Has your child ever met their hero?

Josh supermanWhat would you do to enable your child to meet their real-life, modern day hero? Last night, this thought came to me. My 9 year old son Matey had heard on the radio that Dr Klaus-Dieter John was being interviewed on the radio that evening at 7pm. This was my son’s real-life, modern day hero. I say that because Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, David Livingston et al are also his heroes but are dead. This man is alive today and still experiencing miracles.

After the radio interview, it mentioned that he was in Melbourne this week. Despite trawling the internet, we couldn’t find any details of where he was in Victoria. We came across the fact that a couple with 8 children from Sydney were going to live in Peru next year to volunteer for 3 years at the hospital that Dr Klaus-Dieter John built in the Andes Mountain for the poor peasants and has seen over 350,000 patients treated since 2003 when the hospital was built. This Sydney man was going to be a radio engineer there since they wanted to broadcast radio programs and advertise which specialist doctors were at the hospital and when so as to save people walking for 4 days to get to the hospital if the specialist they were needing to see wasn’t there then.

I was prepared for hubby and son to travel to Sydney next weekend for my son to meet this Doctor face to face if necessary. He was my son’s hero. Matey has talked numerous times about one day wanting to go to visit that hospital and perhaps we could be missionaries there. What would it take, when this man was in Australia and so near but still seemingly so far away, to get my son to meet him? Would it impact my son and make a difference to his life?

Klaus Dieter John 2Earlier this year, my son managed to meet Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, and that was also a highlight. We had read a book about Loren and that had also impacted Matey. Was that enough? Should I just give up and let that be good enough. The books we had read about Loren Cunningham and Klaus Dieter John were all part of the “YWAM Christian Heroes Then and Now” series by Janet and Geoff Benge. I highly recommend them!!

Hubby rang the Sydney couple at 8.30pm last night (Sunday night) to see what he could find out. This beautiful lady gave hubby all the details necessary and confirmed that Klaus Dieter John could even come personally to our house if need be. We decided on organising a bigger meeting to allow more people the opportunity to meet him and hear his amazing story of miracle, after miracle, after miracle. This next Sunday November 8th from 2.30pm-4.30pm at Stairway Church in Rooks Road, Nunawading (the Southern Offices Training Room), we are holding a meeting for everyone to come and hear Klaus’s story and ask questions. Please feel free to invite as many people as you like. Especially consider bringing your children – they need to hear inspiring real-life stories like this, that can impact their future greatly and help them dream bigger dreams for their life.

Matey has also planned where we will take him for dinner afterwards. Matey has many questions ready to ask him but, more importantly, he just wants to meet him in real life. We have read about the amazing miracles he has witnessed, how God has brought the right officials in Peru into relationship with him, how most of the equipment for the hospital was donated through miraculous conditions, how hail storms have stopped him getting killed, how crucial men sat next to him on an aeroplane when all he wanted to do was read and not talk and next minute those men would say that they could provide incredibly for the hospital.

Thankfully, my son gets to meet his hero with just a few phone calls on our part!! What would you do to enable your child to meet their real life hero? What lengths will you go to to encourage your child significantly in this way?

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