Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 16:58:51 -0700 From: Soulforce Subject: A Message from Mel... --------------------- Soulforce Alert To unsubscribe from the Soulforce mailing list, send a message to journey@soulforce.org with just "Unsubscribe" (no quotes) in the subject. ===================== To respond directly to Mel White, please send an email to: melwhite@soulforce.org Mel White endeavors to read every email sent to his personal attention. Given the current volume of email Soulforce receives, we gratefully appreciate your patience if you require a response. Please use the journey email box (journey@soulforce.org) for subscription changes. ===================== Dear Soulforce friends and colleagues, It's 3:45 a.m. Today Gary and I begin a twenty-day "sabbatical." The phones are unplugged. In a few minutes, this computer will be turned off (and the portable locked away). The mail is being held at the post office. The calendar is blank. We will be totally off line until August 15. Are you believing this? It's true! A second honeymoon after 16 years together. I can't even imagine what Gary's gone through being married to me for all that time. No more than I can imagine what life would be without him. Nor can I imagine what life would be without you, our Soulforce friends and colleagues. There is no adequate way for me to say "Thanks!" for what so many of you have sacrificed in the last ten months, no way to describe what your sacrifices mean to me or to the others you have touched along the way, friends and adversaries alike. There is no way to include each name, retell each story, thank each one of you for the times God has used you to renew my spirit and recharge my batteries. But, I will not forget... The cards, letters, emails, and phone calls that came to say, "You go, girl" just when we needed them; The checks you have sent or the credit card donations you have made on line just in time to pay the Soulforce bills for another month; The miles you have donated to keep us flying; Jeaneane's crosses; Dotti's T-shirts; Louise's "Our Faces. Our Stories" Elizabeth playing quietly in the corner; The deeply moving stories you told that weird, wonderful weekend in Lynchburg and in six other cities across the nation; The tears in your eyes and the smiles on your faces as you stood vigil at Jimmy's trial, at Fox Family headquarters, or at the denominational meetings in Cleveland, Orlando, Long Beach, and Denver; The way you looked, hundreds of you, tall, proud, determined, arm in arm, waiting to be arrested or singing and applauding your support from the sidelines; The moment I was reunited with the rest of you in your prison "blues" after 38 hours in the "Psycho Cell" in Orlando (where too many of you think I still belong); The circle of hope in Long Beach with Presbyterian parents crying openly as they thanked each of you, one by one, for taking this stand for their children; The surprise party and the sudden appearance of sixty cupcakes ablaze with far too many candles; The hugs and the whispers, the tears and the laughter, sharing the joy, the grief, and the anger together… What a difference you have made in my life and in the lives of so many others whose names you will never know. And the nation has noticed. With all our blunders, the first stage of our Soulforce campaign to Stop Spiritual Violence has been an amazing success. The newspaper, radio, and television coverage has been phenomenal. The stories in print and video are still coming in. Reporters are already calling to ask about Soulforce building the Habitat House in Lynchburg (October 3-7) and about our Soulforce training, vigil and civil disobedience at the National Council of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. (November 10-13). Already, Jimmy Creech, and the Soulforce Advisory Board are working on stage two of our campaign to end this endless debate and the terrible suffering that goes with it. Now it's 5:30 a.m. I have to wake up Gary, finish packing, and head to the airport. My carry-on has several new books to read, a fairly well worn Bible to study, and a pile of piano concerti CDs to fill my head with music. And though we're both excited about having this time along/together, we're going to miss you. In fact, the vacation is working already. I'm looking forward to coming home and starting it all again and we haven't even left yet. So, you better use these twenty days to get some time off yourself. There's justice to be done and I can't wait to get back to doing it TOGETHER. Love you, Mel -------------------- To respond directly to Mel White, please send an email to: melwhite@soulforce.org -------------------- Soulforce Alert To unsubscribe from the Soulforce mailing list, send a message to journey@soulforce.org with just "Unsubscribe" (no quotes) in the subject. =====================