powerful giving

  The Lesson of the Widow's Mite is presented in the Synoptic Gospels (Mark 12:41-44, Luke 21:1-4), in which Jesus is teaching at the Temple in Jerusalem. The Gospel of Mark specifies that two mites (Greek lepta) are together worth a quadrans, the smallest Roman coin. A lepton was the smallest and least valuable coin in circulation in Judea, worth about six minutes of an average daily wage.  It is thought to have been a fraction of the U.S. penny.

In the story, a widow donates two small coins, while wealthy people donate much more.  Jesus explains to his disciples that the small sacrifices of the poor mean more to God than the extravagant, but proportionately lesser, donations of the rich.

Although by human standards it was a pitiful amount, in Jesus’ eyes it was an act of such grandiose generosity that needed to be acknowledged as a teaching moment to his disciples.  The widow’s mite is a short but powerful story that reveals the nature of God’s heart when it comes to giving.

There may be times when you feel as if God is completely oblivious to the real cost of your generosity. But the story of the widow's mite teaches us that God sees your sacrifice. He looks through the crowd and notices you. When your giving seems insignificant compared to others, you don't need to worry -- God sees and God rewards.

A person can give a numerically significant amount of money. But numbers do not matter to God. He owns it all anyway. Whether numerically much or little, the money was already His to begin with. In God’s economy, amount sacrificed always supersedes amount given. 

In the story, Jesus was not nearly as concerned about what was being placed in the temple treasury as what was still left at home. This is why Jesus pointed out that the widow gave all she had. Her sacrifice could not be matched by the rich. And the sacrifice is what mattered.

The easiest thing for the widow to do was to hold off on giving. And no one would have blamed her. She needed those two coins. But the widow opted for obedience instead. She put God first in her finances.  Such a decision shows her faith in God and His promises. 

We can learn a lot from a widow who gave her only two coins. Her generosity challenges our generosity. Are you and those in your church only able to give numerically little? Remember, God sees your sacrifice, and amount sacrificed supersedes amount given. Trust in God’s promises. This is biblical generosity.

Warrick De'Mon Dunn (born January 5, 1975) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 12th overall in the 1997 NFL Draft, after playing college football for the Florida State Seminoles. Dunn was named AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1997 and earned three Pro Bowl selections in his career. After his playing career, Dunn took a minority stake in the Falcons' ownership group led by Arthur Blank.

 Warrick Dunn had a mother who was a Baton Rogue police officer. She was shot and killed while he was a senior in high school.

He raised his 5 siblings while attending college. He graduated and went on to play in the National Football League for 12 years as a running back. 

He built and paid for over 145 homes for single mothers; sacrificing millions of dollars so that they could have better lives.

Oseola McCarty, a cleaning lady, who from working all her life, accumulated great savings, donated to the  University of Southern Mississippi $150,000 for a student scholarship program.  “I want to help somebody’s child go to college,”  “I’m giving it away so that the children won’t have to work so hard, like I did.”

Oseola McCarty, born March 8, 1908, was a laundress who left school in the sixth grade to care for an ailing aunt. 

 In 1995, she donated $150,000 that she had saved to create a scholarship fund at the University of Southern Mississippi.

The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation works to reduce inequities around the world. In the developing world, it focuses on improving health and alleviating extreme poverty. In the United States, the foundation supports programs related to education. In its local region, the foundation promotes strategies and programs that help low income families. The foundation is based in Seattle, Washington, with regional offices in Washington, D.C., New Delhi, India, Beijing, China and London, United Kingdom. Its trustees are Bill and Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett.

The trust holds the donated investment assets from Bill and Melinda Gates, and receives contributions from Warren Buffett. The primary role of the trust is to manage the investment assets and transfer proceeds to the foundation as necessary to achieve the foundation’s charitable goals. Its trustees are Bill and Melinda Gates.

