Category: Published

This was originally published in the Lynn Haven Ledger/Gulf Coast Gazette under Faith and Inspiration

The day had grown warm and sunny on that end-of-Spring-beginning-of-Summer day in Michigan, and I was getting a bit of fresh air outside in the yard. I had perennials beginning to bloom, and lilacs sharing their heady scent. Over by our recently painted barn, I was stepping across a water puddle left over from the previous day’s rain, when I noticed a small, dead, naked baby bird lying, discarded, in the cold water.

“Poor little thing!” I thought. I sighed deeply, and looked upwards instinctively to see if I could determine from where he had fallen, but the tree was too leafed out and the branches too high for me to see where his nest was. My youngest daughter, about eight years old at the time, loved all things nature, and because I was homeschooling my children, I decided this tiny bird with the translucent skin would be a great science lesson. You could see all of the little guy’s organs through his delicate, perfectly formed, and featherless body.

I carefully carried his little ice cold body (because I had already decided this little bird was male) into the house cupped in my hand to show Bethany.

Her beautiful big eyes grew even bigger when she recognized what I had in my hand. She brushed her silky hair from her face. “See, sweetie, how you can see all of his little organs. Isn’t it amazing how God puts us together?”

“Is he dead, momma?” her little child voice asked me, with a quaver, getting right to what she saw as the real point. She started to reach out her finger to touch him, then pulled back.

“I’m afraid so. He must have fallen out of his nest. I found him in the water puddle outside near the barn.”

She looked so sad, and his body was so cold, I began to stroke him to warm him up. All of a sudden he convulsed, crapped out a load, and opened his eyes.

I’m sure both our jaws hit the floor in complete and utter surprise. Then we laughed uproariously.

Our family already had a pet parrot we had raised from a baby, so I still had some of the powdered bird food left over in the pantry. I found it and an eye dropper, mixed some of the powder with water, then, with Bethany’s assistance, used the eye dropper to get some food into our new little never-say-die family member.

We decided to call him Billy-Bob.

Bethany and I located a small abandoned aquarium that had previously housed a hamster, cleaned it up, put some soft rags inside, and gently placed little Billy-Bob in once we had him fed.

After a couple of weeks, he was strong enough and feathered out enough to stand on a perch in a previously unused bird cage. For some reason, he always looked like he was frowning.

By then he had graduated from an eye dropper to eating his food mixture out of a spoon. After a few more weeks, I took him outside – he would sit on my finger – and let him fly off. He flew to one of our trees, perched himself on a high branch, and proceeded to call to me in his own language. I kept telling him I couldn’t reach him up there, but he continued to chirp.

I went inside, mixed some of his food, brought it back outside, and tapped the spoon on the side of the small plastic cup his food was in. The tapping sound was something he recognized, and he flew down out of the tree and perched on my finger like always.

We played this little game for another week or so, until he didn’t come back. In the meantime, in anticipation of this event, I had put up a bird feeder in the back yard, and I would watch him come to it with my binoculars for the rest of that summer.

You’re wondering how I recognized him? One of his tail feathers was crooked, so I could always tell my Billy-Bob apart from the other birds.

I’ll bet you’re also wondering what kind of bird Billy-Bob was. He was just a common sparrow. Nothing special. Except to us.

We lavished our love and attention on this most common and insignificant of all birds.

I’ve always believed life is a series of lessons preparing us for eternity. And each lesson, no matter how insignificant it may seem, teaches us important truths we need to master. And each encounter, no matter how small, causes ripples through the fabric of time that, someday, we’ll know where and how far they went.

So, until we know the end of the story, let’s make sure God is able to use us to bring life back from the dead and healing and health to those who seem to be without hope. If you stay alert, I guarantee you’ll find common sparrows in the cold puddles of life needing the warmth of your touch.

Be the one God uses to bring another Billy-Bob back from the dead.

