12:45 a.m. - Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004
S-Disturber.
My friend and co-worker from Canada is visiting us this week. His name is Dave, and although he's technically my "boss", he's more like a good friend.
Chris and Dave and I were sitting in the living room last night talking. We were sharing about different matters of our faith and its incorporation into our lives. Dave was speaking. As I looked over at him I thought, "That is a wise man," and I felt honoured to know him.
I'm very glad I've had the honour of knowing Dave Skene, a devoted man of God and, for lack of a better term, an "S"-disturber. Dave is someone who loves God passionately, and through that passion, disturbs and challenges those who would want to hold tight to regulations and empty traditions.
No one likes S-disturbers. They often make people in authority look like idiots, because they challenge the way things have always been done. Those in authority don't like to look like idiots, and they don't want the people under them to know they're idiots, although the underlings most likely already do know. They're just too scared to say anything. So along comes the S-disturber, who introduces a new way of thinking, thereby revealing the idiocy of the Idiots.
O, for the wisdom of the S-disturber.
I also said that Dave is a devoted man of God. It's one thing to disturb people, it's another to inspire. Dave does both.
I don't know if I have ever seen a more compassionate heart. At any given time, there may be between 3 and 6 people living at the Skene's house. Right now, Dave and his wife Liz are the legal guardians of a mentally handicapped girl. They just opened up their home to a friend of this girl, who is also mentally handicapped. They also have another 20-something young woman living with them. None of these people are actually related to Dave and Liz, but you wouldn't know it by the sense of family you get when you walk in the door.
This is to say nothing of the international development projects he's involved in. From helping to establish a safehouse for Macedonian women trying to escape the sex-trade to setting up a small business for Native youth, Dave has put tremendous action to the convictions of his heart.
I could also go on about the hundreds of university students who he has inspired to social action through countless missions trips. There's also the "fringe" high school students who's lives he's changed by accepting them for who they were when no one else would.
There are so many lives this little S-disturber has changed, and I am one of them. So thanks, Dave. You've disturbed me.
