Together for Lincoln all over Lincoln

By Mike Fak

[September 29, 2008]  On an uncomfortably warm fall day, the city was bustling with activity. There were houses being painted as well as buildings. Gutters were being cleaned out. Projects were being built throughout the town in an effort to have them completed before winter's harsh reality. Landscaping and the pickup of landscape waste was everywhere, as were families taking walks together through our parks and down our main thoroughfares.

That all sounds like a normal fall day, doesn't it? However, it was anything but that.

The difference was that on this Sunday all these tasks were being performed by almost 1,000 Lincoln citizens to help someone else. The Lincoln residents gave up the day with their families to spend time working for that other family as proud members of "the family of their fellow man."

The houses being painted were not theirs. The projects and work details were not on their own homes. And the families walking this city had garbage bags in their hands and were picking up trash and litter that was not their responsibility, save that they made it so.

In some instances the help being given to others was by friends, family and neighbors. But in most cases the help, the toil, the effort was to make someone else's life a little better, a little easier, and it was performed by perfect strangers.

Of course, in many cases, some volunteers were better suited for their task than others. Some were more experienced or knowledgeable. But all carried one undeniable talent to their task that day. They all cared. Something such as caring has to be within an individual's heart, and it is most certainly a talent.

The Together for Lincoln volunteers, perhaps 1,000 strong that day, were all purposeful in doing something special for the glory of their faith. But it became more than that as they rekindled in many, rebirthed in others, the realization that there is something special about us when we put our heart and our faith and our efforts into helping our fellow man.

This past Sunday a great multitude of us decided to prove that we are not all lost, nor uncaring, and to make it seen that in these often dark times there is something special in us that deserves to be praised and reveled in.

To be sure, not a soul who gave their efforts that day did it to receive thanks or praise. But we (LDN) humbly beg to do so regardless. You need our thanks for an effort well-done. You deserve our accolades for an idea well-conceived and well-directed.

The blessings you deserve will be left for someone with more authority to bestow upon all of you.

Well done, Together for Lincoln.

[By MIKE FAK]