Please meet my family!

Peace and grace to all of you reading this in Jesus name!

There have been many people contacting me about when my blog and website would be "kicked off". Frankly, it is a sharp learning curve but intensely interesting. Since I was born in 1944, my early childhood years were spent playing with marbles, riding my bike and later riding horses. There were no computers in the world in those days and believe me, the older you get the more difficult some things are to learn! Recently my wife Brandy and I were in an "APPLE" store purchasing a brand new 27" iMac. There were tables and tables of display computers and the customers were allowed to try them out.

Frankly I was mesmerized by a tiny little girl who could not have been over 6 years old. She was typing away and winding her way through a computer program that I had never heard of. When I was 6, that little girl would have been playing with a doll or selling kool-aid from a stand on her front lawn. Oh well! Suffice it to say that while I am busy learning the very rudimentary aspects of the computerized world, Brandy is taking classes to understand the fantastic things that she is now able to do on her new iMac. This then is the very first article of my new blog with (we hope) the Prophetic Sword website to closely follow?

Since many folks out there in cyberspace do not know me, I wanted to kick this thing off by introducing my family. We can solve all the world's problems and figure out exactly what the ancient Biblical prophets were talking about in later editions. :-)

The following photo is of my wife Brandy and I with our son Santiago. I am happy to report that we have about as happy a family relationship as I believe can be achieved on this earth. I was not always a Christian so I do have a past just like everyone else and I do know the difference between a mediocre family relationship and a truly happy one.

I am blessed to be a man that is sincerely in love with his wife. Brandy and I have been married over 17 years and we are as fresh in our relationship as the day we were married. Can you believe it? We even enjoy working together in the same office and spend most of every single day together. Having had other relationships a very long time ago, I can tell you that like many another man, I have had to learn (sometimes the hard way) the secret to a happy marriage. Sssshhhh! Don't tell anyone the secret I am about to divulge to you because if you do, you could be responsible for helping some unhappy couple actually fall back in love with each other or even cutting down on the divorce rate that is plagu'ing not only the world but the church.

OK, ready? Here is the secret; Actually it is two fold. first, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS (are you getting the point here?) consider your wife or your husband BEFORE YOURSELF! Always, insure that your marital partner's needs are more important to you than are yours. Second, (not in rank of importance by the by), THE LORD JESUS CHRIST must be in the center of a marriage, everyday and in every way! Thank you Lord for the blessings you have brought into my life through my precious wife Brandy. Ok, Ok, so there is actually a #3. Communication, communication, communication. Without that you are sunk! Well, I did not begin with the intention of preaching a sermon on happy marriages but after all I am a Pastor and the bottom line is that "I just can't hep m'self".

This is our wedding photo and of course we both look exactly like we did over 17 years ago! Well ok, at least SHE does. I on the other hand "have aged gracefully", at least that's what I would like to think so please do not shatter my illusions.

I have never been accused of having a REALLY funny repertoire of jokes but here is one that I like to tell to lighten the mood during one of my many heavy duty sermons: Actually it smacks of truth for most age'ing men including unfortunately myself! "When you are a young man, you begin your day by washing your face and combing your hair. When you are an old man, you begin your day by washing your head and combing your face"! Not funny? Well, that tells me that you are also an age'ing man!

Brandy, in the following photo is the founder and director of our ministry COMFORT ISRAEL which is based on Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1. She has traveled to several countries of the world with me and is (if I may brag a bit) the epitome of the Proverbs 31(10-31) woman. The only place she could not go with me was Liberia West Africa but that was not because she did not have the heart to do so. It was because of our son Santiago, who is severely handicapped and simply could not stand the environment or climate of Liberia, shortly after emerging from at least 15 continuous years of civil war. He could never had taken the shots (like yellow fever) that were necessary for that kind of trip.

Which leads me to our precious little son Santiago that was (and is) a special gift to us from the Lord! It is a very long story so I will cover only the highlights. But believe me, if the lord had not blessed us exceedingly, I would not have a story to tell in the first place. In my position as a Founding Senior pastor of a missions organization we have traveled and worked in other countries but have for the most part, lived in Mexico, doing the Lord's work for well over 16 years. About 11 years ago, I was working in one of the camps that had a very high population of Mixteco (indigenous) people who at the time were living in terrible conditions. Many lived in nothing more than cardboard huts, with entire families sleeping on the bare ground with perhaps one blanket for an entire family. There was no welfare program so when people were out of work, they simply in many cases did not eat. Some of these cardboard huts were no more than 4 feet tall and many families with as many as 6 to 12 people sleeping curled up against one another to reap whatever body heat they could during wintery, often rainy nights with a very cold wind chill factor coming off the ocean.

