Reflections on a Long and Satisfying Life No. 62: EBENEZER Thank Offering(Part I)

Reflections on a Long and Satisfying Life No. 62: EBENEZER THANKOFFERING (Part 1)

It was late 1965. Our family was living in San Antonio, TX where Jane was dealing with a cranial aneurysm that doctors still feared might rupture at any time. My job future was uncertain. The hopes were that we could go back to continue working in Hong Kong. But every indication was that we would not be given medical clearance to return. The Mission Board was patient, gave me a couple short-term assignments. and we waited.

Then one morning I received a phone call. It was from Dr. Martin Koehneke president of Concordia University Chicago who was on leave working for a US senator in Washington D.C. “Mel”, he said to me, “I want you to grab a plane and come see me. Get an early flight. We will talk for two hours, and then you can return on the same day.” I tried to analyse that request. But very soon I had bought and used my ticket and was with him in Washington.

He explained that The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod was about to undertake a churchwide fund-raising effort, that he was the director of that effort and he wanted me to be a part of his four person leadership team. I was to be the Director of Organisational Services, whatever that might mean.! accepted.

Dr. Koehneke had a radical idea for a fund raiser. He was not going to use the usual tactic of first getting the majority of the funds from major donors and then reaching out more generally. He was not going to stress the need for funds-rather he was going to stress the need to give as an expression of gratitude for gifts received. The primary leadership for the whole effort was to come from lay persons rather than the clergy. And the name of the project was going to have the strange moniker of EBENEZER-remembering a stone by that name which the ancient prophet Saul had erected with words “Hitherto has the Lord helped me.”  The theme hymn was going to  be “The Lord has helped me hitherto.”

Another major new idea. The project would use the resources of the just newly developing technology called computers. The plan was to have each of the 6000 congregations of The LCMS submit the names, addresses and home mailing addressed of all, of their members. Using computer technology these would all be entered into a massive data base. Then on the date of each person’s birthday they would receive a card and an invitation to express gratitude for the gifts in their lives by sending in a gift. The size of the gift was to be calculated by taking one’s age and multiplying that by any number one chose and to then send in that amount of dollars for a Thankoffering.

My job was put together, train and mobilize the organization needed to support this effort. The entire denomination was divided into 7 regions. Each region had about 5 districts, each district had about 175 congregations and each congregation had about 330 members. So we wanted to gather some 3 million names. My goal was to find and train and support the Regional Director, and then help them do the same for a director for each district, and each district director was to hopefully identify a director in each congregation and each congregation would selected a director for each month of the year.

The hope was that each congregation would list and honor all persons who shared a birthday month and always stress that this year they would show their gratitude for another year of bessings by sendnig in a gift in response to the greetings they received in the mail from the national office.

6/4 THIRTY YEARS LATER

The Chinese Government does not want to acknowledge the Tiananmen Massacre and the only reference one can find on the Chinese internet is under the designation 6/4 which stands for June 6, l989, just 30 years ago. As I read the articles and look again at the photos my heart sinks and my total being recalls the feelings, sights, and sounds of that event.

I recall the incredible FEELING of hope that was alive in the Square those days. Every student we spoke to had the hope of more democracy, more freedom and greater prosperity.  Yet, in the midst of that hope which we shared we also had feelings of TREPIDATION. We knew that China was authoritarian, afraid of its own people and determined not to lose absolute power. Those feelings were quickly justified. On our return to the Peking University campus in the afternoon our bus was stopped. Citizens had heard he army was moving in and shooting to kill any civilians trying to stop them, even shooting and killing people on balconies who were observing the tragedy. The citizens wanted all buses (including the one we were in) to block the military entrance. We were forced to stop in an intersection. Sons John and Tim and I quickly got out and walked back to the campus. Not many hours later we were surrounded by students showing us the nametags of their killed comrades. They confronted us with pleas to contact the US government to intervene and stop the killings. Our hearts overflowed with sadness at the lives of old and young wiped out.

So many SIGHTS come back (without even needing the aid of photos). I can still see the goddess of democracy statue erected in the Square confronting the huge image of Mao Tze Tung just across Chang An Ave. I see the elderly woman brought to the Square in a wheelbarrow by her grandson because he wanted her to get a view of democracy coming to her country. Then I see all the destruction of the day after, the burned busses, the destroyed buildings, and the not-seeing of things we knew were there, bodies hanging from light posts.

I hear the SOUNDS. I hear the sounds coming over the loud speakers that the students had put in place, being careful not to interfere with the official sound system under the control of the authorities. I hear the sounds of exited students talking to son John in Mandarin and to Tim and me in broken English assuring us that for the first time in history China was going to have a peaceful revolution because under no circumstances imaginable would the students resort to violence. Hours later I hear the sounds of students speaking through their devastation and tears recalling classmates lying dead on street or in the morgue. And after more than 48 torturous hours of non-communication I hear Jane’s voice on a long distance call when, with the help of a young Chinese gentleman I finally manage to get through and who then refused to take my financial tip as a reward.

Now 30 years later I REFLECT. Dung Chou Peng who ordered his military to shoot and kill innocent civilians did have some (partially) redeeming actions. He opened up the economy, developing, for example, Shenchen just across the border from Hong Kong which is now exceeding Hong Kong in the volume of its exports. He took some of the manufacturing from very inefficient government run companies and allowed some aspects of capitalism to flourish. Now Premier Xi is again being extremely authoritarian, is removing freedoms, persecuting and killing Christians and Muslims and is engaged in fierce competition with the USA president.

