They Went That-Away

Working at a small library I'm the person who processes all the books and enters their data into the library catalog.
A problem I have, every once in a while, with doing this is that I end up looking at all the books, not just a casual look to get the title and other information needed but very often I leaf through books and get somewhat sidetracked.
Here is one book that most definitely derailed my job this morning. The title is "They Went That-Away: How the Famous, the Infamous and the Great Died" by Malcolm Forbes. Many might think this is gross but, holy kamoly, it's interesting. For instance I knew that Vincent Van Gogh killed himself but I didn't know the "rest of the story".

Starry Night Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh was an artist for only the last ten years of his life. Before that he was an art teacher and a lay preacher. It is now surmised that he suffered from epilepsy and schizophrenia which eventually caused him to commit himself to an asylum at St. Remy, where he painted "Starry Night" and many of his other important works. Van Gogh, after leaving the asylum, moved to Auvers, outside Paris, to be near his brother Theo. He lived with a Dr. Paul Gachet who was taken with Van Gogh's art, Suffering from ongoing hallucinations, Van Gogh could no longer handle it and while Dr. Gachet was away on July 27, 1890, he took a gun with him to the fields and behind a manure pile in a farmyard where he often painted, shot himself in the chest. He didn't die immediately and staggered back to his room in Dr. Gachet's home. When Gachet found him. To Gachet Van Gogh murmured, "I missed myself." He smoked his pipe through the night and into the next day he developed a very high fever and became delirious.

At 1 a.m. on July 29th he died. His very last words were; "There is no end to sorrow."

Be Present At Our Table, Lord

The end of the summer is nearing and all the kiddos, ages 18-22,
have come home.  Two were overseas volunteering with The
Salvation Army. One was in Singapore, Malaysia and Borneo and
the other in Chile.  One boy worked as a camp counselor at our church
camp about a nine to ten hour round trip drive. Only one kiddo stayed
home and worked for our local baseball team.

All back together again, we sat down for supper and the camp
counselor son asked for us to sing the grace they sang before each meal
at camp.  We all knew the song so we diverted from our usual grace
and started to sing

 “Be present at our table, Lord.

Be here and everywhere adored.

These mercies bless, and grant that we

may …  and this is where our unison ended.  

The kiddos ended with “may learn to live and love in thee”and my sister
and I sang “...may live to fight and die for thee”.  We looked around at
each other and I think we were all thinking that no one knew there were
different endings. Of course, this made me curious about the origins of this
song and which is the original ending.  Thank you Google because I typed
in the first line of the song and voilà, up popped a number of sites. I
also logged into Facebook and posted a request for information from a
group called “Salvation Army Chorus Time” I belong to.  This generated
over one hundred responses and I learnedthat this song is sung around
the world. These posts and links led me to see that there are more than
just the two last lines my family knew about. These are some of the
“last lines” I discovered:

-May spend our lives in serving thee,

                            -May strengthened for the service be,

         -May feast in Paradise with thee,

                                     -May live in fellowship with thee,

                                     -May live in harmony with thee,

-May learn to live and love in thee,

 -May live to fight and die for thee,

-May feast in fellowship with thee.

Along with different last lines, this song is sung to a multitude
of different music. There are seemingly more tunes to this song
than there are different “last lines”. Many Christian denominations
sing this song to the tune of the hymn “Old 100th”, also
written as “Old Hundreth” which many are familiar with as the
Doxology.  I have a feeling that if you mention a hymn or chorus
tune, this prayer has been sung to it. “Duke Street”, “Montreal
Citadel”, “Sweet Hour of Prayer”, and “Amazing Grace”, are just
a few of the tunes used from church hymnals. Many summer
camps sing this song to secular music which makes it fun for
the young campers.  Songs that range from the Adams Family
theme song, “The Irish Washer Woman”, “House of the Rising
Sun”, “Home on the Range”, and “Fernando’s Hideaway” have
been borrowed and used as music to sing our grace.

