Now that it is officially father's day I want to pay tribute to my dear father.  My dad, John Patroklos Andreadakis, or Ionnis as I remember seeing on his books in the attic was born Dec 8th 18 ;-)I mean 1940 on the island of Samos, Greece, or so he tells us.  My dad is amazing and I'm pretty convinced he is actually John the Beloved one of Christ's original apostles still roaming the earth and blessing and making everything better where he trods.  His father died when he was fairly young leaving him the eldest son.  He sacrificed his life to sail around the world  a captain on merchant ships to be able to send money to his family.  He then ventured to the good ol' USA where he went to school.  He was the most sought after bachelor in my mom's Greek orthodox congregation, or so the ladies told me when we went for my Yia yia's funeral.  My father is extremely intelligent he speaks languages, navigates by the stars, builds computers, writes, and is a gospel scholar,  oh and I can't neglect his passion for politics (now that Hillary's out I'm sure you're sleeping better, haha).  All of us kids have managed to grow up to be moral contributing adults or are at least striving to be.  My father recognizes and applies the power of prayer and has taught me that by examples and stories.  I am grateful that his heart was sensitive to the Holy Ghost and that my mother and him joined the church before I was born, giving me the greatest gift in my life, my relationship with my Saviour and a true knowledge of Him and His gospel.  While I was in high school my father translated materials for the church into Greek and still managed to fly my sister and I out there to travel around Greece and spoil us rotten.  He's continually sacrificed for me and blessed me his spoiled undeserving daughter.  One day in one of my favorite parks in California, where the palm trees rise like sentinels, we were having a family picnic which included of course croquet, my oldest brother asked my dad, "did you ever think that you would be in California with English speaking children?"  I like to wonder that too, when my dad was born amidst a war on an island occupied by Italian soldiers, or when he was a refugee in Israel (I stand corrected I thought it was Egypt), or following his grandfather to sing at the monastery, or watering his orange fields faster than Katina's spit dried, when he was traveling the world by sea navigating by the stars, did he ever imagine that this is where he would be today?  I LOVE YOU DADDY and I'm glad you are here today!!!