I'd be half a man if I didn't help my neighbors"
-Kenny Vaughan
As forty-one inches of hurricane Irma's rain poured over the east coast of Texas and water filled the same homes that had only recently been rebuilt from hurricane Harvey, Kenny Vaughan was once again in his boat doggedly searching from house to house pulling out the aged, the children, and even swimming dogs. When asked why he keeps showing up and doing this, he gave the interviewer the simple answer above.
His comment struck me. It reminded me of a meeting I had with a marketing person who wants to help us involve young people in volunteerism. She suggested we remove the cross from our logo. "Young people," she said, "are kind of anti religion." Well...maybe some are, but more than likely it reflects their lack of understanding of what the cross represents.
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the ten commandments, we were presented with just four rules to guide our relationship with God, but six to guide our relationships with humanity. The vertical post in the cross is us connecting with Him, the horizontal represents how we interact with our neighbors. Then if it wasn't clear enough, Jesus took another shot at it by telling us to "love our neighbors as ourselves," and bore the pain of that cross because of His love for us--His earthly neighbors.
Lucky for those flood-worn Texans, Kenny Vaughan isn't "anti-religion." He overcame 15 years of obstacles in his life by clinging to a favorite Bible verse and made himself a dog tag engraved with Joshua 1:9.
A lot of people liked that dog tag. Today, Kenny's company, Shields of Strength, has made more than four million dog tags and given away hundreds of thousands of them. The verse simply says "I will be strong and courageous. I will not be afraid, I will not be discouraged."
Like UNITE INDY, Kenny is committed to loving his neighbors. Needless to say, the cross in our logo is staying right where it is.
"...With God, all things are possible" - Matthew 19:26
