Last week we visited our daughter Melody Gifford and her family at their lake house in rural Arkansas, near Clinton. Melody and Cody teach music in international schools, and they have been in Dalian, China, for the past four years. We haven’t seen them since Christmas 2019 since COVID restricted travel. Since they’re off to their next assignment at Grand Cayman Island in early August, it was a trip we needed to make!

One evening they were hosting members of Cody’s family: his mother, his brother, Casey, and his Uncle Tony, a retired Freshman Writing professor at the University of Central Arkansas. The picture shows Casey, a mountain of a man at 6 feet 6 inches talking with Cody and Uncle Tony.

The evening was going very well until someone commented that the air conditioner didn’t seem to be keeping up. Oops. No A/C is not something you want to try in Arkansas this time of year!

So the guys were out poking around, alternating between the outside and inside units. I stayed out of the way, having nothing to contribute. Casey’s 7-year-old son Bentley confidently told me, “My daddy can fix anything.” And you know what? Bentley was right. The A/C came back on at 7am the next morning.

It turns out that Casey was troubleshooting the system with the help of his former colleague at the school where Casey is now head of maintenance. The colleague, now retired, used to work for Trane Air Conditioning systems. It turns out that a capacitor that tells the system what to do, which way to blow the fan, when to turn on the compressor, etc. was bad. “But no problem, I have one of those on hand!”

So at 11p, Casey drove out to another town where his friend lived, picked up the part, and returned to Melody’s house at 6a the next morning to install it.

I admire good work wherever I see it and also a servant’s heart. What makes this story even better is that I have an earned doctorate in education, Cody has an earned doctorate in instrumental music conducting, and Tony is a retired college professor. All that education. Casey? Two years of trade school for surveying.

The real difference is that Casey is a learner. I remember little of most of the courses I took and use very little from them. Casey, on the other hand, is continuously learning. He didn’t know anything about air conditioners until he started working at the school a couple of years ago, where he learned from his now-retired colleague.

Asked to bless breakfast, I opened my prayer thanking God for Casey!

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. (1 Corinthians 8.1, ESV)

Observe people who are good at their work— skilled workers are always in demand and admired; they don’t take a back seat to anyone. (Proverbs 22.29, MSG)