Good Will and Gratitude

In this year’s political climate, it’s easy to be overcome with the vitriol that’s been spewing all around us. Thanksgiving is a great time to stop and take stock of how a little good will can go a long way in healing wounds and generating gratitude. On September 19, 1957, Rosa Welti received a heifer sent to her in Germany by the Trinity Evangelical & Reformed Church of Allentown, Pennsylvania, through the Heifer Project. I share some excerpts from her letter of thanks sent to the congregation, translated by John R. Lovell.

To my dear, honored benefactor:

Today I want to thank you most sincerely for the great joy you gave me. For thirteen long years I could only wish that I might own my own cow. Today this wish was fulfilled. The children can again drink as much milk as they wish. God has not forgotten the homeless, for there are people who still recognize Christian charity. . . .

I want to give you a brief report about myself. It is not pleasant. Thirteen years ago the Russians dragged my husband away and he died of starvation in the coal pits of Tchistakova. I had to leave our home with three children and was sent to a Refugee Camp. We did not know what it was to have enough to eat for a long, long time, we hungered and starved. It was work day and night, and troubles were always present. Now after long, hard years God has helped us. I have been able to create a home in our new surrounding by hard work and many privations. I myself have built the house that you see in the photograph. And now I have received once more my own cow. I again thank you sincerely for it and I pray that God shall reward you for it.

With heart-felt greetings, I remain,
Thankfully yours
Mrs. Rosa Welti and children
Altshausen, Germany

Rosa Welti and her beloved heifer. Photo courtesy of Joanna Hall.

I give my gratitude to blog reader Joanna Hall, daughter of the Trinity E&R Church pastor, Clarence Moatz, for her good will in sharing this letter and photos with me after reading a previous post about shipments to Germany. The Trinity congregation donated several heifers to the Heifer Project. Pastor Moatz also served as a seagoing cowboy to Germany in 1955 and later served as Vice Chairman of the Heifer Project Board of Directors.

What good will can you spread today?

Seagoing cowboys Elder Nicholas Rahn, Rev. Clarence Moatz, Rev. Harry Colver, and Rev. Lloyd Sandt with a heifer for their ship, the S. S. American Importer, September 29, 1955. Photo courtesy of Joanna Hall.