The Lafayette Cub Scout Troop 76 wanted to do something to serve a family in need for Christmas.  (Luke is in scouts and is a wolf.) Laurie Harris – whose husband Kirk leads Luke’s den- asked me to help.  She had tried to get help from her church to no avail.  Since the scouts meet at Ryan Elementary school and most of the boys like Luke attend Ryan, I thought this might be a good opportunity to serve the school.

See, a month or so ago, a few of us representing several local churches met with the Boulder Valley School Superintendent, Dr. Chris King.  Chris has a high regard for the churches in Boulder.  Over the years churches have provided thousands of volunteers to help improve facilities through weekends called ‘Sharefest’.   In the past few years, Sharefest has evolved to more than just school projects but also smaller projects where we have helped local non-profits or single moms and widows in need.

In talking with Chris, he really wanted to see our partnership with the schools continue.  Considering we saved the school board a lot of money in manpower during tight budgets, who could blame him.  Together, we  came up with a “One Church / One School” plan. The idea is a local church would adopt an underachieving school for facility upkeep needs but could also partner in other ways too like mentoring at-risk kids, appreciating the teachers or whatever was needed.  Each church and school would work together to find the best fit of needs and assets.  Our motivation as a united church would simply be to fill the Great Commandment of loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Chris identified the schools with the greatest need and one of those was Ryan Elementary.  As a parent, you may not want to think your child attends an underachieving school but we saw this as an opportunity.  Not only does Luke and several other kids from our church attends Ryan but also six of the Burmese refugee kids our church helps relocate and transition to community.  Robin specifically serves as a liaison between the school and their families, so we already had the relationships and trust with the administration.

So back to the scouts… I thought this would be a good way to begin working with Ryan at a deeper level.  So I emailed the principal and ESL Teacher (who I knew and) Miriam Wright, the Family Advocate for all of the elementary schools in Lafayette, who I had yet to meet.  (By the way, Miriam is awesome and an angel!) The principal got her assistant involved and I met with them.  Together we came up with a plan to help 30 families who have kids at Ryan that are in need this Christmas.

A local business donated toys. The Cub Scouts donated food for 5 families – one per den.  Our church provided food for the remaining 25 boxes.  Each box had enough food for a family of five along with a gift card.  This past week, with help from others, I packed them all in nicely decorated boxes, loaded them into our van and delivered them to Ryan Elementary.  On Saturday morning the 18th, families came to the school to pick up the gifts and boxes of food.  These families, who had nothing, now have something for Christmas.

Robin & my prayer is that this is only the beginning of us loving our neighbor – Ryan Elementary and families in Lafayette.   Our prayer is that God will raise up others to help mentoring kids and serve the school & community with the love of Christ in tangible ways.

She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.

We have two manger scenes sitting out in our home.  Both are from Mexico.  I think I bought the second one forgetting I already had the first, but they are dissimilar enough that it looks okay.  As I look at them, I can’t help but smile and think of when Luke was really small how he made baby Jesus a superhero flying around the room.

Our manager scenes have all the necessary ingredients – baby Jesus in a manger, Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, animals and one has wise men (even though the magi probably showed up at a later time).  But one thing they both lack…. poop.

I mean if there were animals there, there would be poop… dung… feces… cow patties… manger muffins.  And if enough people were in town to bring out the ‘no vacancy’ sign at the local inn, there would have been tons of poop.

Seems to me its significant that Jesus was born in a place with a lot of stinky poop because He came to take away our poop.

You have to understand poop is a popular topic in our house of boys.  Robin is very gracious and let’s them … er us… be boys.   Poop was the first word both Jack and Drew learned to spell.  It makes them all smile and giggle.  Cleaning poop has been a part of our lives for 8 1/2 years now.  We can’t escape it.

And I can’t escape it in my life.  I have poop.  I sin. I do things I shouldn’t.  I think things I shouldn’t.  I get angry.  I’m selfish.  I’m stubborn.  I’m greedy.  I waste a lot… a lot of time, money, stuff… things that could be used to make the world less poopy.

