"Fun"raising Tour Report 3

About a week ago, we arrived in Eastern Oklahoma. As we arrived, I was again reminded of how similar the landscape of Eastern Oklahoma and Western Massachusetts really is. They are both beautiful!

When we arrived, we went to my grandparents house to show them what was happening in MA. It was great to see them and let them know what God was doing. The girls spent the time mourning the upcoming separation from their Poppie, my dad and their Grandma Joanne. The time finally came to leave and their was much sadness. Part of being called to do what we do means being away from people that we love dearly. It is not always easy, but we know what we are called to do. Please pray for our girls to continue to listen to the Spirit as He communicates His will for our lives and gives peace to deal with the consequences of that calling.

The girls spirits were lifted when they arrived at their Nana's house though. It was great to see the girls continue this time of joy on this trip by seeing their Nana and Grandpa Ed. We have been with my mom for about a week now and it has been great! They have loved swimming, playing, watching movies and hanging out with Nana. It has also been great hosting many of our friends who live around here as well. Our friends Matt & Cara Yakel and their kids Keagan and Kate came over and hung out one night and we swam & BBQ'd. It was great to see all of them again. It is wonderful to be with people that pray for and support us throughout the year. We were able to hang out and swim and laugh, a lot. It is always fun to be around these friends.

Sunday, the 19th, we traveled to Dewitt, AR to speak to FBC, Dewitt. My good friend Lindsay Robinson is getting married on the 25th and I am officiating the wedding, so it was great to join her and her fiance that weekend. It was also a blessing to be introduced to her pastor at FBC, Kelly Jones and his family. As you can probably tell by this picture, Kelly is very funny and we had a great time together. Kelly was kind enough to open up his pulpit and allow me to present our ministry and speak Sunday morning. The podcast for the sermon I preached is found here: FBC, Dewitt Podcast. Thanks so much Kelly & FBC Dewitt!!

When we got back to Eastern, OK, we reconnected with the girls who had a great time that weekend with their cousins and other family. On Monday night, we swam and grilled out and had a great time. However, at dinner that night, Kenzie mentioned that she thought that she swallowed something sharp that was hurting her throat. Knowing that she has asthma, we thought that it might be something to do with her gag reflex, but as she continued to complain about it, we sensed something was pretty wrong. Luckily, my cousin Russell, who is a respiratory therapist, was eating with us and looked into her throat. He suggested we go to the ER because he saw something "shiny". I looked to confirm what he saw and sure enough, there was something there. We loaded her up and went to the ER. On our way there, I called my friend Matt Duke, who is a registered nurse, and got his opinion on the situation. Within 20 minutes, Matt shows up at the ER to sit with us and see what he could do. However, as Kenzie got more and more nervous, Christie suggested bringing Matt in and having him explain to Kenzie what is going to happen. This seemed to calm her quite a bit. Matt also stayed back with us and helped in some of the more difficult moments of the procedures we had to go through. After finally getting her sedated enough to look into her throat, the doctors pulled a bristle out of her throat from the brush that I had used to clean the grill with. It was such a fluke thing that caused her such great pain. It was really crazy. I tried to take a picture of what it looks like in comparison to a quarter. It is blurry, but it will give you some idea of what it looks like and how long it was.

There were some really scary moments obviously, but there were also some almost funny moments as well. They gave Kenzie Catamine to calm down so they could calm her down and get the other sedative in her. Basically, Catamine is a derivative of PCP, so Kenzie was high as a kite. She reverted back to believing she was in the pool and held her breath and moved her hand back and forth like she was swimming. It was quite funny to see her enjoying herself on that ER bed with all of the lines, monitor cords and oxygen lines coming from her. This of course was interspersed with her yelling (very slowly) in terror "MMMOOOMMMYYYY!!"

I really am not sure I could have made it without my freind Matt there. He and I got to know each other when we were college at Carl Albert State College (Chuck Albert). We both were relatively new in our life in Christ and found great community and accountability together. Much of the work that we do in the Mancave in MA now is based on the life and friendship in Christ that Matt. myself and our other friends shared. When we in college and I was studying jounalism, I often made fun (lovingly of course) of Matt's pursuit of being a nurse. I even convinced him to get his new Bible imprinted with the name "Nursey Boy". However, as I watched how God had created Matt to help people like he does, it was obvious that Matt was obeying the leading of the Spirit. We would often have discussions when he was early in his career as a nurse and I was a new Youth Minister that if I had a bad day, a parent may be upset, but if he had a bad day, people died. Matt was always quick to remind me that there were eternal consequences in what I did with people, he only helped keep them from those eternal consequences for as long as possible. I say all of this to say it was amazing to have a skilled nurse and professional like Matt there Monday night. However, it was better to have a friend like Matt there.

