1 Minute Testimonials on Initiative

Joe* is a young man 12 years of age. Raised in a single parent home and surrounded by many negative influences, he sat on the brink of troubled times. Never given attention by a loving male, he longed to be coached and encouraged. Although he was large for his age he was never encouraged to play sports. His mom attended church, but Joe was slowly drifting away from the care that could be provided there. Coaches of our basketball teams approached Joe and asked if he’d like to play basketball. “Yes” was his resounding response! The first days of disciplined practice were difficult. While encouraging Joe, the coaches took the opportunities as “teachable moments” to focus on the bible-based character qualities of endurance, courage and practice. As time went on the physical training and love shown by his coaches and teammates began to transform Joe. The coaches who Joe now looked up to began to ask more of Joe. “How was school? How was he getting along with others and at home? Joe willingly began to share his struggles of school, home and neighborhood. The coaches continued to praise, pray, encourage, and admonish Joe, and Joe responded. In the final game of last winter’s season, Joe scored 37 points! And at school, Joe is now getting straight A’s.

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*Not his real name

Marcus* is a free bird in the neighborhood. Mom has struggled with addiction for years, as does his uncle now. Marcus was a terror at school, being suspended several times for being incorrigible. Marcus never had a daddy. He never played sports but dreamed of being Michael Jordon. Marcus is 11 years old. One day one of the church volunteers saw Marcus crossing the railroad tracks and called out to him. Marcus tentatively came over to him. The man asked him, “would you like to play basketball?” A dream came across Marcus’ face: “Yes” he yelled! The practices and discipline were difficult for him, yet he stuck with it as the coaches continued to train and encourage. Frustration and broken promises had been his constant companions all his life, it seemed. Each time he made a breakthrough in his game, his coaches and teammates cheered. Marcus began to open up, and in time dedicated his life to Christ (in a team huddle!). He still has his struggles, but both his behavior in school and his grades have improved. And in his family, his mom and uncle have been affected by both the love that has been shown to Marcus and by the changes they have witnessed in his life. Both his mom and uncle are now attending church and enrolled in a small group learning about Christ.

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*Not his real name

Jerry Kirk was pastor of the College Hill Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati for 21 years. He was my friend. He was my friend in spite of the fact that he was always getting me into something that always seemed to wind up spelling “w-o-r-k”.

It was 1973 and a large woman and small man approached Jerry. Because they had both accepted Christ as a result of seeing Billy Graham on television, they wanted Jerry to get some pastors together, invite Billy Graham to Cincinnati and have a crusade. Simple as that.

But God touched Jerry and Jerry touched us eight pastors he assembled to explore the crusade possibility. Jerry took the Initiative. He was willing to start. The effort took five years, gallons of coffee, a myriad of meetings and a whole lot of dough (I’m speaking of the “tons” of donuts consumed at the early morning committee meetings). And the rewards because this man took the initiative? Over 17,000 people accepted Jesus Christ!

And then, in just two short years after the crusade, Jerry initiated another effort with essentially the same pastors which the crusade had brought together. This initiative resulted in the establishing of the Citizens for Community Values, one of the strongest forces in the USA for fighting the all-consuming, withering hateful monster of pornography in our country. It all happened because of initiative. Thanks, Jerry and thank God for Initiative.

John Wesley (1703-91) averaged three sermons a day for fifty-four years preaching all-told more than 44,000 times. In doing this he traveled by horseback and carriage more than 200,000 miles, or about 5,000 miles a year.

His published words include a four-volume commentary on the whole Bible, a dictionary of the English language, a five-volume work on natural philosophy, a four-volume work on church history; histories of England and Rome; grammars on the Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French and English languages; three works on medicine, six volumes of church music; seven volumes of sermons and controversial papers. He also edited a library of fifty volumes known as “The Christian Library.”

He was greatly devoted to pastoral work. Later, he had the care of “all the churches” upon him. He arose at 4:00 A.M., and worked solidly through to 10:00 P.M., allowing brief periods for meals. In the midst of all this work he declared: “I have more hours of private retirement than any man in England.”

At age 83, he was piqued to discover that he could not write more than 15 hours a day without hurting his eyes; and at the age of 86 he was ashamed to admit that he could not preach more than twice a day. In his 86th year, he preached in almost every shire in England and Wales, and often rode thirty to fifty miles a day.