I have poop.   You have poop.  All God’s children have poop.  Poop happens.  There is no way to escape it. Our dung-heap is high and stinks.

Sometimes our poop gets out of control.  Unsafe drinking water.  Hungry children.  Families wrecked. Disease and death.  Abuse.  Loneliness. Despair.

Jesus entered into the world of poop.   He enters our poop.  He takes it away.  He came to rid the world of poop…. to wipe it clean.

Tonight I shared this with my boys at the dinner table. (Normally poopy talk is off-limits at the table but Robin gave that rule a break tonight.) And so afterwards we added poop (in the form of chocolate chips) to each of our manager scenes.   And maybe on Christmas morning, we will eat the chocolate ‘poop’ chips.

I have a lot to be thankful for…

Jesus... He’s all I need

Robin… a wonderful, hardworking, caring, patient partner / friend / wife.

Luke… a mind full of wonder, uniquely gifted

Jack… an artist, a big smile and a warm hug

Drew… imaginative, funny, a big heart

My dad… his humor, his goodness, for being my dad, my friend, my pastor.

All my family… my sisters, my nephews, nieces, my cousins, aunts and uncles, my family by marriage.  Each a joy to my soul.

My job... that I have one in times like these.  But even so I have a job with the freedom just to follow my heart.  Get to work with some great people who inspire me.  Get to do things I love.

Bonus Stuff… I have a warm place to sleep at night, food on my table, in good health, means of transportation, no debt (except mortgage).  And I live in Colorado with a view of the mountains off my back deck.

The opportunity to serve and give… how alive I feel when I am serving among the needy, when I am giving and not taking, being the hands & feet of Jesus.

My mom... I am thankful for who she was… for  her love, for believing in me, for challenging me, for her generous heart.  I miss her today.  Hard to believe she is not here.

My mom was born on June 8th, 1935.  She was born in Coral Gables, Fl.  My grandfather was from Georgia but had come to Florida in his work with Southern Bell and met my grandmother whose family had moved to Miami area earlier.  My grandmother was born in England and had moved to Canada as a baby.  Her family had moved to Florida to find work.  My grandmother was a nurse when she met my grandfather.  They had been married a little over a year when my mother was born.   But I won’t say how old my mom was when my aunt, Eleanor, was born since she is here today.

When my mom was 8 years old she made a decision that affected today.  She made a decision to put her faith in Jesus and follow Him.  She followed him and trusted in Him all her life.

When my mom was about 10 or 11, her family moved back to Georgia.  They settled in Cobb County in Smyrna where she graduated high school and then she went to Mercer University.  After graduation, she then went to seminary as she was preparing to go to the mission field to teach Missionary Kids – MKs – but God redirected her life to raise PKs – Preacher’s Kids.   Working one summer in Rockmart, GA as a church secretary, my mom met my dad and they fell in love.  My dad had been called to be a pastor and was looking to go back to school so my mom encouraged him to go to where she had graduated – Mercer.  They dated for a year long distance and then got married the following year.  So she became a wife while my dad was going through college and also a mom as my sister Belinda was born the following year.  Then they went back to the same seminary where she had started – Southwest Baptist in Fort Worth Texas – and my sister Laura was born.  So Laura’s a Texan.  Then when they finished seminary and my dad took his first fulltime pastorate in Oxford Georgia and I was born in 1964.  Our family moved several times through the years as my dad pastored several churches and had different assignments.  I will share a little more about that later.   But want to share a little more about our family and who they are.   Laura married Jose in 1990 and they have 4 children – Isaac, Joseph, Claire & Elizabeth.  In 2000, the year Elizabeth was born, I married Robin and we have 3 little boys: Luke, Jack and Drew.  Her dad – my Grandfather – went home to be with the LORD when I was in High school in 1981.  And in 1994, my Grandma Daisy went home to be with the LORD.

I want to share a few things about my mom.  Hopefully I won’t be too verbose.  The three things I want to share are three different roles as I thought about my mom.