"Well, the idea that a computer was relevant to the problems they were dealing with, where getting enough food, having decent health, getting any electricity, a reasonable place to live, it was pretty clear to me that, hey, I love this computer, and I thought it was neat and kids should have access, but they had to rig up a special generator so I could do this one demo. And they borrowed this generator. It wasn't going to be there when I left. So the idea that there was a hierarchy of needs ... While still believing in digital empowerment, that was not at the top of the list. That was pretty eye opening for me."

 From 1994 through 2018, Bill and Melinda gave the foundation more than $36.0 billion.  Those donations resulted in a tax savings of approximately 11% of the  contributions they made over that time. I received an email notification  that I won a prize or lottery from Bill Gates or the foundation. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor.  

Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston, he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments.  Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.  

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize.  When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.  On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.  http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html 

"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." -- John 15:13 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination near the end of his third year in office. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his work as president concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the U.S. Congress prior to his presidency. 

In 1961, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, considered the most prestigious award for American Catholics. He was posthumously awarded the Pacem in Terris Award (Latin: Peace on Earth). It was named after a 1963 encyclical letter by Pope John XXIII that calls upon all people of goodwill to secure peace among all nations. Kennedy also posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. 

"If not us, who? If not now, when?"

- John F. Kennedy

 "Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger men."

- John F. Kennedy 

"Life is never easy. There is work to be done and obligations to be met—obligations to truth, to justice, and to liberty."

- John F. Kennedy

 Kennedy stated, "Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom." 

Barack Hussein Obama II (August 4, 1961 - ) served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He is a member of the Democratic Party and the first African American president of the United States of America.

Barack Obama gave away more than $1 million while he was President of the United States, more than half of which went to charities supporting children, according to a Forbes analysis of his tax returns from 2009 to 2015. 

The biggest recipient was the Fisher House Foundation, which supports families of veterans and received $392,000 from the former commander in chief from 2009 to 2015. That money appears to have come from sales of Obama’s children’s book Of Thee I Sing.  Just before entering the White House, Obama finished a manuscript for the book, which he published with Random House. Obama pledged to donate all of his post-tax proceeds from the book to the Fisher House Foundation to support a scholarship fund for children of wounded and fallen soldiers.

He gave away $190,000 more to children’s causes, including $48,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs. He also gave away $19,500 to the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit. Another $13,500 went to the Christopher House, a Chicago-based group that supports poor working families. Even after he moved to Washington, Obama remained loyal to his Chicago roots. He poured $11,500 into the Midtown Educational Foundation, which offers enrichment programs to poor urban youth in the Windy City, and he gave $20,500 to two groups fighting hunger in Illinois.

President Obama handed out his own money after national tragedies. He gave $2,000 to a fund for families affected by the Boston bombing in 2013 and another $2,000 to the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation, which promotes gun control, three years after a shooter terrorized Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

Some specific projects he supported as president also received his private money. After a 2010 earthquake rattled Haiti, Obama met with former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and they agreed to head up the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which raised money for the impoverished nation. Obama donated $15,000 to the fund in its first year and $1,000 the next year. He also pitched in $17,000 to help pay for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, which opened in 2011.

Obama Gives $1.4 Million Nobel Prize to 10 Charities

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday named 10 charities to share his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize, with causes ranging from wounded veterans to Haiti’s earthquake survivors and education for minorities.

President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama laughs after receiving his medal and diploma from Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony at City Hall in Oslo in this December 10, 2009 file photo. REUTERS/John McConnico/Pool

“These organizations do extraordinary work in the United States and abroad helping students and veterans and countless others in need,” Obama said in a statement.

He had vowed to donate the prize money to charity after unexpectedly winning the prestigious prize last year, and his selection included some politically important domestic constituencies.

The White House said $250,000, the largest single amount, will go to Fisher House, which houses families of wounded veterans while they receive treatment.

This was followed by a $200,000 donation to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, set up by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush at Obama’s request to help survivors of Haiti’s January earthquake.

