A Message from your son, Jonathan

....Wow I can't believe that Keith is already 50! I remember when he first opened his eyes to this crazy world…. He was around 4 pounds, 2 ounces of silliness, about the size of jar of pickled okra (smelled about the same too)... I wasn't sure whether to keep him or throw him back! I'm sure glad I did because he's grown into quite the old man…. A champion fly fisher by the age of 7 and let me tell you…that boy can bail hay in his front yard faster than you can say…"darn I wish there was still a pond there"… anyways I'm really proud of Keith…there's not much I would trade him for ! happy 50 day, love–Jonathan Rose

A Message from your Son-in-Law, Daniel

Keith,
I hope you have a great 50th birthday! You have been a great father-in-law to me and more of like a dad than you think. Thank you for your love you show to me and the girls, you truly are a role-model that is worth following. I have to say there are many things about your life that I would like to comment on. I will share two, the first being that you are a great story-teller. You have so many stories that could come right out of a movie script. Anytime you start telling a story I am sure to be laughing before it is all said and done. You kind of have that Forest Gump thing going on as far as funny things that have happened in your life.
The second is that you are a man of a million second chances. I have seen how God has graced your life with this gift by not writing people off when they have blown it and by never giving up on people. Sometimes I think you are crazy, but sure enough you have been listening to the Father when people need someone they can turn to when they have really made a mess of life. What a timely and important gift for the kingdom! So many people can look back and see what a great and vital influence you have had on their lives.
Thank you for your love and leadership. May the decades to come be more blessed for you and may the Lord restore to you all that has been taken!
Love,
Daniel

Brittany's Message to her Dad

Dear Dad, There are a million things running through my mind right now as I try to think of the best memories or thoughts to write down. How can words truly express the intensity and love that I truly feel in my heart towards you, the best dad a girl could ask for? Here are just a few of the many thoughts I have regarding you on this special day…

I would like to say thank you! Thank you for choosing me to be your daughter. Thank you for making me always feel loved and accepted no matter where I am in life or what decisions I’ve made. Thank you for showing me Christ and always directing me straight to His heart. Thank you for being an active example of a man after God’s own heart. You are my hero.

Thank you for making me laugh and teaching me to enjoy the life God has given me here on earth. These things I know: My faith is stronger because of your constant encouragement and direction that leads me to know Christ more. My heart is softer because of watching you love and serve others. My life is better because you are my dad. You will always be my hero.

I will always love you. I will always praise God because He chose you as my wonderful daddy. I hope you have a great 50th birthday. I am glad I get to celebrate it alongside you. As stated in Numbers, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you. I pray the Lord will make His face shine upon you and give you peace.

I love you daddy!

Love, Bert

Jaclyn's Message to her Dad

Dad,
My whole life I've heard from many different people how much I look like my dad and how much I act like my dad and how much I think like my dad. While I was contemplating what to write you for your birthday I started thinking of what that means to me.

As far as looks go, you're a pretty handsome man so I'm good with looking like you, at least a female version of you. You aren't the tallest dad or the strongest physically, though I know working on the farm has made you pretty buff, but you are the strongest man I know. You handle with grace amazing pressures that are laid on your shoulders every day. You make mistakes sometimes but you aren't too proud to admit and you take those mistakes and learn from it and then turn it into a lesson for whichever one of your kids needs it most. You manage this family with mercy and love; you have a wife that adores you and children that thank God for you everyday. How rare a man like that in today's society? You have taught your son how to be a man and your daughters what to look for in a man. Our family has had its ups and downs but through everything you remain the heart and center and provide the strength and love that we need to make it through. You discipline use when we are wrong, praise us when we are right, pray for us when we stray away, and love us through it all.

