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From the Board President
From the Board
President, Rev. Riely B. Case - National Day of Prayer - May 6,
2010
NATIONAL
DAY OF PRAYER REMARKS
The arguments at the first Continental Congress in
1787 were long and bitter: the Articles of Confederation were a
failure; there was a need for a Constitution, but what kind of
constitution? Federalists, loyalists, Tories, monarchists,
establishmentarians, disestablishmentarians,
antidisestablishmentarians all had ideas.
Its a good
thing Republicans and Democrats were not there; they never would
have made it. For five weeks the debates went on and
it seemed they were about to fail: there would be no union, only
13 sovereign, independent, competing states. Then aging Ben
Franklin, age 82, laboriously heaved his body from a chair.
When at war with Britain, his voice echoed through
the halls silence, we prayed daily from this room.
Have we now forgot God governs in the affairs of men? Have
we forgot, except the Lord build the house they labor in
vain that build it? Without the help of God our projects
will be confounded and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a
bye word down to future ages. And he called
upon the convention to pray. And they did. And the
tension eased and the Constitution of the United States of
America was born.
75 years
later, plus 2, on a hot summer day, a man named Joshua Speed came
to Washington to see the president of the United States Abraham
Lincoln on important business. It was 1864, one of
our nations darkest hours. The nation was being torn
apart by war. Not finding the president at the White
House he came upon him at the Soldiers Home, of all things
reading his Bible. At a time when strategy had
to be mapped out, plans projected, decisions made, the president
of the United States was reading his Bible. Joshua Speed
was a skeptic. He was not pleased, and he said
sarcastically, I am glad to see you so profitably engaged.
Lincoln put his hand on his friends shoulder and said,
You are wrong, Speed, take all of this book on reason that
you can and the balance on faith and you will live and die a
happier and better man.
75 years
later, plus one, 1941, at one of the darkest hours of all history,
with Britain expecting Nazi invasion any day and Pearl Harbor
only a couple of months away, an historic but secret meeting took
place aboard the HMS Prince of Wales between the heads of state
of Great Britain and the United States. They met to affirm
their common purpose of a world delivered from tyranny, and to
pledge their mutual support of freedom everywhere. But what
impressed the correspondents at that meeting besides the signing
of the historic Atlantic Charter, was the Sunday worship service.
While the chaplain prayed, Strengthen our resolve that we
fight not in enmity against men, but against the powers of
darkness enslaving the souls of men. And while the
crews sang, Eternal Father strong to save, whose arms hath
bound the restless wave. Oh hear us when we cry to thee, for
those in peril on the sea. That tears were flowing
the face of the Defender of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, and
weeping with him by his side was the president of the United
States, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
I do not
claim that Franklin and Lincoln and Roosevelt were great
Christian saints. They werent. But I do say
that even these men, great leaders, great Americans, in time of
great crisis, spoke easily, without embarrassment of the God of
our Fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we sing, whose love divine hath led us
in the past, in this free land by thee our lot is cast. Without
embarrassment. And today each of those three are
engraved on our coins: Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln,
Franklin Roosevelt. And by each of them engraved also on
the coins, are the words: In God we trust.
They, and we,
were and are part of a vision that went back to the Puritans.
They believed in what today is called American exceptionalism,
God has raised up this land for a purpose, to be a city set on a
hill, a light in darkness. We are part of a plan of God.
That does
not mean we are the promised people. When we quote that
verse from II Chron. 7:14, If my people who are called by
my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive
their sin and heal their land. Lets be clear,
My people is not America, it is Israel in the Old Covenant, the
Church in the New. The verse could be quoted in many lands.
But still the
verse comes with a promise, wherever it is used. If the
people who pray will pray and repent and turn from their wicked
ways, the land will be healed. And it does not matter
whether what we do has the blessing of the court system, or
whether it is even official; we still believe it and we still
pray.
We today
might hear 50 sermons today on the sins of America. Sermons
about hypocrisy and moral and spiritual decline and the
fragmentation of society, and perhaps we need those 50 sermons.
But let us always remember that behind them all, that despite the
problems, the ugliness, the hand of God is there. There is
a Biblical faith that is our guiding vision. And all of us
here have the responsibility to keep the vision alive
Let us
also recognize that today we might have 50 debates on what kind
of legislation, what kind of direction, what kind of people
should lead this nation. And we would have disagreements
among ourselves. Liberals and conservatives,
Republicans and Democrats. And maybe we need those debates. But
let us always remember that behind them all, despite the
disagreements, despite the heated discussions, the hand of God is
there. There is a Biblical faith that guides our vision.
And all of us here have the responsibility to keep the vision
alive.
