Hickory Withe Kids
Few places in this world have the unique blend of resources and support like Hickory Withe in Eads, TN. I will never forget the day that one of my friends walked up to me and handed me a check for $1,000 and said, “The Lord told me to give this to you to support whatever ministry you want it to go to.” Brandon didn’t realize that on the very same day another member handed me $500 and said, “The Lord told me to give this to you directly for HWK.” With those resources we were able to conduct a basketball clinic that reached 50+ kids with the Gospel and print 50 C3:23 Training shirts to give away with Gospel conversations.
From August 2014 to September of 2020 we saw God do some great and mighty things. Our average weekly attendance in kids grew from 40-50 to over 100. Our team of volunteers went from 7-10 to over 70 committed rotational workers. The most impressive element was to see the Family First environment erupt in our midst. With the new growth came the exciting opportunity to try new things. One such thing was the origins of MT & Sunshine.
As a Kids Pastor it was always my desire to teach the children Timeless Truths on their level. One way I did this was through the use of Art pages and fun activities. We would do word searches, crossword puzzles, and hangman type activities. It was in this context that the fictional characters of MT & Sunshine were first first created in my mind.
HWK ministry area logos, circa 2020. Digital version of MT & Sunshine, circa 2024.
MT & SUNSHINE:
MT: A Mountainous Giraffe that Loves to Laugh & Loves All Things In Color. At 6’9″ I have been referred to a Mountain of a Man. However, something I was told when I was 19 has stuck with me nearly 25 years later. I was told, “Mike, you aren’t tall to play basketball, you are tall, to tell people about a God who loves them.” This is why I welcome HEIGHT questions, because I know, there is a chance they can lead me to asking them HEART questions. The mountainous part of MT isn’t only the fact that I am tall like a mountain, I also love to go up into the mountains, sit on a long porch, and look out over creation. I love to have fun. I love to tell stories…tall tales of timeless truths is what I created back at Hickory Withe for my younger Kindergarten through Second Grade classes.
I also love to compete and I love spontaneity. Poetry is my favorite style of writing and it is what I am most comfortable reciting. While I love teaching through stories and examples, I love writing in rhythm and rhyme. As far as loving to laugh, my favorite date night destination is any type of clean comedy show.
Sunshine: A Beachy Zebra that Loves to Teach & Prefers Black & White. The love of my life, Lisa Michelle Taber, has always been a girl that loves the water. As a child her parents owned a beach condo just south of Daytona and they would go over to the beach as often as they could. Also, in their backyard was a very nice in-ground pool and it wasn’t uncommon for lil’ Lisa to model four or five different bathing suits in a one-hour swim session with her family. She has always been a Science and Math girl and a lover of life. She was Ms. Popular in school, serving as the Student Body president, Captain of her waterpolo and basketball teams and selected as the Homecoming Queen her senior year. Fast-forward to today and she loves to teach anything and everything pertaining to Human Anatomy and Kinesiology, and she has a gift to communicate her testimony and her love for education. She is a hands on learner and teacher and it isn’t uncommon to go past her room with something on fire.
When it comes to learning styles she is pretty straightforward. She likes objective subjects and the subjective nature of poetry makes it very difficult for her to follow in great length. She is in her happy place when she is sitting on the third-floor balcony of a beachside hotel or condo and she spending time with her family, teaching science and coaching her love for the game of basketball.
MT & Sunshine quickly became a tool to engage people with the Gospel in my mind, using the poetic method of engaging people for Gospel conversations with others.
While MT & Sunshine began as a Kids Ministry tool, it wasn’t until a second loss of jobs led me to give genuine consideration to whether or not I was called to be an evangelist and a writer, instead of a pastor with a passion for writing and evangelism. In 2022 I morphed an otherwise in-house ability to capture my kids’ imagination into The Adventures of MT & Sunshine coloring pages. These pages, along with my ability to turn a phrase and capture my hearers attention using Acrostic Poetry, became a manner in which I sought to engage people in the “marketplace” with the truths of the Gospel.