The Van Wyhe family, October 2002, all wearing Hawaiian shirts to humor me (because that is what I love).  Clockwise, starting after me, is Josh, Gabe, Mike, and Melony.

This is from the mid 1990s.

This is from the mid-1980s.

God has blessed me most amazingly with the family that I have.  The love of family is second only to the love of God as a source of happiness.

First and most important is my wife Melony.  She is the most wonderful woman on this earth, I believe.  And the most wonderful thing about her is that she is able to put up with me.  I have never met any other person with as much patient endurance and unflagging good cheer as she has.  Anyone who knows her is always glad to see her, because she is always smiling and laughing.  And because she always makes others happy (and especially me), it is my glad duty to spend my life trying to make her happy.  I'm not very good at it, but I'm getting better little by little.

Out of our love have come three sons.  Melony loved children before I wed her, and loved our children greatly when God gave them to us.  She gave up her nursing career and stayed home and loved the boys.  We are all grateful to her.  We did not have as many things as many have, but we have had more love and care than many have.  She even home-schooled the boys for a while.  And she was eager at all times to meet all of our needs.  I bless her for taking on the most important work a person can do—surrounding her children with love as they grow into what they will become.  

The oldest of our sons is Gabriel, and I am extremely proud of him (as I am of all my boys).  His name in Hebrew means "Hero (or Mighty One) of God."  He is strong indeed in both goodness and wisdom, and loves to be with people.  He graduated from Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) with a degree in business (marketing). Now he is going to seminary (Fuller).  He is married to a most wonderful woman named Jaci; here is a picture of them together.

And for fun, here are two pictures of the archangel Gabriel.

My second son is Joshua, whose name in Hebrew means "God Saves" (it is the same name as Jason in Greek and Jesus in Latin).  He is much like me in his strengths and weaknesses—except that he is much better looking.  He graduated from Seattle Pacific University (SPU) with a degree in educational ministry. It is hard to find a picture to represent someone named after Jesus Himself, Lord of all the earth and all the angels, but here is my best try.

My third son is Michael, whose name in Hebrew means "Who is like God."  He laughs a lot (and loves to tease), and he loves drawing (actually all my sons do, but he spends the most time at it).  He is going to the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA).  He is married to a most wonderful woman named Sarah; here is a picture of them together.  

Here are two pictures of the archangel Michael.

The most important thing that I did as a Father was to have devotions with my sons every morning.  I would get up early with them, and we would read the Bible, talk about it, and pray together.  I did that through high school with each of my sons (in college there is no regular schedule possible).  To open them up to the knowledge and love of God was my most important ministry.  

"My Prayer" by Hahlbohm

The interactive Nintendo games of their youth—involving fighting and competing (like Goldeneye, etc.)—and the computer and internet games (like Diablo and Counterstrike, etc.) have given way (for the most part) to other interests.  And the other interests are primarily serving the Lord.  Gabe found a Spirit-filled fellowship called New Song, made up of many PLU students (and hated by PLU administrators).  He received freedom from sin and freedom in power there and soon Josh was involved, and finally Mike was too (after the girl he was engaged to broke his heart).  Now all of them are on fire with the Spirit of God, and are a pure delight to me.  

All of the boys were very active in Boy Scouts when they were younger.  Josh was the first to join Cub Scouts, and Gabe liked the look of the uniform (he always liked to dress up) and asked us to find him a Boy Scout troop to join, since he was too old for Cubs.  We did, and became very involved—me in Boy Scouts, and Melony in Cubs until the boys were old enough to enter Boy Scouts.  Gabe was eager to learn, and pestered his first Scoutmasters to teach him and let him advance so that he could wear the higher ranks and more merit badges.  He also got involved in collecting and then trading patches (and he loved the wheeling and dealing so much that he decided to go into business).  When Mike became old enough, he went into Tiger Scouts and on through the rest of the ranks.  We were all very busy.

Dreaming of the rough rider

The whole Boy Scout thing was a shock to me.  I confess that I have never liked camping, which is one of the reasons I did not make it past Tenderfoot myself in Boy Scouts.  It was bad enough when my new wife informed me that she loved camping (and dogs, which I had never had before), and dragged me out with her into the uncivilized wilds.  But when my boys also loved camping, I was in a bit of a trap.  Worst of all, the Boy Scout troop we joined was quite small and never went camping because the Scoutmaster worked on weekends.  Out of sympathy (and love for our son) we took the boys to a camporee.  We were a ragged lot on that first campout, leaving shoes outside our tents in the rain, etc.  But we got better.  Yes, we.  I got roped into doing the camping.  In fact, I finally became a Scoutmaster, and that lasted for over seven years, camping almost every month and for a week every summer.  Funny how life plays such precious little tricks on us, isn't it?

I have been Scoutmaster for all of my boys, and all three made Eagle and made me very proud of them.  They were the best Scouts, and helped our Troop to win many events at camporees.  I don’t camp much any more, but the closeness I had with my sons when we camped together in Scouts is worth all the damp mornings we had.  

Earning a living to support such a delightful family has been a happy duty to me.  But I am thankful to the Lord for the way He has arranged for me to do it.  I love teaching.  I am very glad to be teaching at PLU.  It is no longer a Christian school in any real sense of the term.  Many of the professors are anti-Christian (trying to assert their independence, and also avoiding the ridicule which colleagues in academia heap on Christians)—especially in the religion department.  But many of the students are Christian (they and their parents are under the mistaken impression that PLU is Christian).  The shameless hypocrisy of the faculty is hard to bear, but at least I have the freedom to share my faith, both in the classroom and in private talks with students and a few faculty.  That would be harder to do in an openly secular school.  As long as PLU depends upon deceiving parents to attract paying students, I shall remain free to speak of Christ.  That is enough.  Perhaps I can help some students, at least, to resist the faith-destroying sophistry of the godless faculty.

If you are interested, you can take a look at my PLU webpage, which includes a brief statement of my philosophy toward education (see Educational Philosophy on my home page).  Just click on the "Next" button.

Our family loves to celebrate the Holidays (Holy Days).  We decorate our house for the holidays more than anyone else we know (I just built a 10-foot by 10-foot shed to store the decorations so I don’t have to climb up into the attic anymore).  That includes not just Christmas, but also Thanksgiving and Halloween and Independence Day and Easter and St. Patrick’s Day and St. Valentine’s Day.  We hang things from the ceiling, and decorate our windows, and have displays on the mantle, and more.  I have created webpages for the holidays we celebrate, and invite you to take a look at them—preferably just for the upcoming holiday, but for all of them at once if you like. Click on the tree that changes seasons.

If you want to go back to the home page, here is a button for you.

The great graphics for this page and the holiday page are from Classic Themes