I am married, and have been since 1984. I have three children and my favorite (but old) picture of them is the following:

I like this picture because it totally captures their personalities. My son can't sit still long enough for a picture to be taken, my oldest daughter is prim and proper with her hair perfect, and my youngest daughter is just having a good time (note food under her seat).

Our family likes to "camp" in the summer, usually near a warm lake in a motor home. This picture was an exception when we spent some (cold) days at Whistler.

Here is a more recent picture at Splash Mountain in 1999. My wife really likes these kinds of rides.

Here's a more recent picture of me at our departmental 2000 Christmas party:

Emily, the youngest is a serious gymnast. She trains 18 hours a week and at 10 won the all round gold medal for BC in her age and level. Here she is doing some type of back flip on the beam.

Here's her brother at the same competition.  He loves his down time.
 

Finally, here is a picture from Christmas 2000. 
 

MY FAITH

I'm often confused with libertarians or conservatives, but I'm really just a good ol' fashioned Calvinist. I considered myself an atheist as a teenager, but slowly came to realize there was a God and that we have a higher calling on Earth. I became a Christian in the spring of 1982.  I enjoy apologetics and also reading about scientific evidence in support of the Bible. One book I would highly recommend is "Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution" by Michael Behe.

I attend a small evangelical church called Aldergrove Alliance, which is part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Denomination. I've taught Sunday School almost continuously since 1983, and currently teach a senior high class. I've also worked as  chairman of the board, nursery worker, children's church coordinator, and usher. It sounds like a lot, but in a small church one wears a lot of hats. One thing I'll never do is sing in a choir! Our church
is currently trying to raise 1.2 million dollars to build our own facility, which someday should look something like:

At Simon Fraser we have a group of Christian faculty members that meet weekly to have lunch and read (very slowly) through the Bible.
Anyone interested in this group can contact me by email (doug_allen@sfu.ca).

I see no conflict between being an economist and a Christian. In fact, I think most reformed theologians were pretty good economists at heart. What is the difference between the depravity of man and the principle of maximization? I've published one article on Chruch organization using economic theory, and I've written one unpublished paper using economics to shed some light on the old debate over freewill versus predestination. You can access this paper by clicking here for a pdf file, or here for a ps file. In order to get the figure for the paper, click here.
 

MY HOBBIES
I love sports, but my active children prevent me from enjoying more than informal squash games on campus. I have coached the Aldergrove Aces, a girls soccer team, for the past 7 years, and have coached various baseball teams. My favorite coaching position is in a lawn chair, out of the rain:

I am also involved in the alternative public school movement in Langley where I live. My kids attend a "traditional" school, and I have been involved in the PAC at various levels over the years. Like my church, I've held several positions on the PAC, from  president to secretary. Two years ago, after several
years of hard work, a group of parents convinced the Langley school board to create the Langley Fundamental Middle School.

My other great love is to putter around our small Langley acreage, seen here on a typical July day in British Columbia:

One of my more enjoyable projects  was to build a new shed over my well. Seen here:

This project began last spring when I had to remove a large cedar tree from directly behind my house. The tree was a "clump" cedar, with about a 4 foot diameter at the base where the clump merged together. Remarkably for that size, the tree was only 40 years old.

I stored the logs over the winter and this spring used an Alaska chain saw mill along with my table saw to make the lumber. Over the summer I built the shed. The cedar siding is in the "batton and board" style that was quite popular for barns on the west coast because it is easy to build and stands up well to the rain.  I tried to make shakes for the roof as well, but the second growth tree was a little too twisted for that. I bought the shakes for the roof, and only fell off 9 times in putting them on!

All told, the shed cost $180 and about three months of my time... or about $195 total.

Langley is the emerald of the Fraser Valley, full of old farms like this one:
and historic buildings like 

I grew up just outside the village of Fort Langley, B.C.'s first capital. Unfortunately (for me) Langley is slowly becoming the home of strip malls.