Ripped from the headlines, there is a short story which poignantly illustrates two of the countless ways in which you give with conviction and extravagant love… on the altar of your life. My words fall short, please let this true story tell your narrative… While covering the conflict in the middle of Sarajevo, a reporter saw a young girl get shot by a sniper. Shocked by what he had witnessed, the reporter stopped being a reporter for a few minutes. Throwing down his pad and pen, he rushed to the aid of a man who had picked up the child and hurriedly helped both of them into his car. As the reporter floored the accelerator and raced to the hospital, the man cradled the bleeding child in his arms. "Hurry," he pleaded, "my child is still alive!" A moment later he said, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still breathing" and after a few more minutes, "Hurry, friend, my child is still warm." Finally, he moaned, "Hurry, oh God, my child is getting cold." When they arrived at the hospital, the little girl was dead. As the two men were in the lavatory, washing the child's blood from their hands, the man turned to the reporter and said, "This is a terrible task for me. Now I must go and tell her father that his daughter is dead. He will be heartbroken." Stunned, the reporter stared in silence at the grieving man. Then he said, "I thought she was your child." "No," replied the man, "but…aren't they all our children?"
My heart is perpetually moved deeply by the enormity of your love of God in action. This story is indeed the narrative of your life. It captures the way in which you follow the great command to love our God with your whole heart and soul and your neighbor as yourself. You recognize and embrace all children of the God, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers… there are NO strangers. We belong to God therefore we belong to one another… and when a child of God suffers… and the multitudes do… you respond as if they are yours.
We lost count of the “caring casseroles” collected for SHIP… a minimum of 350 and more on the way. To date we have collected over $25,000.00 dollars to aid the numerous needs of the suffering people of Appalachia, presently and at our Mission this summer. I am awed and inspired by the countless ways in which “you are what you receive”. Our Church is alive with Christ’s true presence in the tabernacle and still in the myriad of ways you make His presence visible throughout Somerset County and as far as the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. You are the proof that the gloom and doom of the world is a lie… and rather… the goodness and grace of God is radiantly robust in, and through, your charitable works. In my prayers of gratitude, you remain my inspiration. God bless you for this, and so much more.