Winning Words 11/2/12
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”  (Mother Teresa)  I don’t know about you, but I feel guilty when I throw requests to help the needy into the waste basket.  There are charities that we regularly help.  The Gleaners Food Bank says that they can provide 60 meals for the hungry with a $20 gift.  A friend of mine signed his boys up to be Salvation Army bell ringers…a gift better than money.    ;-)  Jack

 FROM (SAINT) JUDY:  The Gleaners are one of our favorites, along with Salvation Army and Wounded Warriers and Purple Heart.  It easy just to send them a check or collect our used goods to them.  But they are the real worker bees.  We should be very thankful to them.////FROM JACK:  I often wonder...Should larger gifts be given to a few, or smaller gifts to many?  I guess that it's a personal choice, so long as the gifts are given.

 FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  Like.////FROM JACK:  Are you always a person of few words?

 FROM PEPPERMINT MARY:  i too feel bad when i toss some of the requests, but in the past couple of years, i have cut back on many charities in order to give to the area food and clothing  banks.  primary needs of our neighbors keep our communities stronger and healthier.  rebuilding will follow. ////FROM JACK:  Today's quote reminds me of another.   "I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."  (Statement published in A Year of Beautiful Thoughts‎ (1902) by Jeanie Ashley Bates Greenough)

 FROM GOOD DEBT JON:  Amen. And along that line of thought, don't strain to change the world make yourself a better person. If everyone swept the street in front of their own (metaphorical) home, what a different world we would see. My poorly paraphrased Samuel Smiles (1869)////FROM JACK:  Yesterday I stopped my car on our street and picked up a bag of trash lying in the middle of the road.  Does that count as sweeping?////GDJ:  Yes sir.  I often pick up little things in my neighborhood or wherever I am walking. Leave the earth better than you found it. Lao Tzu-Budda-Jesus, et al.

 FROM BBC IN ILLINOIS:  Yes, I feel guilty too and sometimes just put in a dollar or two to cover their postage.  There’s got to be a better way….////FROM JACK:  When they enclose a coin with their mailing, do you send that back?

 FROM JT IN MICHIGAN:  I agree w/ having to throw requests away without helping. It's very difficult.  I recently decided to list the 20 organizations that are most important to me.  Some them I have supported 20-40 years   You know how "list compulsive" I am.  They are now in categories - monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, annually.  The others I throw away without opening.  We'll see how it goes.////FROM JACK:  Mother Teresa had the right idea.  If anybody wanted to "feed" the multitude, it was her, but she chose to start with one.

 FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  Tis better to light one candle......I have young friend who just returned from two weeks in India, and he says that it is hard to imagine  so many poor people.  He is even more grateful to be living in our country.////FROM JACK:  There's a saying, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."  It's said that the phrase was first spoken by the English evangelical preacher and martyr, John Bradford (circa 1510–1555). He is said to have uttered the variant of the expression - "There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford", when seeing criminals being led to the scaffold. He didn't enjoy that grace for long, however. He was burned at the stake in 1555, although, by all accounts he remained sanguine about his fate and is said to have suggested to a fellow victim that "We shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night".

 ROM JT IN MINNESOTA:  It is so true.  But I do not appreciate the continuing requests that flood my mailbox following a donation.  And even from ones I've not heard of but were given my name and address as a "giver".  Suppose this is not Christian feelings but I can't give to them all and when the request comes I hate to ignore it.   I just got a request for helping buy goats, chickens etc.  That does appeal to me.  Once a farmer, always a farmer??   I continue to appreciate your winning words.  Thanks so much.////FROM JACK:  What you're describing sounds like the Heifer Project which provides animals for people in the third world.  One Christmas we bought a flock of chickens through "Heifer," and gave my mother a card saying that some chickens were being sent to Africa in her name.  At first, she had some difficulty processing this strange gift.  But, afterwards, she thought that it was a good idea.  She didn't need more "stuff."

 FROM FM IN WISCONSIN:  I work at a food pantry at Holy Communion Church – I worked this afternoon – we served 57 families – made up of 196 persons.  I work again on next Monday – it always makes me thankful – to be able to help others . . . and that we don’t have to rely on a food pantry. ////FROM JACK:  Wow!  What a great way to spend an afternoon...doing what Jesus did...feeding the multitude.  If you can't feed 5000, feed 196.

 FROM BLAZING OAKS:  It was our church's Tuesday to feed the homeless this week, and we had 136, plus three tiny babies! So many more than we had a year ago now.  We make many sandwiches, have pkgs. of various chips, cookies and cake, bananas and apples and grapes, and coffee, water and sodas....try to send a sack along with them as they go, after  they have eaten.  Times are tough right now!  I feel my first priority is to our church, and then I do what I can for some others. I especially like the Smile Train, who help so many disfigured children. I ck. the rating of a charity before I give to one to be sure the money is put to good use!  We are blessed to be able to able to give, even our little bit. I just read Mary Johnson's book "Unquenchable Thirst" who worked for 20 years as a nun in Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity before leaving the order.. She had some interesting insights into Mother Teresa: so focused, and so self-sacrificing, but with human flaws, as well. We all do "something", even tho we can't do everything!////FROM JACK:  A song that I like has this line..."If everyone lit just one little candle, What a bright world this would be!"  It's amazing what one person (church) can do, added to what others are doing.  They brighten a dark world.

 FROM BS IN ENGLAND:  For Christmas this year family are receiving goats, malaria treatments and watering cans for Christian Aid--------they, the family that is, have all they need.   I have done the same thing, but I try to return to sender.  It makes me feel bad but we do give to the charities that we believe in.
Our favored one in The Princess Basma Hospital in The Holy Land.  It is run by a Palestinian Christian lady and we have visited  the hospital where they treat handicapped children.  Plus our Rev Doreen volunteered there a few years back------for a year.////FROM JACK:  Christmas giving is symbolic of the gifts brought by the Magi.  Have you read the O. Henry book, The Gift of the Magi?