MAURICE'S STORY

At fourteen years of age, Maurice Tuck bolted from everything and anything to do with church and all its rules and boredom.  He wanted fun, so for the next almost thirty years, he chased after whatever made him feel good and grabbed on to it with a vengeance.  Drugs, booze, women, winters in the Caribbean – he lived for himself and answered to no one.

What he didn’t realize, was that although he had run away from boring religion – he could never run away from Jesus - because Jesus was never going to let him go.  

What he didn’t understand was that long before he was born, God had set him apart for a specific task and there was nothing he could ever do to stop that from happening – but his Mama knew – his Dad knew – his sister knew – and there was a whole army of Jesus lovers who knew – so their prayers were constant, and their prayers were heard.

The restlessness in Maurice’s heart just wouldn’t go away. He had become an under-water welder – he was making good money – he had a bowl of cocaine in his cupboard – and he had a string of women at his beckon call - but his heart was aching for peace, so he decided that ‘giving back’ might fill this nagging torment.

After some searching, he found a Christian organization that consented to take him to Africa to do some work in an orphanage – so within a few months time he found himself, a full-fledged addict to a variety of vices, in Burkina Faso, together with his sister and her husband, building a playground for orphans who had never in their lives seen a swing.  

He fell in love with the kids, and that peace that he was longing for seemed closer – so much so that he didn’t want to come home - but he got on the plane and for Christmas that year, gave his family a welding shop that he shipped to Africa so that he could go back and continue helping the kids.  

Before he returned to what he thought was the answer to his unrest, he attended a welding conference that was being held in a five-star resort nestled in The Laurentian Mountains.  The opulence messed him up. All he could see were the kids back in Africa eating with their hands, so to process these feelings, he decided to go skiing. When he arrived at the hill there were no skis – so he opted for a hike up the mountain.

It was at the top of this mountain where God chose to let Maurice in on the truth that his Mama had always known.  

He looked up to the sky and said to a God he wasn’t even sure existed, ‘If you’re really there – talk to me!’

Out of the corner of his eye he saw something glistening in the snow.  The diver in him compelled him to bend over and pick it up. It was the face of a woman’s watch.  There was no crystal, no wrist band, just the face that was plugged full of dirt and crud. Instinctively his fingers that were made to fix things, started to pick away at the hardened mud and rocks when suddenly the minute hand began to move.  As he looked at this miracle, God did what he’d asked him to do – He talked to him.

‘You’re just like this watch – full of dirt and crud – but I am going to fix you and make you work!’

Maurice fell to his knees and repented for every wrong thing he could remember doing and for the things he couldn’t remember doing, and as he did, that enormous weight was lifted from his heart - and that peace that he so longed for came rushing in.  As he knelt in the snow a gust of wind enveloped him, and he felt nothing but love – a love that was like no other.

While he was walking back down the mountain, he asked God what he was supposed to do now – after all he was still an addict.

There was another glimmer in the snow.  

This time it was a Canadian dime and in the smallest of print were the words, ‘Now is the year to volunteer.’  

Again, he found himself kneeling in the snow telling the God who he now knew was real and alive. and loved him like crazy, that for the rest of his days He was at His service.

Whatever. Whoever. However. Whenever.

He was exclusively His, forever.

As he was leaving the mountain he passed some hikers and shouted out to them,

‘Hey! What’s the name of this mountain?!’  

‘Mount Savior!’ they shouted back - and somehow Maurice wasn’t at all surprised.

Since that moment – Maurice’s life has been anything BUT boring!  He’s discovered that loving and following Jesus is the wildest adventure a person could ever experience!!!  He’s discovered that Jesus can take addictions away and replace them with a hunger for righteousness!! He’s discovered that Jesus hates religion as much as he does and that saying ‘YES!’ to Jesus is the only way to truly LIVE!!!

His ‘YES!’ took him back to Africa and then into the Ukraine for two years – then to Equator, and then to Haiti, where God burdened his heart for that nation that so desperately needs to know what Maurice has come to know – that JESUS is not religion – that JESUS is not boring and merciless – but is FULL OF LOVE, stronger than evil and is able to do the impossible!  

Maurice and Sue's unified "YES!" has them living out a page turner of a story that was written by God before there were stars. It's one that keeps them on their knees and ever so thankful that God has entrusted them to stand in the gap for the lost, the lonely, and the forgotten in a nation that most have given up on.