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Morgan Cass Red Cross

Volunteers Recognition Sept 97 Our Redeemer Lutheran

Introduced at IC: Sooner we get going, sooner over. (Intro) Roger Ebert… Last night.. heat..sick…. “Now, who are you?” …piano

People often ask me to speak because I am entertaining. I make them laugh. Forgive me if vary a bit from that tonight.

I don’t feel so funny this evening. Came home Saturday night terribly ill. I wrote in my journal three words: Abysmal. Abysmal. Abysmal. I’ve always liked that word. Never knew for sure what it meant, but…..Dr. Seybold at IC used write it all over the front of my essays. Went to Dr. Phrabhaker’s office .. he told me I weighed too much. I told him “So does the Sphinx, now give me some pills.” Went next door to Long’s pharmacy… Warren Winston in back room. I went back. “Your credit card keeps coming up deceased.” Everybody’s a critic.

You are here for various reasons. One of the reasons is that many of you have given to the Red Cross. Although money is a big concern of any organization, I’d like tonight to speak of a greater form of giving. I’d like to show you a better way.

Because of my topic, this may be my last appearance before the Red Cross.

We lost two great ladies this week. Princess Diana who practiced what USA Today called the raindrop theory of charity… many little drops of donations and time making a large amount. I take nothing away from her. She used her fame to good advantage. But….another lady died. Mother Teresa.. who got down and dirty. Who lived love, more than solicited it. We need the Princess Diana’s who use their fame and stature to bring donations to charities, But what we need more are the Mother Teresa’s who put a face on their giving. Who put a face on their love.

I could not become a Princess if I tried. We can all become a Mother Teresa.

Giving: Mother Teresa in an interview in Rome: “I do not want you money. I want your concern.”

I teach a generation of children to which much has been given. That has not been the answer. That has not even been beneficial. What my children need, what your children need, what the world needs, is to know that someone is concerned. Our little Triopia community has been hit with more than its share of tragedies in recent years. Again and again, volunteers have entered our schools to give comfort, to give love. to put a face on their giving. A girl in a Florida University right now who is heading toward being a wonderful & successful young lady because Sandy Crowe stepped in at the death of the girl’s mother and put a face on her giving.

We must put a face on our giving.

I’ve been personally touched by the giving of others… by those who took a chance and made my life better. Valentine’s Day, nine years ago.. Helen: Don’t worry beloved, the angels are surrounding you. Head-on collision on the ice. Seat belt tore loose. I walked out. The saddest day of my life. Supt. came to my room, Accused one day of child …… Judy Rhoads. In both cases, it was not what they said that mattered. It was not what they gave. It was that they took the time to be concerned.

They put a face on their concern. Mother Teresa: “I don’t want you money. I want your concern.”

I asked Lori who would be here tonight. Five days ago I spoke at a conference for young authors. When I arrived I was told that instead, I would be speaking to their parents. Two days ago I spoke to a family retreat. .. to the parents… speech on how to raise children in a Christian home. When I arrived, “Sorry, we changed it to a youth retreat.”

I called Lori to see just who in the heck would be here tonight. Her fax read like a who’s who of giving in the Cass-Morgan community. And her fax read like a list of people who can give more.

Vern Fernandes… one of the town’s greatest fund raisers along with being one of the world’s most wonderful and delightful men. Once asked him, “How can you continue to solicit.. it would embarrass me.” Vern: “Then you shouldn’t be doing it!……… Every time I ask someone for something, I know I’m doing them a favor!”

Lori Greene doesn’t trust me. She asked me to speak here. She reminded me by letter. She reminded me by phone. It was all she could do to keep from running up to me at the Burgoo. She’s been worried that I didn’t have a topic. I’ve given 9 presentations in the last fifteen days. I leave school, shower after Triopia heat, get dressed and take off for a speaking engagement. I was doing so tonight when a tiny 7th-grade girl came up after school and wanted me to check her entire spelling assignment to make sure she was doing it correctly on her 2nd week of 7th-grade. I was still sick. Abysmally so. I was sorely tempted to tell her to come see me tomorrow. I had to remind myself of my own message tonight. A sign in my room, “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care.” The little girl had the nerve to stand right underneath it when she asked me. God has a sense of humor.

I often fail at this. But sometimes I don’t. And that is when I am most blessed.

My friend Rick. A contractor. Without doubt the finest singer I’ve met in my life, but Rick prefers to be a carpenter. He says, “Performing is too self-serving. I can’t live with myself.” Drank coffee beside a man for months. Found that he was living a lean-to shack in Pittsfield. He actually owned a small farm … inherited. No money to pay the taxes, much less build a house. Rick took the concern to the man’s church. Didn’t have it in the budget. He took it to the pastor.. maybe pay for the sewer line. Rick has been building the man a house for the last nine months… after work and weekends.. Donated materials from friends.. Julie Hood donated a fridge. ….others purchased. Rick was angry at a church which would not put a face on its love. He asked.. You have no family.. who gets your little farm? “Oh, I’m donating it to the church but they don’t know it.” Rick is putting a face on his love.

You are here tonight because you have the concern. Being involved with the Red Cross is not a money-making proposition. It is not even great news. We have in this room tonight the greatest potential for good ever assembled in Jacksonville and the Journal Courier is not here. All you have is a concern. I’m asking you now… put a face on that concern.

