion. He came for relationship. And what I have watched happening in my dad is not religion. It is awakening. I have watched the scales begin to fall from his eyes. I have watched a man who used to be very quiet about spiritual things begin to see things differently, understand things differently, participate differently, and recognize that his life still has purpose.

There is something powerful that happens when a person becomes involved in something that has meaning. There is something powerful about serving, about being around people who love God, about using your hands to help something that is bigger than yourself. Sometimes God does not reach somebody through a church pew. Sometimes He meets them while they are feeding animals, fixing something that broke, helping build something, sitting around a table with believers, or quietly serving in a place where nobody is applauding them.

And I have had the privilege of watching that happen right in front of me.

Dad, I do not know whether you realize how much I notice it, but I do. I see the change in you. I see your heart. I see everything you do out here. I see how you have stepped into this ministry and made yourself part of what we are doing. And after watching you spend almost your entire life taking care of everybody else, it means more than I can explain to have this season where I simply get to spend time with my dad.

I am proud of the man you have always been, but I am especially grateful that I have gotten to watch God do something new in you during this season of your life. I love you. I respect you. And I thank Yeshua for giving me this time with you. After a lifetime of watching you provide for everybody else, it has been a gift to finally have the time to really know my dad, not just as the man who worked and provided, but as the man you are.

And to everybody who supports Salvation Revolution Ministries, I want you to know that my dad is part of what helps make these things possible. Every animal that gets fed, every project that gets handled, every little thing that gets fixed, every task he takes off my plate, every hour he spends helping out here, it all matters. He may not always be the one standing in front of people, but he is absolutely one of the people helping hold things together behind the scenes.

It is really amazing to watch what God can do in a person when He gives them a new season, a new purpose, and a place to serve.

Only God can take a season called retirement and turn it into a brand-new assignment. And Dad, I am grateful that I get to watch yours unfold.

Love Moana,
That’s what he calls me since I was a child❤️