MaMa Coo Coo

Today's blog was contributed by Tommy Houghteling, Director of Youth Ministries


Mama Coo Coo was a 68 year old missionary stationed in the congo where I grew up. As a young boy I never knew why they called her “Mama CooCoo”, except maybe that she always wore a mischievous and playful smile on her kind face. It wasn’t until years later that I learned just how “Coo Coo”, or rather “Extravagantly Coo Coo” she was.
She retired in Melbourne, Florida, where my mother grew up and attended the First UMC there. As with many retired missionaries who spend their entire lives on the mission field, Mama Coo Coo, wasn’t left with much to spend her golden years. A meager missionary pension, (I hear they are better nowJ ) and a few thousand dollars she had saved were barely enough to afford her small apartment near the church. A few of the members of the church, got together one year and purchased a house for her. It was truly a wonderful thing to do for someone who had given so much of herself in service to God. Another few of the members, inspired by the extravagant generosity of their peers, purchased a new car for her as well, to replace the beat up station wagon that smoked and rattled everywhere she went.
Grateful to God and her fellow Saints, Mama Coo Coo, expressed her thanks with many hugs, kisses and tears. She enjoyed the new house and car for about a month, and then did something truly “Coo Coo” and entirely characteristic of her generous spirit. She gave her new car and home to an impoverished single woman who had 3 children and no means to provide for them. When asked about it, she simply said, “God sometimes blesses us so that we might bless others.”
When I think of extravagant generosity, I think of Mama Coo Coo, I think of the example of people like my parents who gave up careers to go on the mission field, I think of the countless saints within our church who sacrifice for the ministries of FUMCR and I pray that i can use God’s numerous blessings to bless others.

in Christ,
tommy