One is the role is a pastor’s wife which is an incredible job.  There are 500,000 clergy in America.  Of those 500,000, 200,000 will wake up on Monday morning and consider quitting their job.  About 40% every Monday morning consider quitting.  My dad was a Southern Baptist pastor and every month, 1000 Southern Baptist pastors quit the ministry.  Because it’s a difficult job being in ministry: the pressures, the Spiritual battle and living with the weight of leading a congregation.  And there is, I am sure none of you are like this, but there is always someone who is critical; no matter what you do.   They will say things.  To be a pastor’s wife…  and we were often a lot in small-towns… people are critical of how you dress or how your kid’s were raised.  I’m sure I contributed to some of the backlash my mom might have received.  The one thing about my mom though- and my dad and I talked about this the other day – was that she never complained.  She never complained about moving.  She never complained if we were living a little tight if the pastor’s salary wasn’t that much.  She was faithful.  She was an encourager to my dad, beside him all those years.  I think that’s why many leave — you need someone beside you to encourage you in that great task of leading a church.  My mom was that.  I spoke with her several times and she would say, “Andy, your dad is discouraged and I don’t know how to encourage him.”  And we would talk about it and of course she did.  She was there for him.  Faithful.  Continued to follow the LORD the whole time. Content with my dad being the one up front and just being there for him.

Another thing about my mom is that she was an educator.  She was a first grade teacher even before I started school.  And when we moved to Washington County, there was an opportunity to work with what they called in those days, ‘training centers’.  These were created for the mentally handicapped back because we didn’t know what to do with them in the traditional schools.  Mom began teaching and assisting the director of the training  center.  She also went back to school and got her Masters in Special Education.  She worked with Special Education up until her retirement.  When we moved up here, she first worked in Hall County’s Training Center.  And then when I was in High school, they begin to move Special Education back into the school, and most kids were placed back in the classrooms but they had a unique class for those with multiple handicaps.  There was one class in the county for elementary kids who had multiple handicaps and my mom taught that.  These kids would have both physical and mental disabilities – perhaps like in a wheelchair but also mentally handicapped.  You know teaching is a wonderful profession.  You can always have a hope that some former student will come back and say “I’m now a doctor and you had an influence on my life”.  Burt if you work with the mentally handicapped, you know they can never do this.  As a society, we often don’t know what to do with the mentally challenged.  We look away or we will not draw near.  But my mom was drawn near and worked with these children who were special and dear to her.  Year after year.  Maybe you’ll see incremental change but not huge change.  All you can do is just faithfully serve them.   It’s a noble thing but I think it’s also a godly thing.  It’s the character of Christ.  Jesus focused on the least – the people at the bottom of society – the widows, the poor, crippled.   He came to heal the sick not the healthy.  The bible says what credit is it if you love people who love you?  But can you love people who don’t have the capacity to love you in the same way.  Jesus said that when he returns that people who worked the least of these, ‘you did it to me – when fed the hungry, when you cared for the sick…  And I believe, though he didn’t say this verbatim, “when you cared and worked with the mentally challenged.”  I believe that every day when my mom was teaching and working for these children – the least of our society-she was working with Jesus.   She was working with Jesus that’s what he said.  It’s amazing.   People will stand up and say, “ I cast out demons in his name, or healed in his name or taught in his name” and Jesus will respond, “I never knew you.”  You can do those things and not be doing them for Jesus but yourself but Jesus said when you served among the least, He will say that you not only did it but you did it to me.   And I believe, He said this to my mom when she first saw his face a few days ago.

The last thing about my mom that I was to share is the role of a mother.  I’m sure it’s always a special thing of mom and her son.   And to add on to it, I was the baby.  I had a unique relationship with my mother – close.  I loved her.  There was an understanding all through life.  You know, your mom is always there when things hurt but there was something more a closeness.  You know our family, much like any family, would have conflict and I to confess – I always took my mom’s side.  Every time.  Well once I didn’t take her side and it shocked her.  And I don’t recall exactly what it was but there was a time I felt some injustice but I remember my mom sitting with me as I wept and was frustrated.  She was there with me, loving me, believing in me and saying ‘it was okay’.  And that is what I remember of my mom – being there.  Long hugs.  A generous woman whom I love.

