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The Faces of St Andrew

 Fox Creek Elementary Jam Club with teacher Joel Denman played June 3rd for the North Star Assembly at Fox Creek. Liam Nock is one of the lead guitarists for the band and has been playing for about two years.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the first question people often ask when they see Liam Nock is, "Do you play football?" After much encouragement, Liam has finally decided to give football a shot this fall in middle school. Liam is a gentle giant, thoughtful, giving, empathetic, and very talented in many areas.

Liam's favorite subject in school is math. Liam's teacher always tells him he's, "crazy smart", understanding concepts beyond his age. Liam recently completed sixth grade at Fox Creek. He immensely enjoys music, especially electric guitar. Liam has taken weekly guitar lessons for over two years. He recently started playing a bass guitar too. Liam was involved this year in his school rock band as a lead guitarist. 

"My St. Andrew family has been a huge support to my family.  I love being a part of this church!"

 

 

 

 

 

Servant Ministers, Chris and Martha Thompson

Many of us were surprised recently to see Chris and Martha joining St. Andrew. We had assumed they had been members all of the four years they have been here. As they said, they feel closest to God when in service to others and they have certainly found ways to do that at this church. Beginning with ushering and reception duties, they soon found other areas of interest. Chris drives the shuttle bus and they often serve coffee on Sunday mornings. Martha manages our kitchen, purchases supplies, does the laundry and often cooks for us. She caters brunches, luncheons and meals for special guests and visiting choirs. Last fall she began Café Bravo! to serve weekly dinners for our Charles Wesley Choir members who come early for special practices. As soon as our new kitchen is up and running, she will expand those dinners to include anyone who is around on Wednesday evenings. WooHoo! Wednesday Nite church suppers are back!  After Just Faith, Chris and Martha decided to do something to help with food-insecurity, starting in our own neighborhood, so they started the Share Colorado program one Saturday each month here at St. Andrew. Their excellent warehouse team places those Pantry Boxes in the lobby each month where you can purchase and donate them to local food pantries. Learning about world food distribution systems in Just Faith convinced them that we need to support our local farmers and food producers, so they brought the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program of Grant Farms to St. Andrew. Once a week we get a delivery of fresh organic produce and other foods delivered to our back patio and people from our area pick it up within hours; they distribute the unclaimed produce to people in need, handle problems and keep it all running smoothly. These two are enthusiastic supporters of After Hours, where they help with set-up, clean-up, and delivery of sack lunches and supplies to folks on the streets. Martha has made friends for us at El Centro Humanitario, teaching quilting . . . in Spanish! She co-facilitates a Disciple Bible Study. We are so glad the Thompsons have found a home here at St. Andrew.

 

 

 

Brett Riley stands 6’1” in white basketball shorts and a lime green t-shirt that glows from 20 feet away. He is running around the back patio of St. Andrew playing basketball with another youth, an adult volunteer and a teenager whose family who is a guest with Interfaith Hospitality Network. He shoots from the top of the key and misses, but that doesn’t stop him from continuing to rebound and pass the ball to his new friend and teammate with a smart remark and a smile. 

Brett is friendly, funny and very bright. On any given Sunday you may find Brett goofing off with friends in the Youth Zone, singing with the Holy Pretzels youth choir or helping someone new to find their class. Brett started attending St. Andrew with his family when he was very young.“I think I was 4 or 5….I can’t remember.”  Now at 17, he has spent three-quarters of his life at St. Andrew and is soon to be senior at Arapahoe High School.

Brett has many passions, including cross country, track, choir and the school's Link Crew. With the school track season over, Brett is looking for races in which he can run a qualifying time for the Boulder Boulder. At St. Andrew Brett is involved with Pretzels, Just Youth class on Wednesday nights and mission trips. 

“The best part of St. Andrew is the mission trip," Brett says. "Knowing that you are helping someone less fortunate than you, whether here in Colorado, or in Belize or Guatemala is awesome.” If you ever are interested in going on a mission trip, finding someone to help or in need of a laugh, find Brett. He’s your man! 

