A cowboy of faith

ROB DINWOODIE, the five-year-old from Lavoie, 10 miles from Viking, Alberta, on Highway 10, wasn't shocked by the miracle healing of his brother Keith's little horse, Fury; after all as little boys they had asked Jesus to heal the animal.
And Dinwoodie, now 47 and the father of three women, aged 26, 25 and 19, still believes in miracles.
After all he was born into a Christian home where his mother, Martha, had been healed by God of polio when she was only 16.
"My grandmother's sister, Aunt Kate, worked as a house maid and she said she met Jesus. She apparently was very disraught and wanting to know the meaning of life. One day she was hanging out clothes on the line when a man in white came. He didn't say anything, but her life was transformed. Aunt Kate was the most bubbly lady that I have ever met and she prayed for my Mom, Martha, when she was 16, who had polio and my Mom was completely healed."
Rob's mother was not supposed to have any children, but she had six.
Into such a world Rob was born; and that heritage has followed him all his days.
When I visited with him early Sunday afternoon in his Old Kamloops Road home, it reminded me of being in a well-appointed "tack room" with Dinwoodie's paintings hanging on the walls and the cowboy decor evident in every nick and corner. He had just come back from the Multiplex where internationally-known horse trainer Pat Pirelli was showing his skills and later in the day, he and his group, "Dogwood Road" had been invited to attend the baptism of a friend at Okanagan Lake.
"The woman, who I had witnessed to, said that I had spoken to her in an understanding manner."
Dinwoodie has not always followed the Lord in all he does.
"It was in Vernon as a young man, I was not living for the Lord. I would work through the week and then party. One day, I passed out by the railway tracks and a friend of mine picked me up. It was then I thought, 'I'm still His child.' It's like today with my own children ... I don't like everything they do, but my love for them never ceases. They are my children."
After moving to Winnipeg, he married his wife, Jocelyne, and they in turn moved to Alberta and were "drawn to the Billy Graham crusade in Edmonton in 1979."
It was during that crusade that he and Jocelyn "gave our lives to the Lord. It was true salvation, we were truly converted."
In a publicity release, it explains that Dinwoodie has loved horses and the cowboy way of life since childhood. He;s a self-taught guitarist and writer of contemporary Western songs. Since 1996, Rob and Jocelyne have entertained international guests with their cowboy show, 'Lasso the Moon' at Vernon's Historic O'Keefe Ranch and Silver Star Mountain Resort. Rob's full-time job as Range Manager with the B.C. Forest Service affords him the opportunity to work daily with the ranchers and cowboys he lauds in song.
His group, named Dogwood Road, was once known as the Desperadoes. He laughs and says, "church people don't like the word desperadoes, sounds like a bunch of gangsters. But that wasn't the reason I changed it. There was a group down in the States by that name."
The band is comprised of Jack Bernhardt on accordion and keyboards, Don Baum on bass guitar, Frank Kelly (a native of Newfoundland) on lead guitar and Rick Larson on drums.
"All are Born-Again Believers. I think the Lord has brought us together," said Dinwoodie.. "Sometimes I think that because we are out in the world that we're somehow going to get tarnished by the world as if somehow we have attained our salvation. We have to live, work and play in the world. Christ gave me my salvation. Of course, I have to choose my music well. In fact, I write most of the material. I call it western lyric.
"If you look around our house at the various bits and paintings, you will realize I have had this thing with the cowboy. That was all I ever wanted to be."
Then he went on to say, "That's all I ever dreamed about. At school I wouldn't do my work. I was drawing horses and cowboys so as I grew up my music became a bigger part of my life. I started writing songs."
Dinwoodie exemplifies a philosophy that has slowly died in the modern era.
"I want to do well the "gifts" God has given me with respect to music and arts and do it well so that when they see Rob Dinwoodie and Dogwood Road or whoever I am associated with, they know they are going to get the very best and I want to glorify God."
In the final analysis of the well-known musician and artist, Dinwoodie said, himself: "I don't call myself anything, Kaye. I just want to be called a man who follows after God. At the end of my life, if God would say, 'you're a man after My own heart. I like to get stroked like everyone else, but when it comes down to the end of the day ... that He would smile and say, 'Yeah, that's My son."