A Moment with Maurice

1976.3.28

We went to the movies tonight to see "The Winds of Autumn," which everyone liked very much. Mariko left this morning to go to Tim Folzenlogen's team in Lubbock, Texas. Tim and I were on the same team with Richard Panzer in Arkansas.

Tim would tell me then how much I inspired him because I was a new brother but I was making a high result, around $200 every day. Tim told me that before the family he was an artist, a graduate of art school in Cincinnati who showed his paintings in galleries and even had a patron who supported him financially. That amazed me: The Principle is so powerful it could even move a successful artist like Tim to put down his brushes and pick up a box of candy. He said he knew that Father would let him go back to painting one day, but right now he was needed on MFT. It was one of the most sacrificial things I could imagine. I didn't have anything that I was giving up to be here.

We now have a Japanese captain named Takayuki Yasuda. Steven was called to Oklahoma City last Sunday, the 21st. Mariko left that day too to go back to Dallas. For that day and the following Monday I was the acting captain. On Sunday night we had a team meeting to give everyone a chance to express their thoughts and opinions, and I think it made, at least I hope it made, a good foundation to receive our new captain.

I went to pick him up at the Denver airport Monday afternoon and was very surprised to see Mariko get off the plane too. The next two days we would stop fundraising early, about 10 o'clock, and come back to the center. But Friday we pledged a $150 team average and we stayed out until we fulfilled. I set a no eating condition until I made my goal of $150, and I ended the day with $152.

The next day, Saturday, was more difficult. We had to stay out all night, right up until Pledge Service at 5 am But we made our goal.

We also fundraised in Pueblo and Colorado Springs earlier in the week. In Pueblo I made over $200, and in Colorado Springs I met a man in a bar named Maurice Campbell. As soon as I walked in the bar he said, "I'll help." But I was already talking to some other people so I didn't pay much attention. He called out again. This time I went over to him and he just said, "How much?" and bought my last two boxes of thin mints without knowing anything of what I was doing.

Then he told me he had studied to be a missionary but had dropped out and he knew he had failed God and Christ and himself. I told him God still had great things in store for him, and he started crying. He wanted to believe it so much. He asked me to pray for him because he was going in for open heart surgery and he was scared to death.

I cried very much that night. I kept wondering how many Maurice Campbells there are in the world, looking ahead at the possibility of dying, and looking back on a life of regret.