Yet I end with HOPE and the positive belief that the eternal human drive for freedom will eventually be heard and recognized. I am convinced that China will replace the USA as the greatest world power of the 21st Century and I have the belief that it will be a force for good in the world, that the USA and China will not enter into a war against each other and that for many the dream of a more positive future for more people around the world will yet come true.

(See previous blogs: June 5, 2009: “Hope” and “Hope Shattered”.)

Organ Recita

I live in a senior retirement community. Small groups form in the dining room, around the coffee table or just casually in the corridors. One thing is the same: Wherever two or three are gathered an organ recital will be sure to happen. It may begin simply with “My hearing is bad so be sure to speak up.” Within minutes all body organs will get their attention. Soon there will be early excuses to leave from the group because of incontinence and kidney weakness. Then the stories of lumps in the breasts of women and removal of the prostate from the men. It takes about 20 minutes to cover all the organs and then the recital moves to allergies. The list will include allergies to foods, to clothes, to smells, to an endless list of things tangible and intangible. It is important to go into details about how the stomach or the skin or the nose reacts. Unless something suddenly intervenes, the concert can last up to an hour. Efforts to change the subject to something important like baseball scores, the food in the common dining area, or trips taken are all sure to fail. Organ recitals must take precedent. So sit back and listen and resist the impulse to add your own encore!

Afghan Family: Success and Challenges

It is now eight years since my family has been involved with a specific Afghan family which has come as refugees to the USA. The long complicated story includes our late son David learning of the eldest female named Shamayel through Survivors of Torture, International. David provided this young woman a place to live, helped her register for school, and get her extended set of siblings all here to San Diego, etc. etc., etc.

It is a remarkable story of achievement. Shamayel learned enough English to attend and then graduate from junior college and get admitted to UCSD. She has one more year to get her degree. Her eldest brother works at Subway, drives Uber and Lyft and is a full-time student in junior college. The next, a female, works at McDonald’s, is a student in Continuing Ed. and just got her certification to be a child care provider (all of this while suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome from abuse while a refuge. The next young man helps Shamayel with family etc. and also works at a bakery and drives for Amazon. The next one just went on his own, works at a bakery and is also in pre-college classes. The younger sister will graduate from high school next month and the youngest was recently told to just skip the 7th grade and move to 8th grade and is a sought -after young soccer star. Shamayel has just received her USA citizenship and hopes next month to get her much-prized USA passport. On top of that she was named the top achiever in a major competition with Soroptimists and even went to Tokyo to receive her $25,000.00 award as the top winner of their Live Your Dream award

And I cannot tell all this wonderful news without acknowledging all my family and friends at Calvary Lutheran Church and other places who have been generous beyond words with all kinds of support including funds, furniture, automobiles etc.

Given all of the above it would seem there would be nothing but celebration and a big “let’s keep on doing it.” True - and there continue to be challenges.

America and Pakistan have lots of different ways of dealing with every-day life issues. For example: paying attention to time. We are still working on the American concept that days of the month often have strict time limits. Thus Shamayel has missed classes at school because she did not register on time. She has failed to get rentals because she applied too late. She has missed scholarship awards because she filed late (Just this morning I received a request to write a recommendation for a scholarship. Deadline for this is “ later today!”  After arriving late for doctor appointments et sim she is now also working hard to get that in America 1030 does not mean “any time after 11:00.”

We also have not solved the question, “What is your name? The name she uses for rent contracts is different from the one she uses as a student. I have no idea what name she will put on her American passport. I say her family name is Shamayel Ameri. Then I get a request for a reference and her name is Shamail Nikzad

She was almost denied the opportunity to go to Japan because the date of her birth as shown on her passport did not match her date of birth on her American green card. Of course this is partly explained by the fact that she left Pakistan in an emergency situation and brought no “official papers” with her. Also, when her sibs arrived here (also without papers as they were in “leave tonight and flee situation” the American official here gave them all an estimated year of birth and assigned them all a January 1 of that year as their official birth date.

Just yesterday I was frustrated with myself and others. I asked whether the younger sister who is a senior in high school had been granted admission to any university for next year.  I knew that she had applied at many of them. I was told, “Oh we just got the news that ALL of her college applications were denied because she had never taken and therefore never listed any SAT scores! How can that happen after 4 years in American high schools! And how could I not have asked her “Mansoora, how did you do on your PSAT and or SAT?”

The demands on Shamayel’s life are overwhelming: caring for 6 siblings, going to school, getting citizenship-and now another “cousin” family arrived from Afghanistan with no means of support and lots of health issues and they turn to Shamayel to assist her with all this. So I stress to Shamayel that for her own sense of control and priorities she really needs some regular things like a “To Do List” or a budget or some kind of filing system. To date I have gone 0 for 3 on these!

Yet do not let these take away the big lesson: America is still a land of opportunity. Migrants who come to us from places like Afghanistan work incredibly hard, faithfully, and honestly to make it on their own. Every single member of this family is determined to be a good citizen n of the USA and of the world and to pay back ten-fold and more all that has been invested in them.