Following is a breakdown of Obama’s donations:

- $250,000 to Fisher House, a national nonprofit organization providing accommodation for families of patients receiving medical care at military and Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers.

- $200,000 to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, which was set up in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake to help survivors.

- $125,000 to College Summit, a national nonprofit organization to increase college enrollment rates.

- $125,000 to the Posse Foundation, which awards scholarships to promising public high school students.

- $125,000 to the United Negro College Fund.

- $125,000 to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

_ $125,000 to the American Indian College Fund.

- $125,000 to the Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation.

- $100,000 to AfriCare, which promotes health, food security and access to water primarily in Africa.

- $100,000 to the Central Asia Institute, which education and literacy, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Reporting by Alister Bull; editing by Mohammad Zargham

William Moses Kunstler (July 7, 1919 – September 4, 1995) was an American lawyer and   

  civil rights activist, known for defending the Chicago Seven.  

Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the "leading gathering place for radical lawyers in the country.” Kunstler's defense of the Chicago Seven from 1969 to 1970 led The New York Times to label him "the country's most controversial and, perhaps, its best-known lawyer".  Kunstler is also well known for defending members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Catonsville Nine, Black Panther Party, Weather Underground Organization, the Attica Prison rioters, Meir Kahane assassin El Sayyid Nosair, and the American Indian Movement. 

He also won a de facto segregation case regarding the District of Columbia's public schools and "disinterred, singlehandedly" the concept of federal criminal removal jurisdiction in the 1960s. 

Kunstler refused to defend right-wing groups, such as the Minutemen, on the grounds that "I only defend those whose goals I share. I'm not a lawyer for hire. I only defend those I love."  He was a polarizing figure; many on the right wished to see him disbarred, while many on the left admired him as a "symbol of a certain kind of radical lawyer."  Even some other civil rights lawyers regarded Kunstler as a "publicity hound and a hit-and-run lawyer" who "brings cases on Page 1 and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund wins them on Page 68."  Legal writer Sidney Zion quipped that Kunstler was "one of the few lawyers in town who knows how to talk to the press. His stories always check out, and he's not afraid to talk to you, and he's got credibility—although you've got to ask sometimes, 'Bill, is it really true?'"

Alternately vilified as a publicity-seeking egoist and lauded as a rambunctious, fearless advocate, William Kunstler consistently embodied both of these qualities.

Kunstler's unrelenting, radical critique of American racism and the legal system took shape as a result of his efforts to enlist the federal judicial system to support the civil rights movement. In the late 60s and the 70s, Kunstler, refocusing his attention on the Black Power and anti-war movement, garnered considerable public attention as defender of the Chicago Seven, and went on to represent such controversial figures as Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement leader charged with killing an FBI agent, and Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald. Later, Kunstler briefly represented Colin Ferguson, the Long Island Railroad mass murderer, outraging fans and detractors alike with his invocation of the infamous "black rage" defense.

Defending those most loathed by mainstream, conventional America, William Kunstler delighted in taking on fiercely political cases, usually representing society's outcasts and pariahs free of charge and often achieving remarkable courtroom results in seemingly hopeless cases. Though Kunstler never gave up his revolutionary underpinnings, he gradually turned from defending clients whose political beliefs he personally supported to taking on apolitical clients, falling back on the broad rationale that his was a general struggle against an oppressive government.

What ideological and tactical motives explain Kunstler's obsessive craving for media attention, his rhetorical flourishes in the courtroom and his instinctive and relentless drive for action? How did Kunstler migrate from a comfortable middle-class background to a life as a staunchly rebellious figure in social and legal history? David Langum's portrait gives depth to the already notorious breadth of William Kunstler's life.

ACLU Director

  Chicago Seven

American Indian Movement

Attica

Assata Shakur

Black Panthers

Ron Ruby

 Dolly Rebecca Parton(born January 19, 1946 - ) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her decades-long career in country music.