This was originally published in January, 2018, in the Lynn Haven Ledger/Gulf Coast Gazette.  This particular house had been built on what is the main drag in the small town of Lynn Haven, Florida, and because of road widening, was in danger of being demolished.  An outcry ensued to save history.

Some say the house was built in 1911, and others say it was built in 1915. Records back then weren’t always kept accurately, but what we do know is that right about that time, and when Lynn Haven was in its infancy, two sisters from Ohio moved down to our fledgling community and built their new home at 1312 Ohio Ave. I’m thinking they picked that street because of where they were from. But then, I’m a story-teller, so who knows for sure?

These two ladies hailed from a very cold climate, where winter snow accumulating on your roof could cause it to collapse, so they instructed the builders to give their new home a steep roof pitch to prevent such an occurrence. Of course, even though it’s been plenty cold here for the last couple of weeks, so far we haven’t had to worry about snow accumulating on our roofs. Hope on hope ever.

The house was painted white back then, and in 1938, when Thomas Delano “Dino” Suggs was just 5 years old, his dad Thomas Oscar Suggs bought the house along with several adjacent lots, and moved his family in. Dino is the oldest of 3 children, and he has many fond memories of growing up right there on the main drag of town. Dino loved playing marbles with his baby sister Imogene, and he and his brother Bobby would play in the street since it was the only cement around. “About every fifteen minutes we’d have to stop because a car would come by,” Dino told me. Highway 77 back then was a far cry from what the traffic is like today.

They had a cow named Daisy fenced in the back area, and a garden plot where they grew mostly peas and corn their mother put up every fall to feed them throughout the year. Next to the house, there were also Catawba Worm trees gracefully growing tall to provide much needed shade during the hot summers.

Dino recalls a secret room he had all to himself under the staircase where he would go when he wanted to get away from it all. “That was my hideout,” he said with a smile.

After Dino was grown and with a family of his own, he built a house across the street at 1313 Ohio Ave. His children loved spending time with their grandparents, running up and down the stairs, swinging in the porch swings, and having Easter Egg hunts every year. Creating more and more memories, filling the house and yard with the laughter and joy of children.

But things are different now, and speaking of traffic, that’s why this venerable and long-standing home is being featured today.

Highway 390 is being widened to accommodate Lynn Haven’s growing population with its accompanying cars and trucks and pedestrians and congestion. Which means the house at 1312 Ohio Ave has to go.

Several years ago, Dino, who inherited the house and adjoining property after his parents died, was contacted by the State of Florida and was told his property would be seized by eminent domain, so it looked like the house would have to be torn down after standing so strong for so many years.

When you think about it, can you imagine the sights the Suggs house on Ohio Ave has seen and the advancements it has witnessed over the last one hundred years or so? Paved roads, and shopping centers, and fast food restaurants just to start. Then cable TV and telephones and computers and something called the internet. I can picture the movie starring a house with a heart that watches over a small town, memorializing all the changes – the good and the bad.

But we’re getting off-topic.

When the Suggs family was informed the house would have to go, they contacted the City of Lynn Haven to see if they could get permission to just move the house over to one of the other lots instead of demolishing a historic landmark, but at first they were told ‘no’. However, the family didn’t give up. They persisted, pleading with the city that it would make Dino feel better to not have the house torn down. They finally got the OK. This stretch of Ohio Ave with its many businesses is now zoned commercial, but in March of 2017, the City of Lynn Haven agreed to grandfather the house in.

The family is now thinking they may turn the house into an antique shop in the future, or they may keep it for the grandkids to use.

The Suggs family located a moving company with a good reputation by the name of Ducky Johnson House Movers, a local company that’s been doing a lot of moving in the Panhandle and beyond for a number of years. One of their moves was even featured on HGTV.   This move won’t be in a TV episode, but all of Lynn Haven will get to see it front and center, and with Ducky Johnson House Movers’ excellent credentials, we’re pretty confident everything will go well.

Just think, maybe in a couple of years, 1312 Ohio Ave will boast a beautiful and quirky and fun antique shop filled with wonderful finds from yesteryear.