I still had one more bit of research I wanted to do and that
was to find to the 1700’s in England.  In 1717 a man by the name of
John Cennick was born in Reading, Berkshire. It is located at the joining
of the River Kennet and the River Thames.It’s also on the M4
motorway and the Great Western Main railway line. This made the
town a major trading location. It was also a center of religion and the
Reading Abbey was a major influence.  This twelfth century medieval
abbey ruins remain in Reading and draws many a visitor.  

John Cennick didn’t become involved with the Abbey and in fact
spent time drifting between London and his home looking for work
and getting involved in bit of a questionable lifestyle.  It wasn’t
until he was a teen that he had a life changing experience and
became involved with the Methodist Church. While searching for a
church that aligned with his beliefs he settled with the Moravians.
He ministered in Dublin and the north of Ireland.  This is the man
who wrote the song, “Be Present at our Table Lord”. John Cennick
died in London, in his late thirties in 1755 from a fever.

This song was actually three verses not just the one
that is most familiar. At hymntime.com and a few other websites
I found all three verses in this song.

   1.Be present at our table, Lord;

Be here and everywhere adored;

 Thy creatures bless, and grant that we

May feast in paradise with Thee.

2. We thank Thee, Lord, for this our food,

For life and health and every good;

By Thine own hand may we be fed;

Give us each day our daily bread.

3.We thank Thee, Lord, for this our good,

But more because of Jesus’ blood;

Let manna to our souls be giv’n,

The Bread of Life sent down from Heav’n.

On a personal note.  My mom and dad taught all of us kids
the prayer we say before each meal. The prayer is actually the
third verse of this song.  I never knew until I did this research
that our family prayer was the third verse to a song. My parents
did change one word of the third verse.  The first line of the third verse
ends in “good” and they changed it to “food”. The prayer I was
taught to say for grace and the prayer I’ve taught my children
to use is:

We thank Thee, Lord, for this our food,
But more because of Jesus’ blood;

Let manna to our souls be giv’n,

The Bread of Life sent down from Heav’n.  

Amen

In the end, some of the words of Cennick’s song change
and the tune people sing it to varies but the importance of
giving our Father thanks for all we are provided is still strong
and the young people that learn this song, no matter the
words or tune, are learning that it is important to remember
that we are all blessed for what we have.

National Women’s Month
March 2019 

March is National Women’s Month and I’ve been reading about some amazing women. The theme for this year is “Visionary Women: Champions of Peace & Nonviolence” For me a few names immediately come to mind; Jane Addams, considered to be the Mother of Social Work and Mother Teresa, the Catholic nun who dedicated her life to caring for the destitute and poor in the slums of Calcutta. 

Fifteen women are being honored this year by the National Women’s History Alliance. Women such as Dorothy Cotton, the only woman in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s inner circle and one of the most influential women in the civil rights movement. Another is Sister Alice Zachmann, Founder and former Director of the Guatemala Human Rights Commission USA and Sarah Brady, gun control advocate whose husband was permanently disabled in the failed attempt to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan. 

We all know women that have affected our lives. Some of these women might be world renown yet other women may be unknown outside your circle. One woman you may have never heard of is a woman that did not change the world, one country or even one state. What she did, however, was to be an amazing force to anyone around her. 

She was born in 1920 and raised in Ohio. Life was difficult with not much money to make ends meet. Her father died of tuberculosis while living away from home in a sanitarium and it wasn’t long that her mother remarried. Her high school years proved difficult living with an abusive stepfather, but her church and faith helped her get through. After she graduated high school, she moved to New York City to further her education and enter the ministry. Hardships followed and while in school she became ill. The school administration sent her on a bus back to Ohio. After a long and painful ride, she struggled to make it to a hospital where she was diagnosed with appendicitis. Amazingly she survived and after regaining her health, and still determined to better her life, she took the bus back to New York City and was able to re-enroll in school. 