 

My Spirit-Driven Journey

By Bob Alexander

On October 22, 2009 my life changed as I was diagnosed with a serious heart valve defect called Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP) with Mitral Regurgitation of 40%, and a dangerous Arrhythmia called Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia.

The nurse entered my hospital room and said, “Bob it’s time.” I looked over toward the clock, which displayed 8:00 AM, then toward my wife and family as I tried to maintain control emotionally, which was difficult. I kissed and hugged my wife of 32 years, Karen, and my children Tiffany and Tyler, twins 22 years old. The night before, my oldest son Kyle was in tears as he told me he was stuck in New York because his flight had been cancelled. Kyle is 25 years old and I had never heard him cry. I did not say goodbye to my family, but instead told them I looked forward to seeing them in 4 or 5 hours in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

It was 8:30 AM, December 23, 2009 as the nurse wheeled my bed out of the elevator, down the hall and into Operating Room (OR) 60 at the world-renowned Heart hospital, the Cleveland Clinic. Thoracic surgeon Dr. Sabik was about to perform a complicated and very serious 4+ hour open-heart valve surgery to repair a genetic heart defect that went undetected until just two months ago. For some reason I was not afraid and had a feeling of unusual calmness as OR 60 went dark.

How could this be happening you ask? Thanks to my wife Karen, who pushed me to get a routine physical, my personal physician heard a heart murmur. After additional testing that included an Echocardiogram and a Stress Echocardiogram, it was confirmed. Not only did I have a serious defect with one of my heart valves called Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP). Mine was unusually since both sides of the heart valve were defective, causing 40% of my blood to leak backwards into my left atrium instead of into the left ventricle. If that was not bad enough, when I was completing the stress echocardiogram, my heart went into V-Tach. This is a dangerous ventricular arrhythmia that causes sudden cardiac failure without warning. I was lucky, the V-Tach lasted less than 30 seconds. At the time, I had no idea what was happening to me. I was not running that fast. I just remember feeling really, really, really bad.

“Bob, you need to have open heart surgery and it needs to happen sooner than later,” the doctor said. It was almost surreal. I was in shock and not sure what to say or think. This can’t be happening to me. Heart disease did not run in my family, I exercised regularly, ate well, and my blood tests never showed any abnormalities. Not me, you’re kidding right? I was given a portable EKG to wear 24x7 that would send a medical alert to trigger help if my heart went into V-Tach again. Karen and I did not say a word to each other as we left the cardiologists office.

I was now entering one of the most intense and stressful times of my life both physically and spiritually and I needed help. This is something I could not do alone. I felt fragile physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Only a few years earlier, on February 20, 2003, Karen battled a life threatening 11-hour cancer surgery at Presbyterian St. Luke’s Hospital. A malignant tumor had engulfed her left facial nerve; so they removed it all the way back to her brain stem along with 23 Lymph nodes, and all of her salivary glands on the left side of her face.

Karen went through two months of intense radiation treatments leaving her weak and exhausted. I felt completely helpless and extremely sad because I felt powerless to help my wife and best friend. I told my children that I if I could I would have God give all the pain to me instead of Mom. Sadly, that was not possible.

My faith took a nosedive as I questioned why bad things happened to good people. I had some serious talks with God, maybe even some intense arguments in 2003. I prayed and talked with my pastor, but nothing helped.

After realizing the seriousness of my heart condition, I did something I would normally not do. I reached out to St. Andrew’s Congregational Care team, the choir, and my Disciple II class. My Disciple II class sent me touching cards and the entire choir reached out to me as well. I also routinely received calls from the Congregational Care team to see how I was doing. As I attended church those weeks leading up to my heart surgery, so many people in the congregation came up to me with honest compassionate encouragement. Many people I had never met before, some being heart survivors while others just wanted to let me know they were praying for me. It was then that I realized what Harvey meant by serving others. I always thought serving others involved volunteering for an important cause. While that is important, I realized the importance of reaching out to others not just causes.

