Cooper Sisters Re-Visited

Reverend A.B. Cooper Memorial Fund

PRESS RELEASE

For more information, contact:

Matthew Porter, Ministry assistant, Baptist Student Center

573-335-6489 or bscsemo@gmail.com

                                               Reverend A.B. Cooper, who helped found the Baptist Student Center in the 1930s.

            Jane Cooper Stacy, formerly director of alumni services at the University and director of development, recently gave a donation to the ministry of the Baptist Student Center on campus in memory of her father, the late Reverend Allen B. Cooper, of Charleston, MO.    The Reverend Cooper was the first executive secretary of the campus ministry and Jane Stacy was the first summer missionary sent out by the Baptist Student Center.   She conducted Vacation Bible Schools in Washington and Oregon during the summer of 1957. Another daughter of Reverend Cooper, Betty Cooper Hearnes, served on the ministry’s board for many years.

The fund for the donation, named after Reverend Cooper, will be used to defray the cost of a Sunday-night meal at the Center which is open to all students on campus, with particular emphasis on international students.  The meal is free of charge.  The idea of the gift in her father’s honor stemmed from his thought that when people sit down together over a meal, “we feed the body, the spirit of a person and the soul of the participant.” The start-up gift will enable the meal ministry to continue for the first semester of the year and expand to include more international students.

This ministry to international students was started last year by Matthew Porter, Ministry Assistant, and the meal draws approximately 25 students each week to the Center.   The ministry has been a part of a widely-expanding program aimed at meeting practical needs of the campus constituency. 

The Sunday-night meals often include traditional meals prepared by international students themselves.  Last year, students enjoyed Egyptian, Chinese, Sri Lankan, and Bangladesh dishes, among others.   Baptist Student Center Director Dr. Bruce Gentry is pleased with the impact the dinners have had.  “Our Sunday evening meals are like an oasis,” Gentry said, “a place where students can relax, enjoy a unique cuisine and make new friends.” He added, “And we learn to bridge cultures of understanding.”

To learn more about this international ministry, or to make a contribution for expanded funding of the ministry, contact the Baptist Student Center at 573-335-6489 or bscsemo@gmail.com. The Center also hosts weekly student luncheons, Bible studies, and academic courses.

Come by the table!

I love living in Cape Girardeau!  You know people and they know you!  Last night Charlie and Judy Wiles took me to Dalhousie for a birthday dinner!  We have been friends forever!

All night long other people came up to the table, stood there, and we talked:  Judy Farris, Ray and Ann Ritter, Linda and Hugh Tewes, Robin Cole and his wife, bill Holland and Mike Hudson, a Texas alumnus!   Strange that all of those conversations centered around a commonality!

I love the Cape. It is uniquely mine!

It is raining cats and dogs today!

I came downstairs this morning and it is raining cats and dogs!  Immediately, I knew I couldn't even go out and get the sopping newspaper for a bit, and it was a cinch I couldn't do half of the 17 things on my list for today which I meticulously made out last night.  So I drank two cups of coffee and took a Motrin.  (When it rains, my knees feel it and so does my left hip.)   Morton's Salt Company used to have a slogan on their box, "When it rains, it pours!"   But what it did, when it rained, was clot in the box!

I grew up in Mississippi County and the farmers lived for rain, as did their crops.   There was almost jubilation over a downpour.  I would go with my dad to visit his church people and we would pull into the driveways of Earl Presson, Bill Thompson, Mr. Elmore, Allen and Ruth Edwards and they would come out to the car to tell us how much rain they got!

So what did they all mean,  "It rained cats and dogs".   Don't think that they knew that the expression came from Jonathan Swift's book of polite conversation of 1738 when he said, "I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain 'cats and dogs'. "   Refers to a poor sanitation system after a flood when deceased cats and dogs and....rabbits and hens, and old newspapers and disease ridden "stuff" would remain in the streets for weeks.

I'm changing my expression, as of this moment, to "It's raining buckets outside."

An ethical dilemma awaits me today!

I don't want to be in my shoes today but I can't walk out of them or give them to someone else.  If I could, I would!   I have to do something that someone had to do for me (or to me) years ago and I know how it feels like to be slapped in the face for naivete!   That's what I have to do today.   I have been approached by a genuine caring student who is trying to raise funds for an international student to stay here in this country and he has brought me a sheaf of papers to look over about the need of this student.

Unfortunately, it brought back memories of years ago when I faced the same sheaf of papers for another international student and was told that it was a sham by the student authorities and not to give the student a dime.  It was the same con job:  the mother had had surgery and she could not pay so the student had to be deported.   The company puts out the word to the families that Americans will pay the freight and their student can go to school free.   And it worked on me!

Now, I face the dilemma of telling my experience to a person who is kind and compassionate and warning him of the dilemma.   Not every story someone tells you is true;   that is a lesson that all of us "schmucks" have to learn.   Maybe I should think of this episode today as a teaching moment!   I still wish I could avoid it but I am not willing to shuck over $1700 for the experience of non-teaching!

Negotiating with God!

I have spent a lifetime negotiating with God and I continue to play the game with him!  Despite the fact that I taught young couples for years and that I actually have a seminary degree, I no longer attend a church but I bargain and negotiate with God about it!  I still believe that there is a God and he cares for me!

And I search everywhere for justification! Like Abraham, leading patriarch!  God had had enough of the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:20-32) and he was going to take them out!  But Abraham kept lowering the stakes.  Finally he got the stakes lowered to ten righteous people.

Roger Karban writes:  "From an early age,one learned and practiced the art of negotiating, and Abraham demonstrates this skill."  If it was okay for Abraham, I am claiming it for me!  God, just keep your hand on me, and take care of me and mine and I'll just keep playing these justification games and negotiating with you.   You have never failed me.  I wish I could say the same!

Call me Margaret Jane!

My mother had two close friends in Charleston mo:  Glenda Margaret Brock and Frances Howard Hill!  When I was born, the sixth girl, she wanted to name me after Glenda so I got her second name which everyone ignored after the naming!  All but Frances Hill who Always called me "Margaret Jane" after her beloved friend!

And that is part of the reason that is was so special when my sister, Julia Warren, gave me the Fostoria she had bought from Frances when Frances was selling some of her dishes!  I love remembering all of the past world of Frances and Glenda and Charleston and sisters who give and share!

Yes, I am proud to be Margaret Jane again and will remember, thanks to Julia Edith, every time I raise a glass of stemware!   Will someone, anyone, just infrequently, call me Margaret Jane just to help me remember where "I " came from?