If for no other reason, it’s therapeutic. This is the opposite of what the self-help books preach. Self Help Books: Take care of yourself. Be good to yourself. Be good to your inner child. You don’t have to say yes to everyone. I was speaking for another Church Sunday. Needed a pianist. Lady in our audience tonight, a house-full of children. “I just can’t stretch myself that thin.” (Brenda) “That’s Ok” I said. But I know this lady too well. She is a born giver. If you are a born giver, give up. You can never stop. It’s a blessed addiction. Christ: Give until it hurts. Give until you drop. Give. Self-centeredness : depression. Becky...funeral... And giving begets giving…. When Becky was a senior, Europe, benefactor. Carl Menninger

A. Sweitzer: “The only ones among you who will be truly happy as those who will have sought and found out how to serve.” If life is bumming you out because you’re asked to give so much, give more.

We applaud Clara Barton for founding the American Red Cross. We sometimes think that she gave birth to the Red Cross and it flourished happily into the organization we see today. She became the President of the American Red Cross and several years later it collapsed. In 1904 it had to be saved by an act of Congress. The pump must be constantly primed.

I read this week: “A river touches places of which its source knows nothing.” I’ve marveled at Switzerland.. everywhere you go, a mighty river rushing down a mountainside. Every time you asked of its source.. “Glacier fed.. Glacier fed…” But I never got to see the glaciers. “Where are the stupid glaciers?” Up there somewhere..

This summer….. Alaska …with Lukeman’s, Bill Curry, Sharon Toler… I saw the source. I saw the Glaciers. The most magnificent things I’ve ever seen. Some larger than the state of Rhode Island. Rangers….. Talk of sediment washing up in Japan. That Alaskan Glacier never knew how far its influence has spread. The rivers of Colorado… a stream, then suddenly go underground and emerge miles later, mightier and wider than ever. Rocks in that stream.. seem obstacles.. eventually worn down.. and the river remains.

So easy to see the obstacles in our life and tell ourselves we are not fit for giving. That rock will be worn down. I don’t know what your source is. Mine is God, but whatever your source, if it’s strong enough, will wear down any obstacles… and you will never know the extent of your influence. The giver is never allowed to see the full results of his or her giving.

My great-grandmother Gebhardt.. came over from Germany. Devout, hard-working farmers. They tamed a piece of the Illinois prairie. .. Cass County. Her daughter married an Englishman who had cleared the trees and prairie grass off hundreds of acres in Pike County. They were givers and workers. Great-Grandma’s diary. Every day was spent helping a neighbor. “A lazy day today.. haven’t accomplished much. I rose and gathered the eggs in. Milked what was left of the cow. Got a handle on the garden. Scrubbed the upstairs floors. Then woke the men at 6 and fixed their breakfast.” Her daughter was my grandmother.. a lady who prayed for me every day of her life. I’ve had an opportunity to serve. I never knew any of these people other than my own grandmother, yet the giving they did has stretched down the years to me.

Billy Graham.. two ladies. They put a face on their giving.

Lori was in a play with him.. One night under the Green Pastures stars… “I’m not good enough. Every time you stop rehearsal, it’s me that fouled things up.” We cried. We hugged. We prayed. He did the show. He now runs the largest Christian summer camp in the nation… disadvantaged city children and others. Thousands every summer. Has made four CD’s of his own music. Performs at national conventions.

We seldom know the extent of our giving. So many of you could tell similar stories.. Me: microphone.

Put a face on your concern.

Put the face of Jo Anna Caldwell who began by passing out Peanut Butter sandwiches on the street corners in North Jacksonville.

Put on the face of Alan Bradish…most outlandish saint I’ve ever known. ….. balloons.

Put on the face of Habitat for Humanity. I read the papers and I’m often ashamed of our Presidents. Have you ever been more proud of a President than when Jimmy Carter became an ex-President?

Put on the face of a little lady who in South Jacksonville who every day cuts on the crime and arrests section of the Journal Courier and prays for those names throughout the day.

Put on the face of Jan Smith in our audience tonight who has the sixth sense to walk into a room and tell you in an instant who’s hurting and who needs her personal touch.

Put on the face of Lori’s adopted Grandmother who found that the Triopia community had more and more latch key kids. Started God’s Kids. She poured literally thousands of dollars into an after school program of food, physical exercise, and Bible study. Every week over a hundred kids make use of her program.

Blessed to be raised by giving parents in a giving community. Dad: spanked: 10cent vs. 15cent coke. Fire: $500

I’m blessed to live in a giving community. If I get sick, I have to lie about it in church. I’ll be so inundated with calls, visits, cookies, and vegetable soup that I’ll never get well for answering the door!

(Giving Centers us on what’s important... Hiney the Mule)

God blesses giving and the giver..... Athletic Boosters in a local school...meals … now, donations mailed in. They’ve stopped putting a face on their giving. 7th grade nursing home project I know a church...huge endowment...spirit of church stopped once they stopped struggling and giving NHS..used to party...now, service Daniel....Zebco 22 … concerned more for others Fidel Cashero

I began by talking about my students… How they have been given much and that was not the answer. 
The President is pushing for standardized math and English tests. Illinois: New School Improvement Plan...Milions of dollars, much time, effort... ....all the new things we must do to improve our schools... Tons of paper...not one mention of MORALITY. Not one mention of KINDNESS TO OTHERS Not one mention of WHY WE MUST GIVE...

Please… put a face on your giving.

And...don’t worry if you don’t receive much reward... Conway Twitty

In closing, a final word from Mother Teresa. She told her biographer, “We are called upon not to be successful, but to be faithful.” She believed no one should die untouched or unloved. She said, and I paraphrase her here… “It is embarrassing for mankind to consider me a saint when all I’m doing is the bare minimum. What shape must the rest of the world be in?”

She put a face on her giving. We can do no less.

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