Thank you, President Thierstein. I’m not sure how to follow the great news you’ve just delivered, but I’ll do my best. There actually is a simpler way to introduce me. I know some of you have heard about the man who goes to heaven and when he gets there, it’s even more wonderful than expected. Everyone is there… it’s perfect! But he notices there’s a group of people chained to rock over in the corner. After being there a while, he finally gets the nerve to ask, “What’s the deal with those people?” And St. Peter says, “Oh, don’t worry about them. They’re from West Virginia. We have to do that, or they try to go home on the weekends.” Simply put, I’m a West Virginia boy who loves West Virginia and loves this college.
I’m so honored to have been asked to speak today. Lauren, it’s hard for me to believe I was here fifty years ago in the same capacity as you are today, as President of the Community Council, which you now call the Student Senate. Thank you for your leadership, Lauren.
The last several weeks, I have found myself reflecting on how my understanding of our Founders has evolved over the years. My tendency has been to idealize them but, I’m sure they had strengths and frailties, just like the rest of us. But I think I have come to understand the ingredients of their “secret sauce” that has enabled the college to be where it is today.
As I disclose the ingredients, I’ll do my best to keep it real. For sure, an advantage that comes with being older than the speed limit is learning not to take yourself too seriously. So, I’ll share with you what I believe about our Founders by telling three real-time stories from my experience working with healthcare projects in underserved areas of the world.
The first is the story of my partners in Nakuru, Kenya. Kenya is an East Africa country of about 40 million. Nakuru is a city of approximately 500,000, positioned in the Rift Valley about 2 hours northwest of Nairobi, near the equator. However, its elevation is nearly 6,000 feet, so the climate is quite moderate. It is situated on Lake Nakuru, which is famous for a scene in the movie Out of Africa. In this scene, the Robert Redford character is flying his love, the Meryl Streep character, in an open cockpit single engine plane at near ground level over incredibly beautiful places in Africa with glorious music playing in the background. As they fly over Lake Nakuru, thousands of pink flamingo take flight, creating a magnificent pink cloud. Students, if you haven’t seen this movie, I highly recommend that you see it.
30% of the people in Nakuru live below the national poverty level, which is less than $2 income/day. Many of them live in a ghetto that is built on and around the city dump. My partner is the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, the Nakuru West Congregation. I’ve been involved there for 10 years. The Nakuru West church property is situated on the edge of the ghetto and many of its members live in the ghetto. By our standards, they are desperately poor.
If you had traveled with me on my first visit, which was primarily intended as due diligence regarding the needs of the community and the capabilities of the church, it’s likely you would have concluded, as I did initially, that there’s relatively little of any scale they can accomplish. But here are the facts:
They operate a school equivalent to our K-12. They provide a community health center that includes primary care, an AIDS diagnosis and treatment service, and a very active birthing center. They have a community women’s center and provide training in sewing, typing and literacy, which have the greatest probability of improving the participants’ economic outlook. They operate a public health service for health education and disease prevention. They support a residential program for abused women. They sponsor a remarkable self-help group of approximately 150 mostly women who are HIV-positive. Their motto is “living positively with being positive”. The group farms to improve the quality of their food and have created a small enterprise making beaded jewelry to improve their income. At the time, I believe the church operated the only bus in the city. More recently, they opened an accredited nursing school. In the early days of our relationship, they were considering establishing an orphanage for up to 400 AIDS orphans and they have achieved that goal.
They support this development and assure its sustainability, in part, by creating a revenue generating-platform including such services as delivering clean drinking water, a weekly ministry to local businesses, a conference center including hotel services, a fish farm, and a farming operation.
On the first Sunday I was there, the Women’s Guild was collecting a special offering for the health services. I attended a 3-hour Swahili service and then a one-and-a-half-hour English service. I felt thoroughly churched that day and believe I earned some extra “going-to-church” credit! Throughout the service the women were encouraging the members to give what they could… remember, most live in the ghetto and are quite poor. At the end of the morning, I asked one of the ladies how they did with the offering. She said they collected 470,000 Kenya shillings, which at the time was approximately $6,000 USD – a small fortune there. I was so taken, I asked “How did you do that?” She said, “You need to understand. We love with all our hearts.”
What an incredible lesson – the power of love, even in the most difficult circumstances. I’m convinced this kind of love is one of the ingredients in our Founders’ secret sauce. It’s the ingredient that provides the power to sustain for as long as it takes to achieve a critical mission, and it’s the energy source for the other ingredients in the secret sauce.
