Faithful Father’s Day
May 22, 2012
By Rev Ed Hird 
It is too easy to take our fathers for granted. My Dad continues to impress me more and more each year. It is so encouraging to see people age well rather than end up grumpy and negative.
In 1910, Father’s Day was invented in Spokane Washington by Arkansas-born Sonora Smart Dodd. It is not without significance that her dad William Jackson Smart, was a civil war veteran who singlehandedly raised his six children. When Sonora was only sixteen, her mother died in childbirth. This left Sonora the only daughter helping her dad raising her brothers. While listening to a sermon about mothers, Sonora was very excited by Miss Anne Jarvis’ invention of Mother’s Day. June 5th, her dad’s birthday, was the original intended date for Father’s Day, but it was delayed to the third Sunday of June in order to have time to make arrangements. Like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day is celebrated on a Sunday because of its original connection to Sunday morning worship.
I thank God for my wonderful father, Ted Hird who, with my mom Lorna, will soon be celebrating their 62nd wedding anniversary. It fills me with gratitude to have a loving father that believes in me. My dad is such an encourager; he is often sending me e-mails and notes telling me how pleased he is with my work, my family and my life. I want to be like my father in his remarkable gift of encouragement. It is so easy to be someone who sees what is wrong with other people. My dad looks for that which is working and builds on it.
When my dad became an electrical engineer in 1950, they were still using test-tubes for radio communication. Over sixty-two years later, my dad is still growing and learning. I want to be the kind of father who never stops learning, never stops changing, never stops expanding my horizons. Technology is always changing, but my dad has never been left behind. My father is a passionate reader who consumes books in a way that keeps his mind active and fresh. I want to be a father that always keeps reading, and inspires my own children to read for the very pleasure of reading.
My father is a born leader. He rose from very humble circumstances to become the President of Lenkurt Electric, at that time the largest secondary industry in BC. I have seen my father make wise decisions again and again in very difficult leadership situations. As a trained leadership coach, I want to lead like my father, with wisdom and patience. My father has raised up many younger leaders who have made a lasting difference in the world. Like my father, I have a passion for raising up the emerging generation of leaders.
Through my father, God passed on to me my gift and passion for writing. Writing for me is like breathing. That is why I have invested the past twenty-four years communicating with you as a Deep Cove Crier columnist. When my father writes, he is sharp, crisp and clear. I love to receive from him new chapters every couple of months about his ever unfolding autobiography.
I often wish that I had my father’s carpentry skills. It is remarkable how many gifts that he has built through love for various members of our family, including my book shelves and my wife’s dining room cabinet. My dad is always willing to help whenever he can.
My father has developed a strong faith over the years that is a great encouragement to me. As a former agnostic, my father has become very interested in understanding the bible for himself. It is great that I can openly chat with my father about our common faith in Jesus Christ. Taking the Alpha Course was a major step in my father’s spiritual pilgrimage. My prayer for those reading this article is that each of us will discover fresh ways to honour our fathers for all the good that they have done in our lives.
Reverend Ed Hird, Rector
St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)
http://stsimonschurch.ca
-an article for the June 2012 Deep Cove Crier
-award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’
http://www.battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com
p.s. In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD. This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mailed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99 CDN/USD.
-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide : Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada
You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide
God has been faithful in the past 30+ years….
June 1, 2011
Christmas 1979
Looking at this photo from thirty years ago, I fondly remember my beloved maternal Grandmother Nana Allen (on the 2nd right). She was an amazing inspiration in my life. I would likely not be an Anglican priest today without her inspiration and prayers. My mother Lorna is on Nana’s right. Mom also knew that I would become an Anglican priest. She is an amazing listener, putting up with my lostness and self-pity throughout those painful teenage years. To the left of Nana is dear Vera, my mother-in-law who passed away eleven years ago from cancer. What a prayer warrior she was. How we still miss her. She chose me as a future son-in-law well before my wife Janice clued in. 
On the far left is my dear father Ted whom I love more every year. He will be turning 87 this year, and is more vital than many people thirty years his age. He is always learning and growing. His Christian faith is always deepening. I want to be like my dad when I grow up.
On my Dad’s right is my twin brother Edward Allen Hird As we were all part of a Christian Rock Band ‘Morning Star’, we had the customary longer hair, though I was sure that mine was short compared to others. Don Robinson my brother-in-law is on my right, just behind my beautiful wife Janice. Don was the mastermind behind our Christian Concert Production agency ‘Living Stone Productions’ which put on an amazing number of outreach concerts. We were only university students then. Looking back, I am amazed at all that was accomplished. But during the Jesus Movement, we didn’t know any better. So we just went ahead and God supplied.
On Don’s right is my other brother-in-law John Cline who is a good friend and a Baptist Pastor in Edmonton. John is a deeply pastoral person who loves Jesus, and is a great credit to our family. To the direct right of John is his father, my father-in-law Rev David Cline who is turning 88. What an inspiration David has been through the years. What courage he has shown in standing up to false teaching. What kindness he exhibits to hurting and broken people. Without David and Vera, we would not be active today in the wonderful Christian Ashram retreat movement. Thank God for loving, faithful family, including Nana Allen and Vera Cline who have since been promoted to Glory. I am truly grateful for the gift of family.
Almost 20,000 visited in January 2011
February 14, 2011
By Rev Ed Hird
While in Greensboro North Carolina this past week, I heard AMiA plenary speaker Dr Leonard Sweet say that if you were born after 1973, you are the TGIF generation (not ‘Thank God it’s Friday, but Twitter, Google, IPhone, Facebook ). Those of us born before 1973 are immigrants to the TGIF world who face the challenge of learning a new language and a new culture. Are we willing to for the sake of the Good News? My father, who recently joined Facebook, is a shining example to me of someone who is not afraid to keep up technologically and to enter new worlds. When my dad became an electrical engineer in 1950, they were still using test-tubes for radio communication. Over sixty years later, my dad is still growing and learning. And so can you. It is never too late to innovate until they bury you in the ground.
One of the great features of the completely free http://wordpress.com is the finely tuned ‘site statistics’ counter. It measures daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly number of people visiting. You can easily see how many view each particular article. I discovered today that almost 20,000 people (the most yet in the first 1 & 1/2 years) visited http://edhird.wordpress.com in the month of January 2011. It has gradually built up from just 1,000 visiting in the month of August 2009. As well, last week when I was away at the AMiA Greensboro NC Winter Conference, almost 6,000 people visited my blog (the most in any week so far).
One of the reasons why my blog is getting so much traffic is that I have posted 285 articles that were previously written over the past 23 years for the Deep Cove Crier and the North Shore News. With each article, I add ‘tags’ which Google reads to help direct people to my site. I have added around 5,000 tags for the 285 articles, a simple feature with http://wordpress.com where you just add a word or phrase and click.
If you don’t have a http://wordpress.com blog yet, I encourage you to consider starting one today. You don’t need to be a techie. They have made blogging so simple that anyone can do it these days. See you online.
edhird
