Sam, Christine and Ben with Mimi and PawPaw, Julie's parents. Mimi and PawPaw, the boys and Christine had a fun time camping after graduation.
The boys and Christine with our good friends Elbert and Kay Smith with their daughters Carissa and Katy and Katy's boyfriend Justin.
Not many people today have godfathers, but I do. Uncle Dominic was my father’s best friend when I was born, so for my Christening, Uncle Dominic was my godfather. He never had children of his own, and when I was young he often gave me gifts. I remember Uncle Dominic as a man full of fun and a wonderful practical joker.
It had been 30 years since I heard from him until last fall, when I received word from a lawyer that he had died. This lawyer is the trustee under Uncle Dominic’s will and had a very direct message for me. He told me that Uncle Dominic had left me an amount of money, but he could not tell me yet how much. I would not know the amount or receive anything until I complied exactly with the terms of the will.
Here were the instructions:
1. Each of my 3 sons would have to design some adventure, something “bordering on dangerous,” which would somehow relate to the boy’s name.
2. If the adventure was approved by the trustee as sufficiently adventurous, the son would have to accomplish the task all by himself.
3. The trust would pay all expenses related to the task.
4. Each boy would have to take a photo to prove that he had completed the assignment.
5. If any of the boys failed (or received help), we would receive nothing.
6. After the boys completed their assignments, we would have to email friends in at least 30 different countries telling them about their adventures.
7. None of us could mention anything about any of this to anyone outside of our immediate family prior to sending the email.
8. Then we would find out about the money.
Julie and I were quite flummoxed (common British expression) when we received this notice. First, I have no idea how Uncle Dominic knew we have 3 sons or that we would know people in so many countries. He must’ve been keeping tabs on us. We considered not even telling the boys and forgetting about it. But since they were all here for Christmas break, we decided to make it a family adventure. The boys, as you might guess, were ready to jump on it. We decided to let them. They all three drew up plans, all but one of which was initially rejected by the trustee. Eventually, they all had plans approved.
All adventures are now completed. Here is what they did:
1. Sam. How do you design an adventure related to the name Sam? This took some creativity. Sam thought first of Samaria or Samoa, but couldn’t come up with an appropriate adventure. Then he heard about Sarah Palin joining Franklin Graham on a SAMaritan’s Purse trip to Haiti. Sam has a friend from Camp Ridgecrest who is interning this year with Samaritan’s Purse, so Sam contacted him and he got Sam a seat on the SP relief plane going into Haiti. He got to meet both Franklin and Sarah. Franklin was much more personable—another story for another day. And Sam is in the background of their photo on the front page of the New York Times on January 5. Go online and look to the far left at the guy with the orange hat. That’s Sam. Check it out.
2. Caleb. Caleb’s was the most trying for Mom and Dad. Remember he had to do this all by himself. Caleb decided to relate his adventure to the Biblical hero Caleb. Caleb is most known for his request, “Now give me this mountain.” “That mountain” was the Judean hill country, which is now the modern city of Hebron in the West Bank. At the center of Hebron is the Oak of Mamre, where, according to tradition, Abraham pitched his tent almost 4000 years ago. We were very hesitant to allow Caleb to do this alone, but we decided this would be an important marker in his march toward manhood. He flew to Jerusalem and took a bus to Hebron. Early in the morning, at dawn, just as the security shifts were changing, he climbed up the low hanging branches of the tree. The security guard immediately saw him, but Caleb was able to take a photo of himself sitting on the branch. The security guard detained him, but apparently in the West Bank, children under 16 cannot be charged with a misdemeanor. (Go figure). So they let him go and he made it back home the next day.
3. Ben. Ben’s was easier to design, more difficult to pull off. Ben was here in London, so Big Ben was the natural target. The problem is that Big Ben is part of the Parliament building and security is generally tight. Ben chose to make his move in early January when it was unusually cold and snowing. He went down there in the middle of the night two nights in a row to develop his plan. He saw that the guards did not want to go outside and only made regular walks along the outer fence. On the third evening, he timed his move for when the guards had just gone inside. He jumped the fence and made it inside the building. Once inside it was no problem to climb the stairs to the top. He took his own photo hanging out the opening to the right of the clock at the top. He then made his way back out the same way he had come in. No problem.
So now we have completed our assignment. The boys have completed their adventures, and we have now emailed you. We can now see what Uncle Dominic gave us in his will. As I told you, he was quite the practical joker. And I guess you could say he passed that along to his god-son and grand-god-sons. We are practical jokers, too. By the way, this is an April Fool’s joke (albeit a day early). Nothing in this email is true, except the first paragraph. How long did we fool you?
Mike, Julie, Sam, Ben, Caleb Pineda
Here is a statue of Columbus in Barcelona, pointing toward Tennessee, known in his day simply as the Promised Land
Caleb at the Catalonia Plaza in Barcelona, across from the Hard Rock Cafe, where we had lunch (yes, it's fun to eat the local food, but more satisfying to eat something you know)
Train station at Pineda De Mar
Caleb at Cassis, near Marseilles, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea
Arch D'Triumphe in Paris
The Eiffel Tower, even more amazing than we had imagined.
We are excited to pass along that our son Sam and Christine Redd are now engaged! They are visiting us here in the UK, and he popped the question last week at the beautiful Sheffield Park gardens. Sam and Christine have been dating for several years, and we think she is wonderful. They will both graduate from university next spring (Christine from UT and Sam from Liberty), and the wedding will likely be next summer in Chattanooga.