Not only do you handle your family with amazing strength but you manage a business with wisdom and grace. I’ve met many intelligent men, my Advanced Accounting teachers, famous theologians with many degrees, and doctors with more letters after their names than well, most people have in their names, but you are the smartest man I’ve ever met. The lives of hundreds of people are affected daily with the decisions you make. What is so neat to me is that I know how seriously you take that responsibility. I know how hard you agonize and pray over seemingly small decisions. You lead with a somber dignity that I respect so much. A lot of people know you, but few really get to see this side of you. I’ve learned so much that I plan on taking into my professional life from watching the way you lead.

I also love watching the way you pastor Bethel Baptist Church. It’s not the biggest or the fanciest but it has some of the greatest people. You saw the potential from the very beginning. You are so full of ideas, such a dreamer, and you’ve taken your newest endeavor and ‘ran with it’. It’s been neat for me to watch the Church grow so much, how it went from very few young couples and children to filling half the pews with little kids in such a short time. The people there love you and it shows every Sunday.

You are easily the most influential person in my life. I love discussing business and life with you. I do not love discussing politics with you because you always play the devil’s advocate just because you like to debate! It drives me nutty but it makes me think, dig deeper and come up with solid reasoning behind why I believe what I believe. I’m so thankful you are my dad. The last few months of my life have easily been the hardest in my 25 years and what would I have done without my daddy’s never ending support? Even think we don’t agree 100% your opinions always matter and they always make the think. I can’t imagine a better Pappy for Ike and I know he will adore you as much as Sophie and Gracie do. He’ll know what a terrific man he has in his life and how you will be there for him always, just like his mommy does.

So, in the future when people tell me I look like you, or act like you, or think like you, I’ll smile and nod like I have my whole life. I’ll tell them thank you and then think to myself what a compliment they have just given to me. I’ll thank God for the example He has given to me in you and ask Him to make those comments really true someday.

I love you dad and I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
Jaclyn

Jennifer's Favorite "Dad" Memories

The other night I started jotting down some of my favorite memories of our times together, Dad. The happy memories kept coming... here are a few! (It basically turned into a list of things I love & appreciate about you...)

*When I threw your Gold Cross pen out the window of the moving car

*For encouraging mom to stay at home with us girls

*For continuing to give Jac & I baths at night no matter how many times we pooped in the tub!

* For dealing with our hair, tender heads and my insistence on wearing only purple!

*When my hamster died, you used the book, "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" to teach me about dying.

*For providing a way for mom to live here when we were young.

*For the music nights... I guess I just remember you putting in cd's and we would all dance around and listen to the music as kids

*For working so hard to provide for us all...

*For helping me make an AWESOME solar system model for school

*For letting me stay in Ft. Smith during the court case so I could see you win. Praise God!

*For instilling in me a love for politics. I remember when we watched the election coverage when George H Bush ran against Bill Clinton... and beyond.

*For teaching me to love people.

*For the fun ski trips... Sipadookie and Beyond!

*For encouraging me to go to Nicaragua for my first mission trip and for making me work to earn money for it. Remember I called about 300 men from Mena regarding Promise Keepers?

*For the Dauphen Island Trips

*For loving me when I made huge mistakes!

*For being such a great BOB the TOMATO!

*For being a dad that all my friend's loved. I had to share you with lots...but I didn't mind!

*For letting me sleep with you and mom when I was scared (even in High School...)

*For the old school DABC youth days... you, Victor, Brad McClenney, Jim Classen, ect, etc... "Don't be a turkey. Trust & Obey!", Josh McDowell, Acquire the Fire, etc etc.

*For giving me my first Rich Mullins CD.

*For teaching me how to drive...on the old roads behind the airport... at your own risk! I still ride the shoulder because of those lessons.

*For the "homely" hope chest and all the C.S. Lewis books for Christmas! :)

*For the look on your face when I walked into Dixie Cafe in Fayetteville with my blue Roxy wig. You were not impressed!

*For letting mom throw us such fun birthday parties... and for getting involved, such as the hayride where you planted people to scare us or the limo ride and dinner or the amazing party at Raspberry Manor when I was eighteen and you broke the thermometer thing.

