My father was a drug dealer and a drunk, but a man invited him to church one day where he heard the Gospel and accepted Christ! That all took place before I was born, and because of that man’s invitation I got to grow up in a Christian home.
My Dad loves those who give out the Gospel, because he remembers the life he was saved from. Therefore, he’s always loved missionaries. He would often invite them over to the house or take them out for a meal. Many of my Dad’s closest friends were missionaries. He genuinely cared for them, and you could see it just by the way he spoke with them. We would get together at night for family prayers and my father would pray for the missionaries by name.
My father would often ask me, “Will, do we really believe people die and go to hell? What are we doing about it?” He cared about the souls of his neighbors as well as the souls of people he never met in distant lands. The tire company he owns supports missionaries and his business card is a Gospel Tract with “Hill and Son Tire” written on the back. His love for missions greatly impacted me.
All those things were revealing to me, on a daily basis, the importance of missions. Though my Father has never been a missionary on a foreign field, he has instilled in his son a missionary’s heart.
Thank you Dad, for investing your time, talents and treasures in God’s Kingdom. Your life preaches louder to me than any message. I see where your heart is. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:21.
How about you, Fathers? What are your kids seeing that is important to you?