Habitat for Humanity

Chapter Presentation

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Speech delivered by WSC Habitat for Humanity President, Brian Harvey

Mr. Jerry Roach presenting the Charter to the Warner Southern College Chapter of Habitat for Humanity

Helen Keller was once asked, what could be worse than being blind, to which she replied, having sight, but no vision.” We live in a world were blindness is an epidemic and vision its only cure. We live in a world were the blind are quickly followed and their voices are eagerly heard. We live in a world were too many Christians in too many places speak the same language and share the same action — Silence and nothing.

Quite a while ago a boy stood waiting for a train. As he moved across the deck of the station he slipped and fell onto the tracks. As most stories would have it, at that moment the train he was waiting for came thundering towards the station. With moments to spare, and the screams of the boy ringing in his ear, a passerby reached out a hand and pulled him to safety. The boy, Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of the future President Abraham Lincoln was so thankful that he insisted he compensate the man in some way… the man’s only reply was, I am Edwin Booth, I did what I was able to do, for which I need no compensation. In a split second Edwin was given the opportunity to do good, had he waited that moment would have been lost forever.

We, like Mr. Booth are all given the choice to serve—the choice to make a difference for the good. I do not need to tell you the choice Edwin’s infamous brother would make years later in a crowded Ford’s Theatre, the only thing I can tell you is this world needs people who seize the opportunity to do good it is our only way to curve the actions of those who do not.

The WSC Chapter of Habitat for Humanity presented the charter to Warner Southern College and Mrs. Doris Gukich accepted the charter on behalf of Dr. Greg Hall.

Today we stand before the great door of opportunity. We stand poised and ready with potential in one hand and vision in the other. The only question is—will we knock upon the doors aged wood? Or will we turn a blind eye to the opportunity before us—will we speak with the language of silence. Mr. Bob Hicks is here today with Habitat for Humanity of East Polk County. He is here today because we have seized an opportunity to do good in all the ways we can. Today Mr. Hicks will leave with us a charter for Habitat for Humanity—a key to the great door of opportunity. It is my hope and the hope of everyone that has made it possible for us to accept this charter, that we commit to this vision—that we do good—and that we serve God.

Martin Luther King Jr. Once said; “if a man is called to be a street sweeper he should sweep streets like Michelangelo painted or Shakespeare wrote poetry or Beethoven composed music. He should sweep streets so well that when the trumpets sound and all the hosts of heaven and earth rejoice, they will pause to say, here lived a street sweeper, who did his job well.” We are brief inhabitant of this earth—we hold the keys of opportunity for an instant that leaves as quickly as it came. May we serve well, live well, rejoice well, may we be fishers of men, sweepers of streets, builders of houses, people of vision, and servants of God. May we, as John Wesley said, Do all the good we can, by all the means we can, in all the ways we can, in all the places we can, at all the times we can, to all the people we can, as long as we ever can. I pray we will.