The second story is about an organization in Catacamas, Honduras. Catacamas is situated 4 hours northeast of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. It is a city of approximately 115,000 and is the largest city in the Olancho region. It is very mountainous and is the area with the lowest income in the country. It has become one of the most violent areas in Honduras, due in large part to it being a critical link on the drug trafficking corridor in Latin America.
My partner organization was established 30 years ago to provide health services for those most in need. It was founded by a husband & wife missionary team from the US and a young local physician who has served continuously as the director. The founders had almost no financial resources, but endless faith that they were doing what they were being called to do. The health service developed slowly, but by the time I got involved 8 years ago, they were operating a high-quality, faith-based full-service clinic, a surgery center, several clinics in the mountains, and the only Rehabilitation Hospital for patients with addictions in Honduras.
Four years ago, the government approached them about operating government health services in the region, including a very large public clinic in Catacamas and the government’s clinical outposts in the mountains. As a result, they are now operating two full-service clinics, two satellite clinics, the Surgery Center and the Rehab Hospital in Catacamas, plus 33 mountain clinics throughout Olancho and a birthing center in one of the most remote areas. They’ve done things like create a virtual connection from that remote birthing center to a world-class obstetrics group in New York City. It has enabled them to advance the quality of care for expectant mothers in that area immeasurably. Their ministries, in addition to healthcare, include spiritual outreach and community development.
In my interactions with the director and the one living missionary, it is so clear that their achievements are rooted in their incredibly strong faith. I’m certain that our Founders’ secret sauce includes such a faith. It is the ingredient that instills Founders with an unshakable “can do” spirit knowing that, with God’s help, the mission and vision can and will be achieved.
The final story is from Peru. My involvement is with a US-based ministry serving those in need along the rivers of the world, and an organization based in Peru that is focused on how to better meet the needs of the poorest of the poor in the Amazon region. The problem that needed addressed was how to serve the healthcare needs of people in hard-to-reach communities that are accessible only by the Amazon river and its tributaries. Essential to the solution was that it had to be local and sustainable. There were too many examples of well intentioned, one-off mission trips along the rivers that were of minimal value and did not build trust with the local communities. The planning group took great care to assure that Peruvians developed and implemented the solution. Those of us from the US were strictly support.
The solution they reached is elegantly simple – a riverboat was reconfigured such that as it travels away from a major city, it provides clinical services and, on its return, it serves as a cargo vessel that funds the next trip. The clinical services are provided by local clinicians that are occasionally supplemented with mission teams.
The project happened because of the hope and expectations of the founders. It’s this kind of hope that drives the hard work of planning, organizing, implementing and continuously improving that brings a vision to life. I’m convinced our Founders secret sauce includes such hope and expectations. It is the ingredient which has assured that we continue to advance, grow, improve and sustain, no matter what the circumstances.
As I was preparing for today, I realized that this secret sauce is hiding in plain sight. When Paul was concerned about the founders of the church in Corinth, he wrote them a letter, which we know as 1 Corinthians. The letter was mostly encouraging and a clear statement of what it would take for them to be successful. In Chapter 13, he describes the secret for their success as faith, hope and love. It is equally true for our founders. Their faith hope and love has made the difference.
And students, please listen carefully here… this is also the secret sauce for your life. As you establish your family, pursue your career, provide leadership in your community, or whatever else you may do as a Founder, the faith hope and love I’ve described will make the difference.
One final perspective – I have tended to think of our Founders as historical figures, but have come to understand that, in fact, they have been a part of every generation in the life of the college. They are students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, friends, parents, the United Methodist Church and others, who have stepped forward and made the difference, whatever our needs. In my fifty years of association with the college, the Founders I have experienced are many, but to name a few as examples; Dr. Stanley Martin, Dean Sam Ross, Dr. Ken Welliver, Dr. Sidney Davis, Professor David Reemsnyder, Professor Ben Lance, Dean Larry Parsons, Bob Skinner, Bill Goodwin, Harvey White, Randy Scott, Bob Allman, Chris Rapking Cox, Joanne Cadorette Solliday, Jack Owen, K.C. Caldabaugh and so many more.
The great news is we all have the opportunity to be Founders, driven by our faith, our hope and expectations, and our love. I am so thankful for you and the other Founders who’ve brought us to this place, and for the impact the college has had on my life. Thanks to our past, present, and future Founders, I believe the future of the college is extremely bright.
With that, I hope that everyone has a great homecoming weekend. To prepare, I have listened to sixties music for the last two weeks. I think it’s worked… I’m ready to celebrate. I assure you, those of us who are here for our 50th reunion intend to celebrate mightily, to the extent our aches and pains will allow! Enjoy! Thank you!