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.

   It’s 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 hall’s 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 nation’s 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 friend’s 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 weren’t.  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.”  Let’s 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 Samaratan’s Purse; he was in this country for special training.  He had never been here before; and we had him on the 2^nd or 3^rd 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 aren’t 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 McGonigal’s 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