Even though she's known around the globe for her stunning songwriting and sparkling personality, Dolly Parton is most well-known in her home state for being an incredibly generous philanthropist. She's long been a champion for causes that range from childhood literacy to environmental conservation, donated $1 million to help develop the COVID-19 vaccine, and received $100 million from billionaire Jeff Bezos to continue her charitable work in 2022.  

In addition to her own foundation, Parton has contributed funds to a number of charitable organizations outside the Dollywood umbrella, including the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, Save the Music Foundation and the Boot Campaign, an organization that donates proceeds to military veterans who are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and physical injuries. 

In 1988, Parton established the Dollywood Foundation, named for her theme park in Sevier County, Tennessee. The foundation’s original goal was to help children in the region “achieve educational success,” but it morphed into the Imagination Library in 1995, a program that distributes books to children across the globe, free of charge, from birth until they begin their first year of school. 

Soon after launching the Dollywood Foundation, Parton turned her focus to reducing the high school dropout rate in Sevier County, Tennessee. According to the organization, Parton asked every seventh- and eighth-grade student to “buddy up” with another student, promising them $500 in cash after they both successfully graduated from high school. The program was a major success for students in that year — according to the organization, the high school’s dropout rate declined from 35 percent to just 6 percent in response to Parton’s gift. 

One year after the debut of the Dollywood Foundation, Parton offered a $500 scholarship to every student in Sevier County, Tennessee, who wished to attend the nearby Hiwassee College, in an effort to boost graduation rates in the region and improve college attendance. 

In 1995, Parton made the Imagination Library, her non-profit organization that sends one book per month to each enrolled child from birth until their first year of school, the major focus of the Dollywood Foundation. The Imagination Library was founded in tribute to Parton’s father, who was unable to read. 

Every year, five high school seniors in Sevier County, Tennessee, are awarded the Dolly Parton Scholarship, which provides $15,000 for each recipient to pursue a college education. The scholarship is, according to the Dollywood Foundation, given to students who “have a dream they wish to pursue and who can successfully communicate their plan and commitment to realize their dreams.

  In conjunction with the National Network of State Teachers of the Year, the Dollywood Foundation presents the Chasing Rainbows Award to a “teacher who has overcome obstacles in his/her life and is making a difference in the lives of children.” As a prize, the winner gets to spend a week at Dollywood in Tennessee as Parton’s honored guest. 

At a benefit concert in May 2007, Parton raised money for the LeConte Medical Center, a new hospital and cancer center in Sevier County, Tennessee. In addition to the $500,000 raised at the concert, both Dollywood and Parton’s Dixie Stampede dinner theater each pledged $250,000 to the project, bringing the total amount of funds raised to $1 million. The hospital opened in 2010 and named its women’s health ward after Parton. 

Through her Dollywood Foundation, Parton pledged that she would donate $1,000 per month for six months to families who lost their homes in the aftermath of wildfires that ripped through the Great Smoky Mountains in 2016. In addition to donating her own money to the My People Fund, Parton also hosted two star-studded telethons to raise funds for fire victims, ultimately raising and donating millions of dollars. 

In 2016, Parton made headlines by awarding a $30,000 Special Merit Scholarship to a 2-year-old girl named Evey Johns in recognition of the Imagination Library’s milestone of shipping out one million books per month. Johns, who had enrolled in the Imagination Library, was announced as the recipient of the scholarship at a stop on Parton’s Pure & Simple Tour. 

To celebrate the release of her children’s album, "I Believe In You," Parton made a $1 million donation to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Parton’s gift was made in honor of her beloved niece, who was treated for leukemia at the hospital.

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the United States, Dolly Parton donated $1 million to help fund vaccine research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 

Launched in 2022, the Care More initiative entitles employees of Dolly Parton's Dollywood Parks and Resorts to a day off that they can use to volunteer at a nonprofit of their choice. “I think it’s important for everyone to do their share to help their fellow man,” she said in a 2022 speech. “This world is so crazy. I don’t think we even know what we’re doing to each other and to this world.”

