Because Wise Hope is an organization we help during the year, I received a call from their director, Janice Thompson, asking us to attend their Candlelight Vigil in Decatur. They also hold vigils in Bowie and Jacksboro. Janice asked me if I would speak at the vigil on the importance of small non-profit organizations giving back to the community. Several of our members attended and it was very nice. I was also asked to publish my speech which you may find below. October is Domestic Abuse Awareness Month. We support Wise Hope and all the work they do in our community.

Wise Hope Candlelight Vigil – October 10, 2023

7:30 p.m. – 306 W. Main St., Decatur, TX

Thank you, Janice, and all of you from Wise Hope, visitors, and guests, for having me this evening.  It is an honor to be here.  I must say first of all that I am not a speaker, so I hope you will bear with me for just a few minutes.

My name is Ellen Whitley, and I am a member of the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection…the little white church just down the street at the corners of Church and Hale.  A lot of people around here  call it the wedding chapel, because it was one at one time.  It’s also been an Episcopal Church 3 times, so we hope the third time is the charm. We’re small.  Our roster of members is maybe about 30.  So, we’re tiny…but we’re mighty.  Don’t think that being small or being just one person, that you can’t make a difference.  Shakespeare wrote in a Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Tho she be but little, she is fierce.”  We as a church feel outreach is an important part of who we are.  You don’t have to be big to do something to help others.  Our Mission of the Month consists of doing something once a month for an organization needing help.  During a whole month we gather needed items for a chosen charity.  Little by little we do it in small purchases throughout the month.  It doesn’t seem like much.  But, by the end of the month, we always collect a good number of items to give. We call ourselves “The Little Church That Can.”

Giving back to your community is not just a Christian thing to do.  It is a human thing to do.  We are all brothers and sisters of the same God.  There is a Jewish phrase, Tikkun Olam, which means “Improving or Repairing the world.”  They feel it is their duty to do this.  You can find “Love your neighbor” or some form of it in every religious faith you look into.  We are in this small place in Wise County, Texas.  Look at Wise Hope.  Look at what they do to help those who need protection and have nowhere else to go.  What an honorable thing they do. What a wonderful way of showing love.  As our Presiding Bishop says, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God!”   One person or one family at a time is helped by this organization.  What would these families do without them?  Where would they go?  What a blessing to have Wise Hope in Wise, Jack, and Montague Counties.  They give and will continue to give as long as there is a need.

Some of the organizations in this county my church helps during the year are the veterans, seniors, especially their Meals on Wheels program, CASA, children’s advocacy program that helps children through the court systems, animal shelters, hospital staff, especially the ICU and ER nurses, just to name a few.   All these organizations do unto others as we would have others do unto us.  This is the golden rule.  That is what giving back to your community is all about.  In our Baptismal Covenant we are asked:

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

And we answer:  I will with God’s help.

Every single one of us is capable of doing something for our neighbors…be it a smile, a word of encouragement, getting their mail, offering a ride.  All these things are little…and we can all do them.  It doesn’t have to be a gift of money, or even items, or anything big, but giving of yourselves, by volunteering if you can.  Let your love shine through in whatever you do.

I’d like to close with a version of an African quote that really speaks to my heart.  I believe it is something we can all think about when we are called upon to reach out to our neighbors:  “If many little people in many little places do may little things, they can change the face of the earth.”

Thank you again for having me, and God bless you.

Ellen Whitley