– Selected

[Reproduced with permission from Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan, Bible Communications, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1998, #14953]

German-born George Muller, 1805-1898, made his home in England. He first displayed Initiative in establishing the Scriptural Knowledge Institute. Originally its goals were to found schools on scriptural principles, to provide an education for destitute children, to distribute the Bible, and to support missionaries. Indeed, Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission received its initial financial support almost entirely through Muller. Later he added a fifth aim: to care for needy orphans. Muller demonstrated Initiative in reaching out to the poor, so well described in Charles Dickens’s novels of 19th century England. Muller established orphanages in Bristol, England in which 8,000 destitute children were well fed, educated, given work, and trained to pray and worship daily. All this was accomplished through his Initiative, faith, and much prayer. Funding needs were never publicized, rather he prayed and trusted God to provide. Then at 70, Muller demonstrated Initiative once again when he began traveling throughout the world, preaching and conducting Bible-teaching missions in 42 countries during his last 17 years. Muller observed and addressed the needs of his time. He was committed to education, evangelism, social action, and world missions and took Initiative to do God’s work in the world.

[Adapted from Great Leaders of the Christian Church, edited by John D. Woodbridge, Moody Press, Chicago 1988, pp. 320-324.]

Sam Yates, Jr. is principal of Woodward High School and a member of New Life Temple Church in Cincinnati. Woodward High is a predominately Afro-American high school of about 900 students. New Life Temple is a predominately Afro-American church of approximately 650. The church includes extensive biblically-based character training in its four-year member class. And in its racially integrated community, New Life Temple has a long history of leadership in initiatives to build the community socially, spiritually and economically.

Sam is a good example of this initiative in his school. In February Sam took the initiative to attend the first all-day character workshop offered for educators by the Character Council on the community-wide initiative to encourage citizens to practice the monthly character qualities. He took back to school the information received (How to Create a Culture of Character), and began passing out information on how to establish a school based on character and putting in the daily school bulletin the operational definition of character qualities.

(Ironically, the Sunday after the workshop his church began including five to ten minutes on the character quality of the month in each Sunday service; it had become one of the model “Churches of Character” in the city. Sam is encouraged each Sunday morning by these character emphases, and by the commitment of his church to the community-wide character initiative.)

This fall Sam and a colleague, Mr. Tucker, ordered and presented to each staff member of Woodward High School a copy of the book Achieving True Success and the pocket-size character folder. In addition, Sam invited Iris Cole of the Character Council to talk with the staff about character and its initiative in schools. Meanwhile, he printed character qualities in the annual school planner given to each student, and set up bulletin boards emphasizing character in two major thoroughfares. Now during the morning intercom announcements to students and staff a message is included encouraging practice of the character quality of the month. This month an essay contest is being initiated to award a prize to the student submitting the best essay on the character quality of the month. Each Monday morning before school starts Sam leads a voluntary prayer time for staff members which includes a focus on character. Says Sam, ” Everybody is making a conscience effort to work on these qualities. The atmosphere is totally different this year. I know character counts.”

What effects the initiative of one individual can have on many!

Driving down the highway is an unusual place to start a family, but for Rick Stafford that is exactly how it all began. Somewhere between Cincinnati and Louisville, Rick heard the voice of an orphan boy singing a Russian song on NPR’s Morning Edition radio program. Vladimir was a severely handicapped child who seemed destined to grow up in a wheelchair in a Russian orphanage.

After years of infertility and two failed attempts to adopt, Rick and Diana had just begun discussing the idea of adopting a physically challenged child. That is when Vladimir’s precious voice captured Rick’s heart over the airwaves. Within minutes Rick called NPR’s headquarters to order a transcript and spoke to his wife Diana about adopting the child.

What happened next is an amazing testimony to Rick and Diana’s character. They took initiative to remove all the barriers standing between them and Vladimir. One by one they overcame the obstacles of language, financial costs, and the seemingly endless adoption paperwork. Years later Rick and Diana’s initiative and Vladimir’s hard work resulted in Vladimir being able to walk.

As a reward for Rick and Diana’s initiative, they saw their dreams and the dreams of a little Russian boy come true.

[Adapted from “Vladimir’s Song”, Reader’s Digest, December 1999.]

George Washing Carver, an Afro-American scientist who won international fame for his agricultural research, was a man who took initiative to heart. He demonstrated initiative by taking action in both thought and deed. George was born into a slave family. Orphaned early in his life, he was set free as a slave and raised by the Carver family, who supported his desire to learn. George learned to read and write, something most Afro-American men at that time could not do. He exemplified initiative as he continued to work odd jobs for years to support his studying, until he earned a master’s degree from college. His keen interest in plants took him into agriculture where he invented over 300 products using peanuts, some of which included face powder, milk substitute, soap, and printer’s ink.

The initiative that Dr. Carver took to pursue these activities against the culture of the country at that time is remarkable. He spent many years working to improve both the quality of life for his race, as well as race relations in our nation. Dr. Carver was a man of initiative, who blessed many by his contributions and inspired many by his example.

If Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) were alive today, he would be called the product of a broken home. He was an illegitimate child who never saw his mother. His father later married a sixteen-year-old girl. For twelve years, he was brought up first by his grandmother, then by two aunts. After that, he went to live with his father and stepmother. Because of his father’s legal profession, Leonardo was considered better than the village children, so he was never allowed to play with them. His early life, therefore, was very unsettled, and he never knew what it was to enjoy the fun associated with childhood.

With that bad start, we would expect that Leonardo would have become a dull, sullen boy with strong anti-social attitudes. But Leonardo was a boy with initiative and an active curiosity. As soon as he was old enough to walk, he would hike all over the countryside, with his eyes, ears, and mind wide open. The open fields, the woods, the birds and animals surrounding the Florentine village of Vinci fascinated him.

There was no limit to his interests. Plants, fossils, stars, and all other aspects of nature interested him. In fact, he observed everything so carefully that he became an authority on dozens of scientific and artistic subjects. Today, it amazes us how one man could have possessed so many remarkable talents.

Leonardo could have gained fame in several different professions. He was a “Wright brother” in the field of aeronautics. He was also the Thomas Edison of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. He was a leading astronomer, geologist, engineer, botanist, and anatomist, as well as a famous author, illustrator, and psychologist. Perhaps some reader is saying, “But I only  know Leonardo da Vinci as the renowned painter of the well-known and intriguing ‘Mona Lisa’-that Florentine mystery lady with the most discussed smile in history.”

This is the story of the boy with the bad start! He became one of the most remarkable and famous men of all time!

– George H. Clement

[Adapted with permission from Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan, Bible Communications, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1998, #11803]

Thomas Edison (1847-1931) did not give up when his first efforts failed in finding an effective filament for the carbon incandescent lamp. He did countless experiments with countless kinds of materials. As each failed, he would toss it out the window. The pile reached to the second story of his house. Then he sent men to China, Japan, South America, Asia, Jamaica, Ceylon and Burma in search of fibers and grasses to be tested in his laboratory.

One weary day on October 21, 1879-after 13 months of repeated failures-he succeeded in his search for a filament that would stand the stress of electric current. This was how it happened:

Casually picking up a bit of lampblack, he mixed it with tar and rolled it into a thin thread. Then the thought occurred: Why not try a carbonized cotton fiber? For 5 hours he worked, but it broke before he could remove the mold. Two spools of thread were used up. At last a perfect strand emerged-only to be ruined when trying to place it in a glass tube. Edison refused to admit defeat. He continued without sleep for two days and nights. Finally, he managed to slip one of the carbonized threads into a vacuum-sealed bulb. And he turned on the current. “The sight we had so long desired to see finally met our eyes.”

His initiative and persistence amidst such discouraging odds has given the world the wonderful electric light!

[Adapted with permission from Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan, Bible Communications, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1998, #9262]

The father of Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809-84) was a mechanical genius and invented many farm devices, but he had become the laughingstock of the community on account of his failure to make a grain-cutting device operate successfully. In spite of the discouragements of his father and the ridicule of the neighbors, young McCormick took up the old machine; and after years of initiative, experimentation and failure, he finally succeeded in constructing a reaper which would cut grain.

But even then jealous opposition prevented it from being used, and it was only after years of labor to introduce it, and his personal guarantee to each purchaser that it would harvest the crop, that he succeeded in making sales. After long years of waiting, he arranged with a firm in Cincinnati to manufacture 100 machines, and the famous McCormick reaper was born.

[Adapted with permission from Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan, Bible Communications, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1998, #9267]

He was only twenty-three years old when a Gloucester youth saw this advertisement in a Boston newspaper: “Wanted, young man as an understudy to a financial statistician. PO Box 1720.”

He answered the advertisement, according to an item in the Red Barrel, but received no reply. He wrote again-no reply. A third time-no reply. Then he went to the Boston post office and asked the name of the holder of Box 1720. The clerk refused to give it. He saw the postmaster. He, too, refused; it was against the rules.

Early one morning an idea came to the young man. He rose early, hurriedly prepared his own breakfast, took the first train to Boston, went to the post office, and stood sentinel near Box 1720.

After a long interval, a man appeared, opened Box 1720, and took out the mail. The young man trailed him to his destination, which was the office of a stock brokerage firm. The young man entered and asked for the manager.

The youth told the manager how he had applied for the position of understudy to a statistician-that he had written three times without receiving any response, and had been refused the boxholder’s name at the post office.

“But,” queried the manager, “how did you find out that I was the advertiser?”

“I stood in the lobby of the post office for several hours, watching Box 1720,” answered the young man. When a man came in and took the mail from the box, I followed him here.”

The manager said, “Young man, you are just the kind of persistent fellow I want. You are employed!”

– Sunshine Magazine

[Reproduced with permission from Encyclopedia of 15,000 Illustrations, by Paul Lee Tan, Bible Communications, Inc., Dallas, TX, 1998, #14999]