[1]CLINTON, Miss. (BP)–“It’s going to take big bucks to meet that goal,” the lad told his mother four years ago.
Seated in a Woman’s Missionary Union kickoff for the Lottie Moon Christian Offering, which included Royal Ambassadors (RAs) and Girls in Action (GAs), Cole Brabham said he wanted to give $20 of his own money.
And he’s been giving ever since.
Cole, 11, and his family are members of Parkway Baptist Church, Clinton, Miss., where his father serves as the church administrator.
“I learned about the Lottie Moon offering in RAs. I thought God was telling me to help people around the world,” Brabham, a sixth-grader recounted.
His mother, Cheryl, remembers the WMU kickoff, recounting, “… Cole was about 8 years old. … That year the church’s goal was something like $45,000. Cole leaned over to me and said, ‘It’s going to take big bucks to meet that goal.’ He then told me he wanted to give $20 of his money to the LMCO,” she said.
“I had an impulse to tell him not to do this, but Cole just has a giving spirit. I couldn’t tell him no.”
The $20 gift had been saved from his birthday, Christmas and doing little jobs here and there, Cheryl said.
The next year he gave $50. The third year he was able to give $30. This year, because he won a fund-raising contest at his school, Cole plans to give at least $50 toward the $100 million goal of supporting the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s global work.
“I’m not like a lot of kids and just spend it (money) on junk or something,” Cole said.
It’s not like Cole has a large cash flow, either. “We have never given our boys an allowance,” his father, Jehu, said. “If they need anything, we give them the money. So this was Cole’s money, his offering. This was sacrificial giving.”
The Brabhams are a bit amazed at Cole’s devotion to giving to the LMCO.
“It was not anything we ever said. We gave every year to the LMCO, but we did not make a big deal out of it,” Cheryl said.
She went on to observe that each year the WMU utilizes the RAs and GAs in promoting the offering. “I think this as much as anything made an impression on Cole,” she said.
In addition, Jehu observed Cole was raised in a family where giving is considered natural, and not just money. “It is consider normal behavior for us,” he said.
“He has two sets of grandparents who share the same ideals. Both families believe in spiritual giving,” Jehu said.
“Jehu and I are both service-oriented,” Cheryl reflected. “We both give and do for other people.”
Cole plans to give his 1998 LMCO on a Sunday near Christmas. Giving sacrificially to the LMCO, he said, makes him feel proud of himself.
“I just want to care about others, not just myself,” he said. “I think it is better to give than it is to receive.”