The older I get the more I appreciate age. It’s not always outward beauty that catches your eye and grabs your heart, because that kind of beauty fades, but the strength and wisdom garnered from years of storms and dirt and just plain living is what makes you cherish the past with its warped floors and crooked windows. Besides, I think laughter still echoes through empty halls long after the occupants are gone.

Here’s to the saving of a special piece of more than just real estate.

This article was originally published in GO! Christian Magazine, Winter 2018. www.gochristianmagazine.com

Gary’s long road to Jesus began back in 1963. He was 10 years old and desperately wanted to be happy and have a good time like the big kids in the neighborhood.

“Back in my days, younger kids wanted to be like the older kids,” Gary said. Drugs quickly became his best friend, and then his ball and chain. For the next 28 years of his life, Gary would be doing drugs of one kind or another. It’s easier for him to mention the few drugs he didn’t use than list the ones he did. The choices to drink and do drugs were his. He doesn’t blame his parents or even the people who introduced him to drugs.

When he was 17, he was tired of everyone telling him what to do, so, ironically, he joined the military where everyone told him what to do. His drug use continued, and he became an expert at hiding his addiction and living a double life. After he left the military, Gary was able to get a good paying job. With more disposable income, he was able to buy more drugs, and keep up the charade of being an upright citizen.

In 1990, he got caught up in a sting at one of the drug houses he frequented and spent the next four months in jail where it finally came to him: He needed Jesus. With a wistful look in his eyes, Gary tells of a friend he had back then named Isaiah Jackson. This friend—a real friend—would witness to Gary every chance he got. And when those metal doors in the jail clanged shut behind him, Gary could hear his friend’s voice in his head once again talking about his need to be saved. Jesus died on the cross to save Gary from the life he was living, and Gary decided it was time to let Him. Gary accepted Christ’s gift of salvation in that jail cell. He began reading the Bible, and learned more about his new faith. He got out of jail on Friday the 13th, and was in church on the 15th.

Unfortunately, he made the mistake of going back to the same people he had gotten in trouble with. Gary fell back into drug addiction and was jailed twice more. During his third incarceration on charges of drug sales, Gary finally got the revelation to change his life. He was facing a possible 60 years in prison if convicted, and there was no one to blame but himself. He had made the decisions to use and buy drugs. He was the guilty one, but the jury found him not guilty of the charges brought against him.

When Gary was released from jail for the third time, he knew he would never go back as an inmate. For the last 20 years, he has returned as a chaplain. He leads Bible studies, writes his own curriculum, and preaches from the Bible and his own life. Gary focuses his teaching on what Jesus has done for him, and that God can do the same for them.

Gary hasn’t done this all alone, though. He has been married to his wife and best friend, Maxine, for 24 years. He asked her to marry him the first time he talked to her on the phone. After four children, 18 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, they’re still loving and serving together.

When they were first married, they opened up a daycare center, where they took in the ‘problem’ children other daycare centers wouldn’t take. During this time, Gary baked cakes for people and sold them as a small side job. As time passed, it grew into a business of its own.

Seven years ago, Gary and Maxine opened Touch of Velvet bakery in Lynn Haven where they make every cake from scratch. They use family recipes and invent their own. Red velvet cake was their first product, and now they have 16 original scrumptious cakes to choose from. They also offer cupcakes, muffins, brownies, cookies, and even puddings and pies.

Gary is committed to living his life for Christ. For those being released from jail or prison, he offers advice on how to keep from ending up right back behind bars: “Don’t go back to the same place you came from. Find new friends and family.” Gary now considers his Christian friends his family. This is what he discovered after ending up in jail two more times. You can’t stay friends with the same people that you got in trouble with. You have to find new people who will build you up and encourage you to do better.

Gary Pope spent many years wasting his life as an addict and convict. He’s been clean and sober now for a long time, and he’s not going back. “Without Jesus, I wouldn’t be where I am,” he says with conviction. “Everything I have is from the Lord. It’s all Jesus.”