In 1998, I felt the LORD was calling me to China.  I was single at the time and had been on my own for a while but felt impressed to process this with my parents in an honoring way.  I felt the Lord was calling me long-term to China.  Little did I know a few months later, I would meet Robin and the LORD would change those plans.   But at that time as I talked with my mom, I knew this was a big deal.  I would be gone for holidays and not sure how often I would be able to come home or when I would.  My mom said, “Andy when you were followed the call of the LORD right out of college, it was initially hard for me.  But as I talked it over with the Lord, I was reminded of the passage when Jesus said to his mom, ‘I must be about my Father’s business’ and I prayed, ‘Andy must be about His father’s business.  And I will give him to you’.  She said to Jesus, ‘I will trust you with Him no matter where you call him, I will trust you’“.

You know my mom through the years, even though I lived in a lot of places overseas or in Colorado, she never said, ‘why don’t you live closer to us in Georgia or why are you raising grandbabies away from me’   She might have thought it but she never said it.  She never stood in the way of God’s call because she trusted that God was good and He had called me.  She had given me back to him even though we were close and it was hard.  Being in ministry and helping young people go into the mission field, I see this a lot in ministry where parents cannot let their kids follow the LORD.  But my mom never did, she trusted.  Even though she longed to see me and wanted me close by, she let me go.

I was reminded of that on Monday as I heard my mom while in ICU had taken a turn for the worse.  Part of me didn’t want my mom to go.  It was too sudden… I wasn’t expecting that.  Who would want that?  But I said “Jesus, just as she trusted you with me, I am trusting you with her.   She is in your hands.”

She is in a better place.  She is in a place where she doesn’t have to count points anymore.  She is in his glory, face-to-face.  No pain.  No suffering. No curse.  Forever.  Our life is a vapor.  The time away from her will be so small in comparison to eternity.  She sees him Face-to-Face.  How could I stand in the way of God calling her home!  And of course I couldn’t anyway.  That’s where she is.   She is with him.  My wife reminded me that even though we are saying bye today, she has been with Jesus since Tuesday morning.  A new body.  An eternity.  And I will miss her just like she would miss me when I was gone.  But I will see her again and we will hug again.  But she is with her Savior who she has walked with and known for a long time.

I appreciate you coming and just wanted you to know that I had a wonderful mom, and a good friend and I can’t wait to see her again.

John Charles “Jack” and Andrew Bogan “Drew” McCullough turned 5 today!   We are so blessed by these boys.  

Tomorrow is Luke’s birthday.  He will be 8.  Crazy.  I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday.  I recall I was so amazed by the strength of my wife who gave birth w/o drugs.  But I remember as well how I felt when I first saw Luke and realized we had a son.  I had such a deep love for him and he ‘hadn’t done ‘nothing for nobody’.  I got a small glimpse of the depth of the Father’s unconditional love for me at that moment.

There are so many things about Luke that I love and am proud of…

1.  I love his heart of compassion.  Sometimes its buried but I see glimpses as he talks about caring for the poor.

2.  I like how he loves to learn.

3.  I like that he shares what he knows not in a bragging way but simply matter of a fact.  I learn a lot of interesting things from him.  Last night, I learned that African elephants have two fingers on their trunk ends while Asian elephants have one.  I had no idea.

4.  I am proud of how high he scored this year on the tests given to him by the Talented and Gifted teacher at his school.  (Though Robin won’t let me brag and tell you.)

5.  Even though its challenging as a parent at times, I like how God has made him and how he views the world differently.

6.  I like that he loves to hike, climb rocks and just be out exploring.

7.  I was proud of him last week at the Cub Scout Camp when he got a bull-eyes the first time he ever did archery and then 2 bull-eyes, 2 – “9′s” (the next ring) and 1 – “8″ in 5 BB shots.  He’s got marksman skills I never had.

