Sierra Vista Herald Photo
Building the Future
If you are a regular reader of this blog then you know I don’t often post about personal life. Today though, I thought I’d share some news about my daughter Hope. I hope (no pun intended) that you’ll forgive this rare digression from discussing Biblical history, Bible prophecy, and how it relates to Yahweh’s redemptive plan for mankind through Yeshua.
My daughter Hope is an unusual young lady that doesn’t fit most stereotypical molds of a faith based homeschooled young lady.
Recently, Hope was selected as one of five finalists in Miller Welding’s, – We Build Future competition. This is a national competition for young welders with hundreds of entries which Miller narrowed down to just five. The long story short, in order to determine the finalist Miller is asking people to vote for one of the top finalists. Voting is open to the public and if you wouldn’t mind I’d appreciate you taking a few minutes to look at the five finalists and vote for who you think best qualifies. You can vote at the following link: Vote For A Talented New Welder Hope’s bio is at the bottom of the page.
The Rest of the Story
For those of you who would like to know how a homeschooled girl became one of Arizona’s top young welders, as Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story….
Winnie and I, as our children were growing up decided we didn’t like the way every birthday, holiday or special occasion was being commercialized by our culture. So to push back against this we made a rule in our family that any gifts for any holidays could not be bought, they had to be made by hand.
One day our daughter Hope as a young teenager asked me to show her how to use our Miller welder so that she could weld a birthday present for her brother Zane. Her gift was his name spelled using rebar welded together. One thing let to another and she started welding all sorts of things for us and others.
Some time after this she decided she wanted to take a welding course at Cochise College our local community college. She loved the class so much that she took several more. With a lot of hard work and dedication from her welding instructor Scott Brown, Hope went on to become the local and state welding champion, and eventually placing 9th in the national Skill’s USA competition in Kentucky.
Today, Hope now 22, teaches Welding at Cochise College where she was once a student.
Earlier I told you that Hope didn’t fit the standard mold. Well, Hope paid for those college welding classes and equipment by teaching music lessons. You see Hope is not just a welder, but also a fine pianist and cellist who teaches over 20 students each week from ages 4 to 65 to play the piano and cello.
So, once again, if you could spare a few more minutes, Hope would appreciate your consideration for Miller’s Building the Future Competition linked here: Vote For A Talented New Welder
