ROLE MODELS

Somewhere in a shoe-box in one of our cupboards is a picture of me when I was about ten years old.  My Dad was a delegate to the Free Methodist General Conference in Winona Lake, Indiana.  My Mom was a delegate from the Pittsburgh Conference to the Women's Missionary Society's global conference.  In the picture, I am standing proudly with my hero, Jacob DeShazer.

If you don't recognize the name, he was one of DooLittle's Raiders, who on April 18, 1942, flew a top secret mission to drop bombs on Tokyo, Japan.  This attack was a much needed response to the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor.  The eighty men were all volunteers and this was a very dangerous mission.  Sixteen specially adapted B-25 bombers took off from the deck of the USS Hornet, led by Colonel Jimmy DooLittle.  They were to fly over Japan, drop their bombs and fly on to land in a part of China that was still free.   [credit to www.doolittleraider.com]

Jake DeShazer and the rest of his crew were forced to parachute into enemy territory over Ningpo, China when their B-25 ran out of fuel. DeShazer was injured in his fall into a cemetery and along with the rest of his crew, he was captured the very next day by the Japanese.  During his captivity, he was sent to Tokyo with the survivors of another Doolittle crew, and was held in a series of P.O.W. camps both in Japan and China for 40 months – 34 of them in solitary confinement. He was severely beaten and malnourished while three of the crew were executed by a firing squad, and another died of slow starvation.  As the war came to an end, on 20 August 1945, DeShazer and the others in the camp at Beijing, China were finally released when American soldiers parachuted into the camp.

During his captivity, DeShazer persuaded one of his guards to loan him a copy of the Bible. Although he only had possession of the Bible for three weeks, he saw its messages as the reason for his survival and resolved to become a devout Christian. His conversion included learning a few words of Japanese and treating his captors with respect, which resulted in the guards reacting in a similar fashion.

After his release, DeShazer began studying to be a missionary, eventually to return to Japan with his wife, Florence, in 1948.  DeShazer, the Doolittle Raider who bombed Nagoya, met Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, becoming close friends.  Fuchida became a Christian in 1950 after reading a tract written about DeShazer and spent the rest of his life as a missionary in Asia and the United States. On occasion, DeShazer and Fuchida preached together as Christian missionaries in Japan. In 1959, DeShazer moved to Nagoya to establish a Christian church in the very city he had bombed.   [credit to Wikipedia for some of this history]

My parents did everything in their power to help me select godly models and heroes.  I don't know if they planned this, or if it was just part of their parenting wisdom.  Today's youth are likely to choose heroes from sports, movies, television, or music industries.  Some of these individuals are worthy of emulation - others not so.  Parents can have an impact on the choices of their children and youth.  

When Debbie and I were raising our family, we made the sacrifice and bought family tickets to concerts by Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Carmen, Sandy Patti and others.  One time, while attending a Sandy Patti concert, Travis joined her on stage with many other children to sing "Love In Any Language";  he stood right next to her!  :-)  We kept them involved in our church in hopes that they would find appropriate role models among the young adults there.

We don't have to like it, but when our children hit their teens they will often turn away from us.  This is a typical and necessary response that is part of their self-identification process.  Our influence begins to diminish while their peer influence peaks!  During this time, they will select older role models who may play a major influential place in their lives.  

While I led the Oakland Church in East Liverpool, I hired a young lady straight from college to be our Youth Pastor.  Raeanne Thompson (now Barlow) grew our youth program significantly during her years with us!  She reached into some of the poorest parts of our community and drew kids to her side.  She was innovative and fun-loving and the kids respected and admired her.  Travis thought the world of her and defended her activities when they were attacked by older adults who didn't approve of her methods.  Many times, Debbie and I thanked the Lord for her influence on our kids!  

As parents, we need to do everything we can to try to help our kids find worthy heroes!  Much of this process is not fully conscious on their part, so our creative guidance in this area can have an impact!  With a heavy dose of prayer accompanying our stealth direction, we may see very desirable outcomes!