8.  I like how he tries at baseball.  I don’t care if he’s ever great or even good.  I just like that he tries and seems to have fun.

9.  I love it when he at 8 isn’t too big to crawl up in my lap and hug me.

10.  I was amazed when he said last night: “I’ve asked Jesus to come into my heart several times and change my habits.”   Sometimes I can’t tell where his heart is so I was beaming when he said this.

I love my big boy!  He is special and precious to me.  I hope he has a great 8th birthday!

Yesterday, the first love of Luke’s life walked out the door and he didn’t hold her one last time or even say ‘bye’. Ticklish is a hamster and Luke’s 7 (almost 8) so maybe its expected but if he ever treats another woman like this in the future they have my permission to knock some sense into him.  (The picture is from happier days and maybe the last time Luke had a haircut.)

A little over a year and half ago, my son became obsessed with hamsters, creating even a ‘pretend pet’.  So for Christmas 2008, we gave him a hamster.  At first he was tentative, new at this love thing.  His new-found love was too, biting him at first.  But they soon bonded and he loved her.  You couldn’t look into eyes and not love her.

However, it didn’t take long though to realize this relationship took work.  He had to provide for her and care for her.  After a while, he forget he had a ‘girlfriend’.   We had to remind him to take her out and do fun things with her.  Maybe when a friend came over, he would still proudly show her off and these friends would wonder why they didn’t have a girl like Luke had.  But for the most part she was not the thing he talked about all the time like he had before she entered his life.

Ticklish loved to excerise all night to keep up her girlish figure, so we first had her do wheel-running downstairs.  When Luke claimed that her staying downstairs made him forget her,  we sacrificed and kept her upstairs.  I sometimes used earplugs.

Maybe the tipping point was last summer.  Instead of ‘absence making the heart grow fonder’ it was ‘out of sight, out of mind’.  He took a picture of her to South Africa but over the six weeks we were there he rarely looked at her picture.  He started talking of other potential pets… mostly cats (no way I am highly allergic).  He played the field with bugs, spiders, toads, lizards and the like.  He even brought home a wild party of Madagascar Cockroaches from school over Thanksgiving.   Maybe he took Ticklish for granted.  I mean she wasn’t going anywhere.

Ticklish, though so cute, no longer captured his heart.  He got bored with her.  At times he would be affectionate.  Watching her run, offering her yogurt covered alfalfa balls.  Trying to coax her to use the little exercise ball.   And yes, she helped him with his science project this winter when he built a mouse trap and used her to test it out.  But after that project was over, it tried to pawn her off on his younger brothers.  ”Maybe a break would be good”,  Robin thought.  Jack and Drew were too young to really take on the responsibility either.  Maybe two boys were more than she could handle too.  After the short break when his brothers returned her to him, Luke’s love still waned.  She was a neglected pet bound  only to be cared for by the mother of her boyfriend.   Without Robin she may never have gotten food, water or a clean cage.

So Robin sent out a message to a group of friends offering to give her away to a loving home.  Luke didn’t care.  He was done.  He had moved on.  Someone offered to take her.  (Though turns out the mom didn’t ask the dad and he wasn’t too pleased.  Maybe I should throw in my earplugs) When Robin took her away yesterday morning, Luke cold-heartedly didn’t even say ‘goodbye’.

I hope he remembers this when a girl breaks his heart one day…  and it might even be a cat.

Last night we started a new family tradition.  (If we just start it, can I call it a tradition?)  Robin and I decided to make some of our extra giving up for grabs and let our boys be a part of the decision processing.  We still will give to both our compassion & BEAM Africa child sponsorships and our church.  But we set aside $40 from our budget for ‘family fun giving’.

So yesterday afternoon I withdraw 40 $1 bills from my bank and made four envelopes. (I realize the pic is of 32 bills but humor me.) On each envelope I printed off a picture and wrote the name of the options for June.  This month, we choose 4 options:  helping kids at BEAM Africa, mosquitos nets through Compassion International, Kids against Hunger – Haiti food packs, and helping rescue children from bad guys in Mexico through Camino a Casa.

