SUNDAY CHOICE – A Tribute to my Father – A Final Father’s Day Tribute to Charles Allen Schokman – by Fiona

SUNDAY CHOICE – A Tribute to my Father – A Final Father’s Day Tribute to Charles Allen Schokman – by Fiona

You are receiving this email because at some point you either gave your email to dad or he cheekily discovered it and added you to his email list. Dad has been diligently sending his Sunday Choice and Monthly Inspirational Messages for many years.

What you may not know is the hours he painstakingly sat and poured through articles, messages, YouTube clips and songs trying to bring words that lead you to faith, give you comfort, challenge you to grow and inspire you to become more like Jesus.

His passion, faithfulness and genuine heart towards you was the motivation he needed each week to reach out and connect. He was greatly encouraged by your replies or when something touched your heart.

At the heart of all he did was his desire that you too would experience the richness and joy of knowing and serving God. His prayer for you today is “that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:16-19).

My dad has intentionally tried to live from his beliefs and values which shaped how he interacted with the world and with you. He has been kind, generous, loving, adventurous, spiritually minded, faithful, curious, a learner, fun loving, social, an advocate for the poor and marginalised with a heart for justice. I hope that you experienced some of these qualities through him.

He has lived a full life of mountain top experiences and painful valleys, a life that has been marked by adventures, tragedies, joy, tears, laughter, community and connection.

Dad recently said to me, “I have lived a long and wonderful life, I have been blessed and cannot complain”. 

In his last Sunday Choice he shared a scripture “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

He surely has pressed on so faithfully and diligently. May there be many prizes for my beautiful dad who we will miss more than I can begin to express right now. Mum, Chris and I have broken hearts that we will not get to hear his voice, receive his wise counsel, hear his belly laugh and see his cheeky antics. But we are comforted that he is no longer in pain, was ready to meet his Lord and was so grateful for the life he has lived.

Go well my Dad, you have been a wonderful husband, father, son, brother, friend.

Happy Father’s Day Dad – love you so much.

Your daughter forever,

Fiona