We do that
with 1) Repentance for our selfishness, for our unkindness,
quickness to judge others; failure to give the other person,
maybe other nations, the benefit of the doubt: 2) By prayer
and uplifting and blessing those who work for the common good.
For teachers, businesspersons, for police, those who fight fires,
those that work with their hands, those who till the soil, those
who work as elected officials.
13 years
ago my wife Ruth and I were privileged to have in our home a man
named Wilson. He was newly arrived from Rwanda. He
had lived through the horror there; he was running an orphanage
associated with Samaratans Purse; he was in this country
for special training. He had never been here before; and we
had him on the 2nd or 3rd day after he had
arrived. And because we had some extra time I proposed to
show him our city and our land. And so I did; he was
interested in farming and so we drove through the countryside.
Huge fields, huge barns, huge tractors. I told him how much
one of those tractors cost: $250,000. I was sorry for that
because the cost of one of those tractors would have kept his
orphanage going for 2 years. I showed him our factories,
our shopping mall, our busy streets; we even stopped and watched
a girls softball game. I showed him beautiful
churches. And he made almost no comment. We were
driving down Washington Street and we happened to pass the Rescue
Mission, that was the old mission with the big form of Jesus out
in front. And he saw it and asked me a question, What is
that? That is our Rescue Mission. When people have no
place to stay we give them shelter. When they are hungry we
give them food. When they are without things to wear we
give them clothes. Who does this? Christian people,
churches, and some arent Christians, some not in churches,
just the good people. Wilson thought, and then he said
something, and it was this, America is a great nation.
And I knew what he meant. It had nothing to do with huge
fields, big tractors, impressive malls, beautiful churches. It
was because this was a land where people cared.
I
spoke of Benjamin Franklin; 75 years after him about was Abraham
Lincoln; and about 75 years after him was Franklin Roosevelt; now
if we add another 75 years plus a couple that brings us to 2010,
and our theme, Prayer for Such a Time as This. We might say
it is a time of crisis for the nation, but of course we are
always in a time of crisis.
But we
affirm for the sake of our nation, our confidence is in the God
of our Fathers, whose face we seek and whose guidance we covet.
Dear Friends
of the Kokomo Rescue Mission,
We express our thanks to the many people
who have supported the Kokomo Rescue Mission with prayers,
volunteer service, and financial gifts this past year. We can
report that 2008 was a most successful year for the Mission. We
grew in every way, in individuals and familes served, in finances,
and --we believe this is the most important--in the number of
lives reclaimed through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But we are being challenged as never
before. Kokomo has gone in just a few years from a city with the
most affordable housing in the nation, to a city which Forbes
magazine says is one of the three most economically
disintegrating cities in the nation. The economic slowdown puts
pressure on every level of our community life. Our Rescue Mission
anticipates that we will see more hungry persons and more
homeless in the coming year. People will need help who have never
needed it before. There is the possibility of increased crime, to
say nothing of spiritual despair.
We desire your prayers for discernment
as we face the coming days. To be most efficient with our
resources we are partnering with groups like Kokomo Urban
Outreach and Clinton County Ministry of Hope, and other like-minded
groups. We are moving off campus to additional sites to deal with
needs where they are.
Until now we have been blessed with
support from churches and from the communities in our six-county
area so that we have not had to cut back any programs. At the
present time it costs more than $5,000 a day to keep the Mission
open and to maintain our programs. As the recession deepens we
realize that we will be dealing with increasing pressures. We
covet your support.
For RESCUE,

Rev. Riley B. Case
President, Board of Directors

Front Row:
Bonnie Maple, Curtis C. Welke, Rev. Riley Case, Esther McCauley,
Rev. Stephen Beutler
Back Row: Mike Fox, John Bingaman, Shan Sherian, Galen
Hodge, Rev. Gary Bush and Janet Yoder.
Not Pictured: Justin Alter, Ralph Grotrian, Dr. Walter J.
Ungerer and Jim Thrasher
Officers:
President: Rev. Riley B. Case, Retired Pastor
and Author
Vice-President: Esther McCauley, Retired Missionary
Secretary: Mike Fox, Coca Cola Bottling of Kokomo
Treasurer: Rev. Stephen A. Beutler - Pastor,
Grace United Methodist Church
Members:
Dr. Walter J. Ungerer, Retired Pastor
Jim Thrasher, HE McGonigals Inc.
Curtis C. Welke, McIntyre, Hilligoss, Vent & Welke
Justin Alter, Butcher, Ball, Lowry & Alter
Bonnie Maple, Retired
John Bingaman, Retired
Shan Sheridan, Clinton County Chamber of Commerce
Gary Bush, Cummins/Crosspoint /Pastor
Janet Yoder, Owner - Curves
F. Galen Hodge, Retired
Ralph Grotrian, Retired
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