Thank you everyone who was praying for her and for us. Matt's wife Angie kept everyone updated on Twitter about what was happening and I had many people ask about how Kenzie was doing and tell me they were praying for her and us. Thank you all!!!

July 4th, Oklahoma Style

Will Rogers once quipped, "If you don't like the weather in Oklahoma, wait a minute and it'll change." July 3rd was 103 degrees. July 5th was near 90 degrees. This video was July 4th, around 4 PM. What a blast!

That's right. It's not lying.

This is not Photoshopped (unfortunately). This is not the temp gauge right after starting the vehicle. This is Oklahoma at it's finest.

Ryan's Funraising Rants & Raves

"Welcome to Newcastle... apparently home of the Village People."

Christie cut in line in front of all of these children to ride the Segue at the Oklahoma Science Museum. I thought the only thing they would have at the Oklahoma Science Museum would be a bucket of Anthrax, "One of the most dangerous chemicals known to man!" No, they had rocket boosters, and big fun wooden tree houses and a "Science Live" Show where a college student "blowed up" a lot of stuff and made jokes about maiming little kids. It really was a great time here are some other pics. The full set should be on my Facebook soon.

McCullah Funraising Tour Report 2

We left Ft. Worth on the 29th of June and headed for Oklahoma. It was neat having the girls cheer when they crossed the Oklahoma boarder, even though they have collectively only lived in Oklahoma for 4 years between the 3 of them. We moved to Richmond when Maddie was 3 and Kenzie was 1. Mikiah has never known Oklahoma as home, but each of them know Oklahoma to be a special place because of the special people that live here. This trip so far has been a trip full of those special people that we have known for a while and new special people that we are blessed to now know and call friends.

In Ft. Worth, we met up with Christie's old roomate, Kim Vanderbeek Malone and her two precious twin sons. We sat and ate ice cream in the food court of a mall and then let Christie catch up while we took the kids to the pet store downstairs. The visit was far too short, but it certainly was better than the Facebook messages that we had been exchanging. Nothing can replace a hug and a good laugh with an old friend. There is no Facebook App for that.

The kids were excited to see their Poppie and Grandma JoAnne in Ft. Worth. They loaded up our suitcases and brought us back to Newcastle/Blanchard/who-knows-where Oklahoma where we have been ever since. It has been great to hang out, enjoy catching up and resting. The girls have enjoyed watching the birds each morning and swimming. We had a big fireworks display planned for Saturday, the 4th, but the amazing Oklahoma weather reared it's ugly head and a storm passed through that afternoon and the house we were at lost power. It rained so much that the family members that had parked on the lawn, found themselves stuck in the mud when they got ready to leave. I put on my redneck hat, went and got my Dad's truck and pulled the van out of the mud. The ManCave and Fortress of Manitude would be proud.

We took one day and went to Stillwater to give the girls what called the "Mommy & Daddy College Days Tour". Kenzie and Kiah slept through it and I think Maddie realized that if she didn't at least look interested, she wouldn't get any ice cream at Marble Slab. (That's my girl!) We got to hang out with Christie's brother and his wife Megan that night. She is a Vet student at OSU and she showed us around where she works and some of the things she is studying. It was a lot of fun and the girls had a blast. We of course started the afternoon with cheese fries from Joes and ended the evening with pizza from Hideaway. It was great seeing Christie's brother Micheal. He is a great guy with a huge heart who loves to help those in need. Megan is a blast to be around and so ridiculously talented that I shutter to think what she could do if she had the time to only focus on her artwork.

Sunday, the 5th, we were blessed to share what God was doing with two churches. Sunday morning, we were able to join Surrey Hills Baptist Church and share what their support had been used to do. Surrey Hills was actually the first church we visited last summer when we initially began to approach churches about support. They responded in a wonderful way and supported our ministry financially and in prayer all year long. It was great to revisit them and let them know where there money was going and how it was being used for the Kingdom.