Touched by the Holy Spirit

The soonest the Cleveland Clinic would be able to perform my heart valve surgery would be the middle of February 2010. Not only did I need to have the surgery sooner than later, but also the insurance out of pocket costs for a heart surgery estimated at nearly $200,000 would break the bank since Karen & I were both looking for jobs. I had been talking to the Cleveland Clinic several times and having my heart surgery in December of 2009 was impossible. Surgeries for December had been booked for months.

It was around noon on Wednesday December 2, 2009 when I told Karen I was going to meditate. My meditation always lasted 20 minutes while I listened to music on my IPod. This time I decided to focus on not asking God for anything, but instead be thankful. Next, I did something I never had done before. I focused on seeing every detail of the heart surgery as though it took place in December 2009 instead of February 2010.

On this particular day something happened to me that I cannot fully explain. I had lost track of where I was and of all time. Just then I heard a soft clear voice tell me, “It is done.” I heard that voice twice and after the second time I came out of my mediation. Not sure what had happened I looked at the clock and noticed that about 1 hour had past not just 20 minutes. This had never happened to me and I did not know what to think. Now I know how this sounds, because I would be thinking the same thing so I asked Karen if she was messing around with me after telling her what just happened to me. She said that she had been in the office the entire time

That night I did not sleep well as usual and got up at 3:30 AM and came down stairs to find something on TV. At about 5:45 AM (MST) or 7:45 AM (EST), I decided to call the Cleveland Clinic one last time. Why, I do not know considering there was no way to move my heart surgery up any earlier. The number rang 5 or 6 times but no one answered, so I left a message with the nurse to call me back. Twenty minutes later, my phone rang and it was the nurse at the Cleveland Clinic. She said is this Bob and I said yes. She then asked me if I was still interested in having my heart valve surgery in December of 2009. I said of course. She said, how about Christmas Eve? I started to tear up and said of course. I thanked her for moving my heart surgery, but she said that not to thank her. She told me that I man was having trouble getting his travel visa, which she thought was unusual considering everything was fine a few weeks ago. Something unexpected came up and they would not let him leave the country. I asked her when this occurred and she said yesterday. Wow, I thought.  The nurse said it could even be moved up 1 more day to December 23, 2009.

I have not been the same since that day. I did not see the Lord or have a vision, but I did have a divine moment on December 2, 2009 when the Holy Spirit touched me through meditation.

Being a Servant

My priorities changed December 2, 2009 and giving back with prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness for Christ meant more to me. I wanted to give back, not because I should, but because it I felt deep inside.

Sure, I enjoy playing my trumpet in the orchestra and Karen and I love singing in the Choir, but we both wanted to do more. So Karen and I decided to volunteer to serve on the Choir Council next year. I also volunteered to be on the Grill Team, and recently went to the Men’s retreat, which was great, especially considering all the great fellowship that occurred. In a few weeks Karen and I will be completing Disciple II class and also attended many other Pathways classes.

My biggest commitment to being a servant occurred after talking to Janice ColIiatie and Chuck Curtis. They mentioned the churches need for help regarding there IT systems. Since I am a Senior IT Project Manager I decided to volunteer and help them improve St. Andrew’s Church Management system. Janice also mentioned that St. Andrew would be implementing a Servant Ministry system so I am helping her with that as well.

My invitation to run the New York City marathon

Being a runner for 30 years I had completed numerous marathons, bit only dreamed of the New York City Marathon. About a month after my heart surgery, I sent my story to the American Heart Association (AHA) and volunteered to help them in any way I could. Just a few weeks ago the AHA called me to ask if I was interested in running the 2010 New York City Marathon to raise money to fight heart disease and raise awareness. Of course I said yes and will be running the 2010 New York City Marathon only 10 months after open heart surgery. My Cardiologist cleared me to run and told me she would be there, as she would not miss it for the world.

As I reflect on my spiritual journey I realize that I had ignored all of the symptoms for many years. Not only did I ignore how I felt physically, but how I felt spiritually as well. Why do bad things happen to good people? I don’t have the answer, but for me I do not believe the God in Heaven who created the heaven and earth, the Holy Spirit that resurrected Jesus Christ, and the Lord Jesus who transformed Paul to spread the good news would ever do such a thing. After experiencing such difficulties I can honestly say that when I look back they were the best things to ever happen to me. They changed who I am, how I think, and how I act. Were they bad things? It depends on how you look at them.

