Father's day with the men of Rockburn Presbyterian ; texts prepared by Nancy Campbell

THE ORIGIN OF FATHER'S DAY
written by Nancy Campbell, Read by Eric Pritchard

Father's Day is the day set aside on which fathers are honoured by their children. It's a day to express feelings of gratitude and thankfulness. Fathers receive gifts, are treated to a special meal and are given special attention on this day. ( Eric added that he can't wait for the special meal!)


However, Father's day had a modest beginning only a century ago. Thanks to the hard work and struggle of Ms. Sonora Louise Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, the wheels to create a day to honour fathers was set in motion. Over the years it received consideration by several government committees, but it wasn't until 1972 that a bill was passed establishing the 3rd Sunday of June as a permanent observance of Father's Day. The white and red rose were made the official flower; the white commemorates gratitude for a father who is deceased, and the red rose expresses thankfulness to one who is living.


Father's Day helps in strengthening the father and child relationship. Just as a mother is regarded as the sole nurturer of a child, the father helps in the development and emotional well being of the child. A father plays the role of a guide, supporter, motivator and protector in any child's life.


Father's Day has become a day to not only honour your father, but all men who act as a father: step fathers, foster fathers, uncles, grandfathers and other male figures are all honoured on Father's Day.

THE FARMER
written by Nancy Campbell, read by Robert Waller

His name was Fleming and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer . Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.


The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to repay you", said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life". ''No, I can't accept payment for what I did", the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.


At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family'S hovel. "Is that your son?' the nobleman asked. "Yes", the farmer replied proudly. "I'll make you a deal," said the noblemen. "Let me take him and give him a good education. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll grow to be a man you can be proud of'. And that he did.


In time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin.


Years afterward, the nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him? Penicillin. The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill, the father of Sir Winston ChurchilL


Someone once said: "What goes around comes around!" Work like you don't need the money, love like you've never been hurt and dance like nobody's watching!

A STORY OF LIFE
written by Nancy Campbell, read by Randy Campbell


One day, little Jim was taking a walk with his father in the rugged roads of the mountains near their home. Suddenly, he slipped and hurt himself: Jim screamed. "AAAhhhh!" Immediately he heard a voice from the mountains saying "AAAhhhh!" Jim forgot his hurt and shouted, "Who are you?" Once again he heard that voice saying, "Who are you?" Jim was amused and he shouted, saying, "I like you!" The voice immediately answered back, saying, "I like you!"


Finding the voice repeating everything that he said, Jim got annoyed and said, "You're a coward! Come in front!" Once again, like every other time, that voice from the mountain repeated exactly what Jim had shouted its way.


Jim got flabbergasted. He looked at his father and asked, "Dad, what's going on? Who is that?" His father smiled and said, "Son, that is called an echo." And then he added, "Now listen to this." Jim's father then shouted towards the mountains, saying, "Hey, you're a champion!" The voice answered back, "Hey, you're a champion!" Jim got puzzled.


Jim's father then looked at him and said, "Son, although people call it an echo, it is, in reality, Life. It gives you back everything that you give to it. Our life reflects our actions. If you give out love, then life rewards you back with it. If you want happiness from the world, spread happiness first and then you get your return."


Jim kept listening to his father as he continued, "Life is not a coincidence, son. It is your reflection ~ the reflection of your deeds, acts and beliefs!"

A Father and Son
by Rob Ireland

I am going to depart a little bit from a script here. I could not find anything that I was comfortable reading so I decided to say a little bit about my own father. It started off with me doing a search on the Internet, for something that I was comfortable with and what a found is a quotation that is attributed to Mark Twain even though there is some dispute over though if he said it or not. It was in the Old Time in Mississippi in Reader’s digest. 

The quote is: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant; I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in 7 years.” Well this Twain reminiscence struck a familiar chord in myself, because, like many sons, I went through a similar stage with my own father.

I will tell you a little bit about my Dad first.

In 1939, when he was 18 years old, he volunteered with the RCAF. Of course, we were starting WWII, and it was the thing to do if you were a farm boy. So he did that. By 1944, he had gone far enough in his career that he was spitfire pilot, and he saw action in D day and afterwards over in countries like France, Belgium, Holland and Germany towards the end of the war. During that time, he was in mortal combat with German pilots who were determined to kill him. He managed to avoid that, fortunately for me. He managed to avoid that, but he had some very narrow escapes. He himself shut down several Messerschmitt 109s and Focke-Wulf 190s, piloted by German, but managed to avoid the same thing himself.

Now after the war, he continued in his career, he did not retire and go into civilian life.  He stayed as a pilot and came back to Canada and started flying Jets. Well by 1961, he had gone far enough up in the ranks, that he was a commanding officer of an airbase on Vancouver Island, and on that airbase, he was a pilot of the squadron and leader of a squadron of fire pilots who flew Voodoo Jets; those were called CF-101s. For those who do not know what a CF101 look like, I brought in a little tribute book that my father received when he left the airbase.

Now you will have to remember that this was in the cold war era and there was dire threat at that time. This was the Cuban Missile crisis and this was Russian Bombers flying over the Arctic circle intruding on our air space to see what we were prepared to deal with them or not. It was my father's job to stop them. He was first line of defense. Canada and the US were concerned as well because that was how they would get to the US by flying over Canada.

