So many good things happening

I don't know where to start. Maybe that I am alive and well. God is faithful and everyday he has new presents for his children. I think the best present of all that daddy could have given us is the gift of family.

In just the last year or so I've begun to really learn about my family history and where I come from. My grandmother has been going crazy over there at the family tree - digging up things from the past that only the luckiest could ever get a chance to discover. I come from a long lineage of missionaries, intellectuals, and passionate blue-collar workmen. The most astounding would have to be one of my for-fathers on my mother's side, John Rogers. He may have been the first person to ever print a complete English Bible that was translated directly from the original Greek & Hebrew. Not only was he a translator, he went so far as to take his faith publicly leading him to become a martyr - even being written about in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. His line leads to other missionaries like Claire Rogers who rode on a horse and buggy right before the civil war broke out to preach the gospel to the native Americans in the south. I've read several handwritten letters from Claire to her family back north. She speaks of riding through the rivers in Knoxville and living off of just warm tomato soup and water. Unfortunately, sickness and war broke out leading her and the rest of the family back to safety. They never met the natives that day, but legend has it, my great great grandfather was Iroquois. Something in this blood of ours lead us to eventually be united.

On my fathers side, we talk little about a great uncle of mine and crazy outlaw, Claude Eatherly, who became a bank robber and ran from the law on several occasions after coming to terms with his past. He wanted so badly to make up for the wrong he did in Hiroshima, so he robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. Just like Robin Hood. He was a pilot on one of seven B-29s of the 393rd Bomb Squadron of the 509th Composite Group that took part in the Hiroshima mission. He wrote about his concerns with the mission and the institution as a whole,

"I believe that we are rapidly approaching a situation in which we shall be compelled to reexamine our willingness to surrender responsibility for our thoughts and our actions to some social institution such as the political party, trade union, church or State. None of these institutions are adequately equipped to offer infallible advice on moral issues and their claim to offer such advice needs therefore to be challenged."

Though I don't agree with many of his actions he took on later in his life, I do respect that he was able to think for himself and wanted so much that the people of this nation would as well.

I hope I can continue this family tradition of brave souls and adventurous stories. I think I was able to give my dad the best father's day gift a daughter could give (well, except a child... but I don't think that will happen any time in the near future).

I was able to let my dad know he need not to worry about this girls' future. I'm going back to school to finish my degree and the great state of Tennessee is paying for it. Thank you Jesus for no income and independency :)

I know not everyone can be so blessed to call their earthly fathers great, but I do hope you get a glimpse at our Heavenly father and his wonderful masterpiece he is weaving together with our lives today. Though I must say, I'm a lucky girl, I think both of my dads are pretty amazing.