On a blind date, arranged through some friends, she met her future husband. He also was studying for the ministry. They were married in the early 1940s and began their ministry together. It wasn’t long until she was a mom and started to juggle being a wife, parent, and pastor. They were ministers in The Salvation Army and in addition to pastoral duties they also were very involved in multiple ongoing services to their community. Just a little over a decade later she had five children and continued her full-time ministry in the adult rehabilitation social services department. Little known outside her circle, she lived a quiet life completely in service to Christ’s teachings. She raised her family, often sacrificing her wants for the wants and needs of her children. 

In her walk, in service, she worked daily with the men that lived at the shelter where she and her husband ministered. Every holiday she made sure that every resident was remembered. On Mother’s Day, she made sure that each resident had a carnation to wear on his lapel, she pinned them on reminding them of the importance of family; of peace and love. Halloween, Easter, Christmas always included candy and/or gifts for the men at the Center. Thanksgiving included a big Thanksgiving spread that helped the men understand that they are loved and appreciated. Each got a cake and a gift on their birthday. Every Sunday after church this woman would collect her children and drive them to the Center for Sunday lunch. There in the dining hall, her entire family had their Sunday meal with all the residents. She and her husband said it was important for the men to see the importance of family and how families interact with each other in peace and nonviolence. She told her children that most of these men, due to some type of addiction, had lost their families and were at the Center trying to put their lives back together and her children needed to help in that plan. 

By example, she raised her family to place service above self. Every day there was something going on to help at the Shelter or to help the community. During natural disasters, this amazing woman would make sure her family was safe and then off she went in a mobile canteen to help feed first responders or to provide food to victims of disasters. Her family was not just sitting at home waiting for her return. Instead, they were behind the scenes making the sandwiches and other foods that were to be given to those in need. 

This woman was amazing at stretching a dollar. Almost every summer enough pennies were saved that her family would take a vacation, driving all around America pulling a small travel trailer. All seven of her family would live in this travel trailer for two to three weeks. Night time would have the girls in sleeping bags sprawled across the floor and the boys would sleep in the back of the station wagon or in a tent next to the trailer. Her children learned how to handle an RV including the nasty job of emptying and cleaning the water and sewer storage. Her children learned how to be independent and handle problems on their own. 

This lady was also a prankster. Once while on a women’s retreat with the ladies of her church she waited until all were in the chapel and she sneaked out and worked fast and furious to remove every single one of their mattresses in her cabin and hide them leaving her mattress on her bed all made up with sheets and blankets. She returned to the service and upon returning to the cabin after service and supper she acted shocked, along with the others, when to her “surprise” all but her mattress was gone. 

In her daily life, she was up early every morning making breakfast and packed lunches for her family and always having supper ready by 5:00 or 6:00. In between those hours she kept her home clean and was 100% involved in all her job responsibilities as well as her endless volunteering. 

Often men at the shelter would call her Mom and they respected her for how she never judged them but showed them respect and love. Many would admit that at first, they thought her to be a pushover but learned quickly that her concern was true but she was also very tough. When men successfully made it through the program, they would leave with new skills for employment, were able to forgive themselves and forgive those that harmed them, and have an understanding that life involves service to others. Mom, along with her husband, taught them that. 

Did this woman make any national or global impact? No, she didn’t. Did she make an impact on the lives of those around her? Yes, those that knew Mom learned to pass her faith and love of service to those that touch their circles. This selfless woman, in the late 1970s, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She made the decision to choose life and worked hard to win over cancer. She battled through the debilitating effects of chemotherapy and radiation. During her medical battle, her husband died from a sudden heart attack. She cried and mourned for him but was thankful for the time God blessed her to be side by side with her guy. One evening, during a particularly rough bought of chemo side effects her daughter looked at her and told her it was OK to stop the chemo if she wished. She would be respected and loved in any decision she would make. She responded, “The Bible says you must choose life and I will fight until the Lord takes me home.” Mom died in 1984, about six months after her husband died. Metastatic breast cancer won out in the end but in reality, it didn’t Yes, breast cancer took her physical body but she lives on through all the men at the shelter she helped, all the ladies in her church groups, and her family. Her children, I and my siblings, have had big shoes to fill. Marguerite Ruth Cox was and still is my mom. She is my hero. She was a champion of peace and love and one heck of a funny lady.