So he was first line of defense. These jets that he was flying were armed with missiles that had atomic warheads on them. Most people do not realize that we had atomic warheads here in Canada back in the 60’s but we did. They were stored on the airbase and he was responsible for making sure that these atomic warheads were not mishandled, not abused. Terrorism was not a big treat then as it is now. But it was still a very big responsibility. 

Now at 14, that is how old I was when my father was the commanding officer of this airbase; at 14, I, like Mark Twain did not see eye to eye with my father on many things: politics, attitudes. Of course in the 60's, things were changing rapidly for my generation and so my father's and my points of views diverged on many many many,  many assets; and I thought the old man was ignorant many times. He certainly did not believe in the things I believed in. I did not understand his world at all. I did not want to go in the military and that was not a popular choice on my part when I did that. Of course I had been groomed for it and it would be cool that his son followed in his footsteps but I didn’t. 

So we had our differences. 7 years later, though, like Mark Twain, when I was 21, the old man had learned a lot. My attitudes had changed somewhat. I had realized I was living in the comfort and the security that was afforded to me by the sacrifices that my father and men of his generation…. sacrifices they have made for us, were responsible for me being able to indulge myself and do what I wanted to do:  go and live in the country and grow vegetables and learn the values and walk through the woods; things like that. And it was at that point that I came to the realization that my father when I was that age was up in the air with people trying to shoot him dead and he was doing things that I just couldn’t imagine. 

And it was at that point that I really became proud of my father, started to realize that any of these diverging attitudes where just nothing, they were just nothing compared to what he did for us. More than that, he and my mother somehow managed to hold the family of 5 kids together through 30 years of moving from airbase to airbase to airbase every 2 years. I myself went through 10 moves with my parents before I moved to a flat on my own. And somehow they managed to hold all of us together through this. The 50 's, the 60 's, the 70's and on. So I am in awe of that. I only hope that my own children and yours can have similar feelings about us as parents as they go through these changes.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE - IT'S SO EASY
written by Nancy Campbell, read by Ian Gill


Everything God does is done with perfection. Yet one father's son, Shay, couldn't learn things as other children do. He couldn't understand things as other children do. Where is God's plan reflected in that father's son? It is possibly that when God brings a child like Shay into the world, an opportunity to realize the Divine plan presents itself. And it comes in the way people treat that child.


Shay and I walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?" Shay's father knew that the boys wouldn't want him on their tern, but he understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much needed sense of belonging. Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, "We're losing by 6 runs, and the game is in the 8th inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the 9th."


Although no his came his way, Shay was obviously ecstatic just to be on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the 9th inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with 2 outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base. Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. Would the team actually let Shay bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps closer to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least be able to make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher.


The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown it to 1 st base. Shay would have been out and that would have ended the game. Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond the reach of the 1 st baseman. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second!" By the time Shay was rounding I st base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown it to the 2nd baseman for a tag. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions had been, so he threw the ball high and far over the 3rd baseman's head. Shay ran towards 2nd base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases home. As Shay reached 2nd base, the opposing shortstop ran to him, turned him in the direction of 3rd base and shouted, "Run to 3rd!" As Shay rounded 3rd, the boys from both teams were screaming, "Shay! Run home!" Shay ran home, stepped on the plate and was cheered as the hero for hitting a grand slam and winning the game for the team.

"That day," said the father softly, with tears now rolling down his face, "the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of the Divine Plan into this world!"

A TRIBUTE TO FATHERS
written by Nancy Campbell, read by Thornton and Kerry Westley


1.                  For the young son, Dad stands for all he wants to be in life when he grows up. He watches with eyes and ears that record how Dad lives, whether it be in the home, on the job, or in their time of recreation as a family. This recording takes place on a daily basis in his life, as one day he will push "play", and become a Dad himself.


2.                  For the young daughter, Dadis her knight in shining armour with the responsibility to protect her, yet tender enough to shower her with his unconditional love when she needs to know he's there. For her, Dad remains "Daddy" through the turbulent years of teenage trials, then with a falling tear and trembling lips she kisses "Daddy" on the cheek at her wedding in hopes she is marrying someone who will love and protect her just like Daddy did.


3.                  Some Dads have become the leaders of their family without a godly example in their home as they grew up, yet have determined in their own hearts to start a legacy of love so their own children will have a good example to follow. Like Joshua of old challenged the people, saying these words, then does all he can to live up to the commitment: "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."


4.                  The godly father recognizes his shortcomings and failures from time to time as he shepherds his family, and will be humble enough to draw upon the strength of his Heavenly Father for help and guidance. The godly father is not ashamed to admit to times of weakness and in sufficiency, and yes, even shed a tear or two at times as he faces the challenges of life and leadership of his family. He looks forward to looking up to God and confessing his need to the one who is all suffucient and all-knowing.


5.                  We applaud you Dad, as you sacrifice for your family in so many ways, yet also encourage you to give your most valuable asset to your children as much as possible, which is, of course, your time. Those special times of playing catch in the back yard may provide some wear and tear for the lawn, yet will grow a great relationship. Those early mornings of fishing together may not yield musch for the dinner table, but the conversations while fishing will be quite a catch for both Dad and child. Taking time for "date with your daughter" will provide her an example of what to look for in manners and actions when she begins to date.


6.                  There is a statement that says, "Time is of the essence," and yes, learning about being the best Dad you can possibly be. In a world that says "can't", thanks for saying "can too!" Most of all, thanks for being a Dad and trusting your Heavenly Father to guide you in the journey.

"Blessed in deed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father"