Heroes Hall of Fame

Below you will find the most EPIC and Awesomely hardcore heroes of our time.  This is by no one's standards but mine and I am not putting them in order or making one sound cooler than the other.  I just want to point out people that you may have not heard of before that I thought were doing something great for others.  If you have a favorite that hasn't made the hall of fame shoot me a message I would love to hear about this person and maybe post about them.  (Please note that to qualify as a "Hero"  this person needs to be someone who does something truly extreme for a completely selfless reason.)

1. JESUS CHRIST!!!

   Honestly how can I not start with our Lord and Savior.  If it wasn't for Jesus doing what He did and taking our sins to the cross then we would all be destine for a pretty bad eternity.  He is my GOD and man am I thankful for that!  To look at the "physical" side of what He did, its unbelievable how many miles He hiked to spread the gospel from city to city all out of love.  Plus he did it on these flimsy hard sandals, not the comfy ones like my Flojo's.  Then the biggest thing is what He went through the day He went to the cross.  The beating, the loss of blood and sweat, how far he carried the cross, being nailed to it.  Then enduring GOD's wrath to top it all.  I know I couldn't do it!  That is why He is our Savior.......that and He is a perfect GOD where as we are not.  I am inspired by Christ, and He is no doubt my #1 Hero.


2.TEAM HOYT

I wish I would have thought to post this on Fathers Day because it really fits the holiday.  Our next hero or heroes I should say is Team Hoyt (click name for official site).  These guys are my personal favorite!  Here are the highlights.  In 1962 Rick was born to Dick and Judy Hoyt, due to some complications he was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy.  Instead of letting him live in a hospital his parents decide to take him home and make sure he lived life to the fullest, which is already a hard task.  Soon they could tell that he was a very intelligent and capable young man and fought for him to be able to go to school (which later results in him getting a degree from Boston University in special education).
     In the spring of 1977 Rick hears about a 5 mile benefit run for a Lacrosse player who was paralyzed and tells his dad that he wants to run it.  Dick was not the running type but out of love for his son he agrees to do it anyway.  Rick said that night that running made him feel like he wasn't handicapped.  Little did they know that this would start them on a crazy and inspirational ministry.  Now they travel all over the U.S running races and raising awareness for the Hoyt Foundation.  Putting their count to 1042 races in total as of February!  To include 6 Ironman Triathlons, 7 half Ironmans, and 68 Marathons (27 Boston Marathons).  I don't know about you but I can say from experience that running a Marathon is PAINFUL!!!!  I know I couldn't even do an Ironman.  This guy is 3 times my age and does all of these races while pushing his 110lbs son.  When swimming on the Triathlons he pulls him in a boat!  With that said I am willing to admit that he way more hard core than me.haha  When asked Dick said that his motivation is his son and every time he feels like stopping he just looks in the chair in front of him and keeps going.  If I could even be half the dad that he is I would feel pretty accomplished.haha  Which is why Team Hoyt is no doubt a hero.  So check out their organization and testimony and ask yourself how you could better emulate their Father-Son relationship?



3. David & Shirley Callahan (Faithful Heart Foundation)

For the life of me I couldn't find their
picture so we will just use their logo...

Here is a couple that knows what it means to let everything of this world go for Gods glory. David and Shirley were retired in South Carolina and set up to live the "American dream". They had a check coming to them, house, car, and no reason to have to work again or really worry about anything. But they knew that wasn't what God wanted them to do. So what did they do? Get a bigger house on the beach? Get a dog? Or maybe join a country club and relax the rest of their lives?.......no, no, and NO! Instead they sold and gave away EVERYTHING they had and moved to Thailand to open an orphanage. They are now independent missionaries funded by their local church and a few people who just want to help. Talk about a HUGE leap of faith! I can't imagine what that took, thinking about it kinda freaks me out...... But they knew that was where God wanted them and because of that they trusted Him to take care of all of the unknowns. Now they have grown to multiple houses or branches if you will for these kids. This is inspiring for me in a big way. I feel so lame when I think about what I wonder and sometimes wimp out on. "Well God, times are tight right now so can I just cover the tithes on the next pay check?" or "Hey God I know this kinda doesn't feel like what you want me to be doing right now, and I should probably drive myself and my wife on over to the Harbor for church. But I am REALLY tired so maybe I can just go twice next week?" or when I go "Yea God I know this guy at work just brought up some stuff and I could probably help him, and witness to him or at least take him to church. But what If he says no, and thinks I am a weird Christian???"

Here is our missions group visiting one of the hill tribes. (I am the guy in the
bottom with the dog and a kid playing with my beard.lol)

I had the awesome opportunity to go with my church back in 2009 to visit this orphanage along with the Im Jai House, and go to the hill tribe as well which is another focus of their ministry at Faithful Heart Foundation. It was crazy seeing how much they were doing for these kids! They were teaching them more than the average American kid would learn. Not only being educated but they were being taught a lot of great agricultural skills as well. Like how to grow rice, and mushrooms, also how to raise chickens and other animals. It was an amazing experience and to be honest if I wasn't with this amazing woman who is now my wife I might have just thrown away my passport and stayed there. My pastor who was there might have advised against me going UA from the Marines though.haha Attached below is the link to the blog they wrote about our awesome visit, check it out.
http://faithfulheartministry.com/callahan-corner/2009/03/village-visit-mar-30-2009

These people would never claim the title hero and obviously that just shows where their hearts are. But I will call them hero's and I know to every single one of those kids they are hero's. So check them out on my organizations page if you get the chance, they are pretty awesome. If you feel led to, donate. What is $20 to us anyway? thanks for reading and God Bless.

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.