Team Hoyt

Through my work with Rivers Of The World (ROW), I am constantly accessing YouTube and GodTube for something or other. Recently, I created a personal account at GodTube for the purpose of uploading videos of the Sunday Morning Services at my church, Lauderdale United Methodist. So, it came as no surprise when I started getting emails from GodTube regarding the latest videos or updates and honestly, like most of the email that comes to me, I ignored most of them. That is, until I got one last week listing the eight top videos viewed in 2008.

Well, far be it from me to miss the number one watched video on GodTube! The title of the video was ‘Team Hoyt’ and once the video started, I remembered the story because of a previous video that went around the Internet a few years ago. In fact, their website describes their situation better than I could:

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon – that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s a remarkable record of exertion – all the more so when you consider that Rick can’t walk or talk.

For the full story of this amazing father and son team, you can read about them here.

I believe there are heroes who live among us. Many of them are parents who help their children achieve extraordinary things. In this case, both the father and the son encourage the other to reach for and achieve goals that most of us would find daunting. Sometime children are raised to be heroes (see this example I offered in a previous post), and sometimes it is the parent who achieves heroic status. Either way, I want to point out this type of hero where ever I find it, because not only does this encourage my belief in heroes, I want it to encourage that belief in others. When we discover that what was thought to be impossible really isn’t, then we can dream impossible dreams and make them happen.

And just for the record, I believe their are angels among us too. Just listen to the voice on this video and you’ll believe it too.

Enjoy.