It was Dan’s birthday earlier this month. We had a pretty low-key family birthday celebration, however what crowned the day was a collection of handmade birthday cards/messages by our neighbour’s children. These children all call Dan ‘dad/father’, and they call themselves his ‘daughter’ or ‘son’. None of these children have a father living with them. It’s a beautiful gesture, but also a sobering reminder of how these children are crying out for a father-figure in their lives.
Dan and Jodes... in Gulu, Uganda 
Oh my, Jody, it’s so touching to see these messages. In the village I lived in in South Sudan there was a similar lack of fathers in most children’s lives. My male teammate who began the school I taught at and has taught there since then is the only consistent, caring man in so many of the students’ lives.