“I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.”

Isaiah 42:16 

May God Bless!

 

"You see a puppy, a blind person sees the world"

Raising a puppy for Guide Dogs for the Blind is a labor of love. When I decided that I wanted raise a puppy, I had no idea that I would raise more than just one. Delroy was my fourth puppy and the people of St. Andrew were a very important part of his life. He was welcomed and loved by many in this congregation. He came to work with me and was always ready to greet everyone. On Sundays he came to church with me and would mostly sleep through the service (my apologies to the pastors, but he was just doing his job). However, he was especially challenged by communion and the bread crumbs on the floor. He really wanted to clean them up.

Delroy and his new partner, Judy, are happily living in Oregon and Delroy has been warmly welcomed into Judy's church family. I know he will be loved just as much there and, yes, I did warn Judy about the bread crumbs.

Many people ask how I can "give up" a dog that I've had for over a year. My answer to that question is quite simple. When you hear the stories of each person receiving a dog, see the bond and partnership that has formed, and then see the little puppy that you raised take on an enormous responsibility, it is with tears of joy that you send that wonderful dog on its way. It's the kind of love that has to be given away.

by Barb Witcher

 

Janna Ferguson - L.I.F.E. Lessons Learned From the Sidelines

Opportunity came to me through what I thought was a small, ill-fated high school and its seemingly forlorn athletic coordinator. What I thought was going to be a chance for me to help a team of seven girls get their lives on track turned into much more.

I am a sophomore at the University of Colorado, studying Environmental Design in the College of Architecture. I am also working toward a leadership certificate through a Residential Academic Program.  This program provided my opportunity to be a basketball coach. 

The leadership certificate program focuses on multi-cultural leadership issues. At a spring 2009 retreat, volunteers that work in the Boulder community talked with students about current social issues and opportunities to get involved.  The athletic coordinator from Justice High School was there and he said that he was the athletic coordinator; I told him I played basketball in high school and that I would be more than happy to help him coach. We exchanged contact information.

Justice High School is designed for at-risk youth who are disconnected from the traditional school system because of juvenile delinquency, drugs and alcohol, alienation, or other factors. I heard from the athletic coordinator in November; he asked me to be at practice at 6:30 am November 18 and I went. I thought I was going to be an assistant coach, a commitment that I could have handled. When I showed up at New Vista High School (classes are held in the Boulder County Justice Center and surrounding buildings, so Justice has to borrow gym time from another school) I was quickly promoted to the head coach when the girls told me there was no one else. We were lucky that morning to find a ball that we could use to scrimmage.

This was the first of many obstacles. One player continuously showed up to practice in her Crocs and told me she kept forgetting her shoes at home. I found out later she did not have basketball shoes. I went home the following weekend and gathered up the balls my family had lying around the house, as well as the countless pairs of old shoes that my sisters and I had accumulated through our many years of playing. I brought with me seven pairs of shoes, and left the gym the next early-morning practice with only two unclaimed pair.

Our first game was against Rocky Mountain Lutheran High School. Their team walked in the gym together with matching sweat suits, shoes and bags. My girls trickled in, one or two at a time, used shoes in hand and a ball under their arm. I had five kids that night, meaning each of them had to play the entire game. 

That game was just a taste of what we would get from each other this season, which goes through February. The game ended with the score not in our favor, but I was more than proud of their attitudes and what they had accomplished. These girls have much less, in terms of equipment, than I did as a player, but they have more heart and love for the game than I ever did. I love basketball, but looking back I am not sure that is the only reason I played.  Along with many other things in my life, I felt basketball was something I was entitled to and it was an opportunity that I SHOULD have. These girls see basketball as a privilege, and for all I know it could be the highlight of their high school career. For all they have helped me realize, it is the least I can do to provide this opportunity for them.

Janna is a 2008 graduate of Mountain Vista High School, where her activities included basketball and music. She grew up at St. Andrew, participating in several mission teams and the Holy Pretzels youth choir.