Source: https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/a_timeline_of_dolly_partons_philanthropy/s1__28363436#slide_20

Harriet Tubman (March 1822 - March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. 

 After escaping to Philadelphia, Tubman thought of her family. "I was a stranger in a strange land," she said later. "My father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were in Maryland. But I was free, and they should be free."  While Tubman saved money from working odd jobs in Philadelphia and New Jersey, the U.S. Congress passed the fugitive slave act of 1850, which forced law enforcement officials to assist in the capture of escaped slaves – even in the states that had outlawed slavery – and heavily punished abetting escape.

Known as the “Moses of her people,” Harriet Tubman was enslaved, escaped, and helped others gain their freedom as a “conductor" of the Underground Railroad. Tubman also served as a scout, spy, guerrilla soldier, and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War.   She is considered the first African American woman to serve in the military. 

Contrary to legend, Tubman did not create the Underground Railroad; it was established in the late eighteenth century by black and white abolitionists. Tubman likely benefited from this network of escape routes and safe houses in 1849, when she and two brothers escaped north. Her husband refused to join her, and by 1851 he had married a free black woman. 

Tubman returned to the South several times and helped dozens of people escape. Her success led slave owners to post a $40,000 reward for her capture or death.

Tubman was never caught and never lost a “passenger.” She participated in other antislavery efforts, including supporting John Brown in his failed 1859 raid on the Harper's Ferry, Virginia arsenal.

After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was freed in 1990 and negotiated with State President F. W. de Klerk the end of apartheid in South Africa, bringing peace to a racially divided country and leading the fight for human rights around the world. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

 Mandela spent 27 years in prison for leading the African National Congress (ANC), which opposed apartheid policies that kept South Africa's Black residents segregated, often in inhumane conditions.

 Known and loved around the world for his commitment to peace, negotiation and reconciliation,  Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was South Africa's first democratically  elected president (1994-1999). Mandela was an anti-apartheid  revolutionary and political leader, as well as a philanthropist with an  abiding love for children. 

As South Africa's first Black president, Mandela is known for his dedicated efforts at dismantling decades of white supremacist apartheid rule and helping put his country on a path toward healing, justice, and reconciliation.

The evils of apartheid in South Africa is too vast to list or comprehend from economics, education, sexual,  tenure of land, arrests and detentions, to politics.

Mandela is considered the father of Modern South Africa. He was instrumental in tearing down the oppressive government and installing democracy. Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for peacefully destroying the Apartheid regime and laying the foundation for democracy.

Mandela received more than 260 awards over 40 years, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. From 1994 to 1999, Mandela was President of South Africa. He was the first such African to be elected in fully representative democratic polls.

"Peace is not just the absence of conflict; peace is the creation of an environment where all can flourish, regardless of race, colour, creed, religion, gender, class, caste, or any other social markers of difference."  --- Nelson Mandela at Global Convention on Peace and Nonviolence 31, January 2004

https://www.un.org/en/exhibits/page/building-legacy-nelson-mandela

Sadio Mané (10 April 1992) is a Senegalese professional footballer who plays as a forward or winger for Saudi Arabia Pro League club, Al-Nassr.  Known for his pressing, dribbling and speed, Mané is considered by some sources to be one of the greatest players of all time. 

He is practically single-handedly transforming his village of Bambli, Senegal into a striving town.  As a baller, he earns upwards of 40M euro, but he does not spend it on a lot of luxury items and instead chooses to spend his wealth helping others.

$600,000 to build a hospital

$300,000 to build a school

$100 monthly to families below the poverty line

gives gifts and grants to students

built post office providing 4G internet

In an interview, he once said,

"Why would I want 10 Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or 2 planes; what good would these things do for me in this world?  Today, thanks to my football career, I can help people."