*For the nights we all stayed home and watched old movies like "The Egg & I" and ate Chinese food.
*For the great and very practical gift of luggage when I graduated. Seriously, I love that luggage and it has been all over the world.
*For being such a cell phone FANATIC! Remember the huge phone you had years ago?

*For helping me pick out, inspect and buy my first car and for going to the bank with me.
*For dropping me off at Teen Mania and making me stay, hysterical sobbing and all... I am so glad that I stuck that one out!
*For knowing that I could trust your judgement with Daniel. I found so much peace and confirmation in knowing that you and the rest of the family were for us!

*For making Dan & I sign the Covenant Marriage Certificate and for telling Dan that you'd kill him if we ever divorced. :) Not gonna happen!

*For helping me plan the wedding. For buying me that amazing dress and chairs and food and decorations and on and on!

*For the week before the wedding when you could not stop crying and when you told me that we needed to basically spend as much time together as a family the week before the wedding as possible.

*For walking me down the aisle. I couldn't have gone with out you, for praying at the wedding, for giving me away to such an amazing man.

*For calling me the next morning and telling me how wonderful the wedding had been and how God had blessed us. That meant a lot to me and Dan.

*For blessing us with the things that we can't buy for ourselves and for our kids.

*For buying me the Pregnant Mom Willow Tree well before I got pregnant and for the Grand baby Hope Chest.

*For selling cows so that Sophie could have baby furniture. :)

*For loving my girls SO much!

*For being Sophie's biggest fan!

*For planning and hosting such a fun baby shower and 26th Birthday party for me. Thank you!

*For being such a pillar of support to Daniel and I when Grace was in the hospital. For taking care of our needs, for being there, for spending the morning hours at Grace's side. For all the sweet pictures you took of her and sent to us.

*For being 100% for TRUTH!

*For loving the unlovable and giving people so many second chances.

*For being so generous!

*For teaching me about grace.

*For always offering an open door at our home to those in need.

*For living with SO MANY GIRLS!
*For leading our family during the good times and bad with such humble strength and wisdom.

*For constantly reading and searching out wisdom in all areas of life.

*For teaching us to pray as we drove to school in the mornings.

*For being so faithful to His Church even when it is personally painful.

*For allowing God to do such a work in your life and in the life of those in your family. I know it hasn't been easy, but you have continued to press through and have allowed God to break you and rebuild you, to prune you, to use you in extraordinary ways. I know my life would not have been the same if you had not sold out your life to Him when you did and for that I am eternally grateful.

This just scratched the surface. I love you so much, Dad and I am so proud to be your daughter. May God truly bless you and keep you, may He continue the work that He has started in you. He who began it is faithful. May you continue to grow to look more and more like Jesus. May you know how loved you are and may you walk in peace and joy all the days of your life. You are a great Dad, Father-in-law and Pappy to me and my family! I am proud to be your first born. :)

Jennifer

To Daddy from Sarah Jo

to: Daddy

I love you! I hope you have a great 50th Birthday. But, most of all, I am glad your my dad!

love,

Sarah

JO

A Birthday Message from Nera

Dear Dad!
What can I say to the man that gave me a chance to a better life and better yet that truly showed me and guided me into loving God deeper? Well, for starters “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”. I don’t know that words could ever do justice. I will always be grateful to you for following God’s leading and providing a home and a life for me here in the United States better than I could have ever imagined or asked for. Doesn’t time fly right by us? It was ten years ago you took me into your home and made me part of your family forever. I am so glad that I have had the privilege of knowing you and being a part of your life. You’re a pretty special guy, you know. Your love for God reflects in your everyday life at home and also in your business. I have a lot of respect for you in that. It takes a very special man to be all that you have become; a husband, a father, a minister, a businessman, a farmer and so much more. I pray God blesses you in a special way in your birthday and all the days to come. I know that He will actually. I love you and always will. You will always hold a very special place in my heart that no one else can replace.
Happy Birthday!
I hope your day is filled with joy, laughter, the company of loved people, and the understanding of all the blessings God has bestowed upon you!
I love you,
Nera