That night, we truly were blessed to see that God is truly going before us when we met with the folks at First Baptist Church, Sulphur. To understand how far back God has been working on this, you would need to understand our College group that we were a part of at University Heights Baptist Church in Stillwater, OK. Our fearless leader of that College Group was none other than Robert Krumrey, the pastor of MERCYhouse. One of our many friends in that group was Misty Franklin. She was originally from Sulphur and was very involved in the International Student ministry. We stayed in contact with Misty and later caught up with her when we lived in Richmond. She heard that we were moving to join Robert in MA and began praying for us and supporting us. In the Spring, we were planning our trip back to the area and Misty contacted us about her home church being interested in hearing about what God is doing. This allowed us to be there on the 5th and experience what God was doing in Sulphur! There was a great Spirit in that church and believe it or not, it was there even though they sang (gasp!) hymns played on a piano! (Sarcasm implied) At the endo the night, we saw where God was sending FBC, Sulphur and how they had a heart to support church planting. What a blessing!

The grandparents were sweet enough to take the girls to the zoo on Monday and Christie and I got to sleep in and take the day off. We ate at our favorite Japanese Steakhouse in the area and went to Mardel's the Christian Culture Superstore. Christie and I spent the day just walking, looking and being together it was great!

I have to admit, through everything though, the highlight has been seeing our neice Karlee. She was born in September and we had never been able to see her until we arrived on this trip. We have played with her and girls are loving getting to know her. She is quickly stealing our hearts. Had I not already seen that God can bring beautiful daughters from an ogre like me, I would have never believe that this precious little girl belongs to an ogre like my brother.

PS. This is a picture of me ground and pounding my brother. He thought because I was a little older and fatter that he could take me. Bad idea. Shortly after this, I forced him to say, "I'm a little sissy boy who eats my own boogers." like I did back in the day. Good times.

McCullah Funraising Tour Report 1

Oh what fun it is to tour when it is 105 degrees! We have had a great time on the "Fun"raising tour so far.

Tuesday, June 23rd, we flew into Houston and were picked up by our great family friends the Craigs. We knew the Craigs back when we were in Yukon, OK. They were a tremendous family who helped, encouraged and loved on us as we were served there in Yukon. Bob and Vera along with their grown kids, Josh and Katherine, have continued to love us and support us as we have moved to Richmond and now onto Massachusetts.

The Craigs showed us around Houston and we had a great time. The highlight (according to me) was the Houston Space Center. Growing up, I dreamed of being an astronaut and loved watching the Space Shuttle take off. I also loved hearing the stories and watching the films of the all of the Apollo missions that were launched in the 60's & 70's. So the Space Center was a dream. On top of all of that, there was a George Lucas exhibit on display at the Space Center. You seriously could not tell the difference between me and the kids most of the day. I was constatnly yelling. "Oh look at this!" or "Do you know what this is?!" It was amazing.

We got to see many of the original props from the movies including the original R2D2 and C3PO, hand written script for Star Wars and the costume of Indiana Jones. It was so cool to experience this with family and good friends.

However, the coolest part had to be seeing the rocket that launched the Appollo missions. It was huge! It really is hard to explain and these pictures do not do it justice. This massive rocket was an amazing scientific acheivement of a different time in American History. It truly was a blessing to see this thing.

The trip has had some work in it as well. On Saturday, we drove to Sulphur, LA where we connected up with our old friends the Taylors. Bobby is the pastor of Life Church in Sulphur. He was Christie's Youth Pastor back in the day when hair bangs resembled Venus Flytraps. It was great to see him and his family after many years and see what Life Church was all about. I presented what God was doing in all of their 3 services and it was a blessing to talk with many members of Life after the services.

Many talked about the statistics I presented of the lost state of Massachusetts, but the work of the Spirit that we see at MERCYhouse. It was very encouraging to hear the kind words of the Life Churh people and have them pray about supporting our ministry in the Pioneer Valley.

It was also encouraging to see what a mission minded church they are. This picture shows where they as a church are going this year on short term mission trips. It was amazing to hear how many of these short term trips led to sending individuals, couples and families off to the uttermost parts of the world to serve in a full time capacity. Bobby is responsible for setting this direction and passion in Life Church. It was a blessing to see.

Stay tuned for Report 2 - Newcastle, Ok, Surrey Hills, Sulphur, Ok this time and the 4th of July!


PS. Check out more pics from our trip on my Facebook page!