It was in one such camp that our Son Santiago was living with his mother(who spoke no Spanish) and several siblings including his sister Alejandra. Both Santiago and Alejandra were born with Cockayne Syndrome which is a distant cousine to dwarfism. He had been in an orphanage clinic who's doctors had deternmined that little Santiago simply was not going to survive. At the time he was 6 years old, about 2 feet tall and weighed a whopping 14 pounds. In addition to Cockayne syndrom, he was born with a condition known as "hips at risk", a severely club foot, the other foot having bones out of normal position. He had bronchitis, salmonella, hepatitis and multiple colonies of both fleas and lice. His baby teeth were black and nearly all, completely rotten off to the gums. He was shaking so badly that he could not hit his own mouth with a scrap of tortilla and he was unable to sit erect by himself or make the slightest sound. Other than that, as they say, "he was in great shape for the shape he was in". His single mother, in order to support her 8 children, had to work in the tomato fields for about the equivelent of $6.00 U.S. dollars per day. That left nothing for child day care and so when all her neighbors were also working in the fields, little Santiago survived in this condition all by himself, sometimes laying alone on a piece of cardboard ouside their humble abode for several hours each day. Since (by his mothers statement) there was no food left for him after the other children had eaten, she had nursed him daily for 6 years with only scraps of tortilla as a supplement.

Santiago's mother was desperately trying to find someone to adopt both our little guy and Alejandra. This was not because she did not love her children but rather, because she truly did love them and her mothers heart knew that these precious little ones could never survive in her world. A side note here, Mexico is a wonderful country but is still in many ways emerging from a third world status---and in particular in those days of past when the events of this story are set.

When we first consented to take Santiago into our home (with full Government approval), honestly we were under the impression from the doctors that he simply had no chance of survival and we wanted him to pass through that transition as painlessly as we could possibly manage in his behalf. As Christians however we immediately began to pray for him, provide clean warm clothing, medicine as prescribed and all the food we could get into his little starving body. That was not easy because he had reached the point of deterrioration in which he simply refused to accept food, or even water. Slowly, ever so slowly he bagan to accept our efforts and even began to play a bit. He had never had a toy of his own in his life and he was very "disconnected mentally" so Brandy cut up small squares of cloth that she put into a zip lock bag. He learned ever so slowly to take out the squares one at a time and then put them back in one at a time. He was so weak that we had to prop him up between two pillows on the couch and actually help him turn his head from side to side.

One day I was in another state at a church conference when Brandy heard that there were a group of dentists in the area that had come to our valley from the United States to do a free dental clinic. It was a small clinic in San Quintin. After examination, the doctors advised Brandy that what was slowly killing Santiago was massive infection in his gums do to the rotten baby teeth. We had permission from the Government to authorize medical treatment as needed for him, so she did so but later realized that because he was so near death and was so weak, the doctors could not administer any form of pain killer while pulling his teeth. When she heard him screaming (basically the first sounds she had heard him mutter), in that instant she became his mother! I will NEVER forget the night she called me and explained that no matter what the future may hold, Santiago was now "our son"! Almost immediately after his teeth were removed his health began to turn around.

The Government people were very relieved that we wanted to adopt this little guy and in the process both the Mexican and U.S. Governments gave us permission on several occasions to take him to the States for medical treatment. We began adoption proceedings and Santiago's mother authorized this through the court system. Still, the adoption rules in Mexico are so stringent that it took a full 7 years of very difficult, costly paperwork and court appearances to complete the adoption. Santiago lived with us this entire time and within the first couple of weeks, it became clear that he had also adopted us. That all began 10 years ago and Santiago is now 16 years old, 33 pounds and three feet tall. He is, PRAISE GOD, healthy but of course will always be extremely handicapped, in diapers, unable to walk or speak any language that could be understood by anyone but mommy and daddy.

The story of Santiago and his great adventure as a real survivor continues on. The average life span of these children is only about 12 1/2 years but, PRAISE THE LORD he has now beat those odds. He travels with us every where we go and in fact has been to several countries including both Israel and Jordon three times. It is always ironic to Brandy and I that both Jews in Israel and Arab Muslims in Jordan literally flock to this little guy everyplace we go. We have photos of Santiago in the arms of a Jewish bus driver kissing him on the cheek. We also have photos of a Muslim bus driver holding Santiago, with a huge smile on his face as Santiago is trying valiently to rip off his mustache!

Here is a thought for us all to consider? Perhaps Santiago should be elected the next Secretary General of the United Nations! If he were, perhaps there would finally be peace in the Middle East!

Prior to showing you more pictures of this dynamite little dude, please allow me to share with you what is happening in my home at this very moment. I am typing this at my desk and just across the room, sits Santiago in a chair his very own size (decorated with Mickey and Minnie mouse). Next to the chair are more toys than you can imagine, They include a very small guitar that he uses to "play along with mommy" as she practices for leading praise and worship. Then there is the "S-MANS" trike. The peddles are removed to accomodate his club foot and although he cannot walk, he spends hours each day moving around both the house and the yard scooting the bike along with his heels. One of the pictures you will see includes Santiago with "Banana", his dog.

Today Santiago has both a Mexican and a U.S. passport and is a citizen of both countries. For those of you wondering about Santiago's sister Alejandra? She is now 14 years old and is about the same size and condition as her brother. She was blessed to be legally adopted by another pastor and his wife, very good friends who also live and work in Mexico. The children get to spend time together fairly often and have a very loving relationship---well that is for about the first 10 minutes. Then Alejandra tries to put a scrunchy in Santiago's hair at about the same time that he is trying to snitch her purse! After that they degenerate into a very normal brother, sister relationship that if not monitored closely can turn into to organized
hair pulling and eye gouging.

So, what is the secret to this little guys overcoming success? Simple: Lots and lots of prayer, lots and lots of love and lots and lots of groceries.

Welcome to the Cook family!