Before dinner, we saw around the table and I told the boys that Jesus taught us himself that ‘it was better to give than to receive’.   I made sure Drew and Jack knew what receive meant by saying ‘it was better to give than to get’.  Then I passed out 8 $1 bills to each person (Robin and I played too) and told the boys that they get to decide where we give them.  They could put them all in one envelope or 2 in each or however they wanted it.

When we ended, I ask Drew what these all had in common and he said ‘they were all people who were poor’.  I said ‘yes but they also are about helping kids – kids like you, Jack and Luke – who are either hungry, or not safe or don’t have easy access to things like doctors when they get sick’.   We asked if they wanted to talk to God about these kids but they rather wanted to go play.  So Robin and I did.

I am reminded of Matthew 18, where Jesus when asked who was greatest in the Kingdom calls a child forward.  A child – often the least in the world – are the greatest, the model, the standard.  He said whoever welcomes a child in His name, welcomes Him.  Jesus is personified in children.  He also warns that whoever causes harm to these children – ones who in our world today are often exploited, taken advantage of, abused, neglected, harmed, overlooked, marginalized –  whoever dares to harm them or cause them to sin, well, Jesus doesn’t play.  In fact, his description is a rather graphic painful punishment.  He also says “Woe to the world because of these things.”  Woe to the world you and I live in today  for how we have treated children.  The woe is not just to the vile offenders but all of us live under their guilt because we allow it to happen.  Our world has taken what is honored by Christ – the humility of a child, their trusting souls – and have used it for our twisted evil intents.  These kids’ have protective messengers who always see the face of a loving, caring, righteous Father.

… and so do my boys.

Turned 46 today.  Sort of an odd number.  (Yes, I know it’s even.  Meant odd as in strange.)  I guess it means I am on the backside of my forties.  Closer and closer to be 5-0.  Really I don’t think of my age.  I think more of the aches and pains I have.   I do think of how old I will be be when my sons graduate high school though.

What do you say about 46?  Though i’ve never written a novel, I am glad of a few things that are true today.

1.  I have a lovely wife who is a great mom and friend.

2.  I have 3 boys that I enjoy who know their dad loves them.   I enjoy that Luke lives science and reading.  I like that Jack and  Drew have great imaginations.  I like that all three of them still enjoy crawling into my lap.

3. My parents and our immediate family are alive and we love each other.

4.  I am grateful for grace, for mercy and for forgiveness.  I am humbled that  the LORD would sacrifice himself for me, someone who often follows his own path.  Amazed that He doesn’t give up and still calls me to follow Him.

5.  I enjoy my job immensely.  I enjoy serving alongside Gene and Brian and others at Cornerstone.  I enjoy the community of Global Services.  I enjoy the things that are new, challenging and fulfilling.

6.  I am glad at this stage in life I am investing in using my gifts and experiences in things like helping end systemic poverty or the horrific crime of human trafficking.

7.  I appreciate the people that give so we can have this ministry.

8.  I am glad that Robin and I are in this together and that we get to serve together in helping our refugee ministry.

9.  I have all I need and am not in debt, save my mortgage which we are able to pay.  I like where we live.  I like the small town feel of Lafayette… the fact that we are not far from the mountains and can see awesome views from our deck… the cul-de-sac we live on and the open space behind us…  I like that our house is not big and that our boys share a room… I like that we got it for $25,000 less than its appraised for.

10. Though I’d like to be in better shape and not have a few aches and pains, I have good health.  I can see.  I can hear.  I can walk.  I am alive.

Drew - “Mom, I just went into my room and talked to God.”

Robin - “You did?  That’s great.”

Drew- “Yeah.  I aksed Him to give us a safe trip and told him I was sorry for yelling at Jack today.”  [We are leaving on a Spring Break trip tomorrow.]

Jack - “You didn’t have to.  I already forgave you.”

Drew - “I know but I wanted to.”

Me (whispering in his ear) - “Drew, I’m proud of you.”

Drew - “Me too.”