I Am A Child of God

I AM a child of God….but I haven't always been.

Many of you have noticed how my Faith has increased.  It’s very easy when you need God the most! From time to time I will share stories from my past as evidence that I haven’t always been following God.

Today, I want to tell you about some of the prayers we receive from so many of you around the country and around the world.  

At Christmas time shared with Diane that I was interested in finding a cross to wear.  Diane and I stopped into a few jewelry stores but nothing really struck my fancy.  I wanted a smaller cross, gold, and sort of bold without being bejeweled.  Something unique.  We decided to wait until later and time went by without finding anything I liked.  

A few months into the new year we met up with our friend Dia and her daughter, Maria.  Dia is an Alaska/Arizona snowbird who we’ve known through pickleball for many years.  Dia loves to travel the world.  She had recently returned from a five month trip through Europe, Germany, Russia (Klavdia is a native of Russia), the Middle East, South Africa and Greece.  

At this gathering she and Maria pulled us aside and said, “I’ve been praying for Mark on my travels and I have something for you two.”  One of the spots she visited in Greece was Meteora.  We knew nothing about Meteroa. What an amazing, spiritual place.  Briefly, it is a rock formation in central Greece hosting one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries.  The region is known as one of the oldest sites of human inhabitation. Twenty four monasteries were built between the 13th and 14th centuries on immense natural pillars high above the Plain of Thessaly.  Today, only six remain as the remainder were destroyed by the Nazis.  Today, visitors are able to drive to the top of these pillars.

Dia pulled out a small box for each of us and they both contained a beautiful gold cross from Meteroa. Dia had no idea my heart desired to wear a special gold cross…but God knew!  I couldn’t have received anything more special.  Dia told us, “I know why they built so high on the rocks, to be closer to God!”

Diane and I wearing our crosses at Dia’s Arizona home pickleball courts!

Here’s a close up.  Thank you Dia!

Dia is not the only world traveling friend we have praying for us.  My cousin Kelly travels frequently and has sent pictures of the different cathedrals she has visited and offered a prayer for Diane and I.  

Kelly visited St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna and lit a candle for us.

Diane’s sister Barb has visited us many times during the last year and has also been lighting candles along the way. 

Diane and Barb enjoying the beauty of San Xavier Del Bac Mission in Tucson AZ.  The mission is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona.  The mission was completed in 1797!  

And, dear friends John and Leeann have also traveled to Europe and the Midwest and have prayed for us by lighting candles in our honor.

John and Leeann visiting their favorite church on Maui.

Here’s a picture of their trip to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Ireland.  That’s a great spot to pray for a “Daly”

Sedona’s Chapel Of The Holy Cross was another often visited prayer location.

I like to emphasize and reaffirm to you that your prayers are powerful.  I know that now, but I’ve had my time when I was young and dumb and thought I was invincible.  Like many of you have probably thought, “God must have been looking after me long before I was looking to him”.   I would like to share one of those stories for you.

My Phoenix buddies and I were probably around 20-21 years old and my house was one of the main party houses.  Butch was of our friends who grew up with us through elementary school but moved to California during high school.  You probably knew a “Butch”.  He was the “Eddie Haskell” of our group. (If that is a strange reference for you watch a few episodes of Leave It To Beaver!)

Butch was one of those guys who came up with all the bad ideas and never got in trouble.  He could talk his way out of anything.  Butch was visiting Arizona with three of his California pals.  They were staying with another friend named Blake and came over to party at my house.  One of the games the California boys liked to play was called Dine and Dash.  The game is played just the way it sounds.  They were so proficient and competitive that they were proud to declare, “I’m buying”. Which was code for, I’ll be the last one out of the restaurant.

So, we all decided to pull off an epic Dine and Dash at a well known steak house within a few blocks of my house.

Monti’s was very popular and I could not find any archive photos. This matchbook was from Lenny Monti’s Restaurant which years later burned to the ground. 

The epic part started because two other friends at my house, Dan A and Dan L were both on crutches likely from softball injuries.  So, all 7 of us loaded into Dan L’s pickup truck with a camper shell and headed off to the restaurant where we all enjoyed steak and lobster, cocktails, the whole gamut.  

One other friend of Dan A was at my house too.  Jeff was several years younger than us and was too scared to try something like this.  So, he stayed at my house to wait for us.  During the meal a weird thing happened.  The waitress came up to our table and asked, “Excuse me, is there a Dan A at this table?”  Both Dans looked at each other, we all looked at Dan A and were quite relieved when they answered, “No, not at this table”.  When she left a hushed conversation took place with all of us wondering what that could that have been about.  Dan concluded that it was probably just Jeff doing something stupid.

We likely ordered another cocktail and proceeded with our plan.  The plan went something like this:  We let the two Dans on crutches casually meander out to the parking lot to prepare the truck.  They opened the back tailgate and lifted the shell window, then put a rag over the license plate.  

Then, sporadically, the others began to file out.  Butch had won the right to “buy”. I decided to roll with Butch.  So, we were the last two out of the restaurant.  We were feeling a little pressure so once we cleared the door we ran and jumped in the bed of the truck.  The boys drove off and we actually saw the restaurant manager standing outside the door wondering what just happened.  

Dan L drove a serpentine route through several neighborhoods to be sure we weren’t followed.  When we got to the house Jeff couldn’t wait to tell us he had driven by Monti’s and saw cops driving around and called to warn us.  Our only bright spot was that he was smart enough to not use Dan’s actual last name!

We finished the night and the California boys went back to Blake’s house.  The next morning I was up hanging around the house and reading the newspaper (if you’re old enough to know what newspaper was!).  My roommate, Dan A was already at work when I got a phone call.  The caller said, “this is Sgt. Faria of the Phoenix Police Department, is there a Dan A there?”  I was so freaked out I couldn’t think of anything to say except, “he’s not here, he’s at work.”  The officer asked me to have Dan give him a call when he got home.  I said, “sure” and wrote down the phone number on the newspaper. 

I didn’t know what to do so I tried to go back to reading the paper.  I recall being so shook up I couldn’t hold the paper still.  After a brief time it suddenly occurred to me that Butch and the California boys were planning to come over to the house later that day.  I knew I had to warn them and tell them not to show up at my house.  So, I went back to the phone on the wall…you know the one with the 20 foot cord!  Since it was a bachelor pad our phone directory consisted of phone numbers written all over the wall next to the phone.  I located Blake’s phone number and thought I dialed it correctly.  The answer was, “Phoenix Police Department, Sgt. Faria speaking.”  I had called the wrong number!  I was so scared I hung up!

It didn’t take me long to question myself and I double checked the two numbers…you guessed it…they were the same number.   If you’re really good at this or you looked at your calendar you might have figured out what they said when I called those guys back….

                                         “April Fool’s you big dummy”

And, that’s the story of the best April Fool’s Day prank I ever experienced!  I hope everybody has fun on April 1st!

First of all, be sure that this is not a story that I’m proud of but it’s true, I did it, and it’s part of my history. It also illustrates to me that God is patient.  He knows every hair on my head and even those that are no longer on my head.  So many times in my life God has kept me safe knowing what his plan is for my life.  He knew I would return and it works for all of us.  It is never too late to invite Jesus into your life.  

Health Update:

I am grateful how good I feel and we are looking forward to next week’s trip to Houston.  This trip, remember, is for my first CT Scan on this new trial.  We are praying hard for good results and that the tumors have ceased growing or perhaps, even have begun to shrink.  We’ve been making lots of plans for the next few months and hope to see all our Alaska friends and family very soon.  

Thank you for reading these blogs and for your continued prayers.