Jack was a very kind and generous man.
And Jack kept his word, no matter what.
I don't say those words lightly.
Once Jack said over 45 years ago to a man I knew,
"Work with me, and you'll never go hungry."
And he kept his word through the decades that followed
through thick and thin, even to that man's old age.
Jack put his money --and his actions--
where his mouth was.
Jack was an example of what a godly man should be,
as it says in Psalm 15:4
"...He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not."
Jack showed kindness to others, regardless of whether his kindness
was repaid or not.
Most everyone at Chick could tell you their own personal stories.
But let me give you just a couple of examples,
both my own, and that of a former Catholic priest.
It is so wonderful to finally be able to do this!
Hi, I'm David Daniels from Chick Publications.
Even when it was difficult, Jack didn't back out
when he gave his word.
When Jack and I started working together
in August of 2000, my metabolism was very high.
I walked fast, talked fast, and I burned calories
like I was a fireplace.
In the dead of winter, I warmed the people
who were next to me.
I didn't even need a jacket.
Jack knew something was wrong.
Here's a picture of me from 2003, shortly after we finished Jack's film,
The Light of the World.
When I showed this picture to Jack, he said, "You look like Death."
All I needed was a hood and a scythe,
especially when you see the picture in black and white.
I should have listened to Jack and gone to the doctor.
But I held off going for another year, until late 2004.
By then the doctor told me I was hyperthyroid,
and off the charts.
On a scale from 1-12, I was a 20.
I started losing as much as a pound a day.
My doctor said I had "muscular myopathy."
My body was burning even my muscles.
I was 42 and my doctor said my body was killing me.
I trembled when I walked.
So 80 year old Jack held me up!
I got to repay him 10 years later, when he was 90,
and I got to help hold him up.
It was the least I could do.
Jack lent countless people money.
He hated money, except for what it could do
to help people.
One day in the 1980s Alberto Rivera brought a man
to meet Jack.
He said his name was Lee Abeyta.
He was a former Catholic priest with a male "friend."
As a result, he had, as Romans 1 says,
"dishonoured his body" and was reaping what he had sown.
He had some serious personal medical issues.
But as a former priest (vow of poverty and all),
he had no money to take care of himself.
Jack talked privately with Alberto.
"What if he's a Catholic plant?"
There was, of course, the real possibility
that he was sent there to cause problems
at Chick Publications.
Alberto replied, "What if he's for real?
You've got to take the chance."
Back then not many were going to help
a former priest in trouble.
After the 2nd Vatican Council ended in 1965,
most churches started "making nice" with Catholicism.
Christian bookstore magazines advised Bible bookstores
to start stocking Catholic items, like idols of Mary, Joseph,
female-looking angels, sometimes even rosaries.
And, of course, they had to stock
the official Roman Catholic New American Bible,
which included folktales of the Apocrypha.
Christians were compromising with Catholicism
like never before.
So who else would work with this messed-up man?
Jack decided to help him.
He took what money he had and paid for
the former priest's medical bills, even though they were
the result of his "lifestyle."
Lee might have even worked at Chick a short while.
And of course, Jack prayed for and about
this former priest.
One day Jack walked up to Lee and said to him,
"The Lord showed me that you will betray me."
The man's eyes grew wide like saucers.
He had the "How did you know?"
look.
Not long after that Lee disappeared.
Then a phone call came.
"Who's gonna pay for the repair bill on this car?"
It was a radiator shop --in Alaska.
Lee had "borrowed" an old car from Jack,
and taken off to Alaska with "a male friend."
Then the radiator blew.
Those were the Alaskan pipeline days,
and everything was way overpriced.
The bill came to over $400.
So Lee's "partner" handed a credit card.
The repairman called to check with the credit card company
for a large bill like that.
Guess what?
The credit card was stolen --just like the car!
So the repairman called the cops and they arrested the former priest
and his friend.
And he put the car up on blocks.
That old car wasn't worth retrieving.
So here at Chick they said, "We'll sell you the car
for the cost of the repair bill."
So they sent the guy the pink slip, and he called it even.
You know, sometimes there really is
such a thing as poetic justice.
Can you imagine the day those two got out of jail?
Boy, were they in for a surprise.
They were in Alaska, and now they had no car!
It had been sold out from under them!
They had to laugh about it here at Chick Publications.
So Jack has been betrayed before.
But that didn't stop him from trying to help
wherever he could.
James 2:15-17 says:
15 "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace,
be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding
ye give them not those things which are needful to the body;
what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."
Jack had a living faith, and was not afraid to help people,
even when the Lord told him that person would betray him.
No story about Jack would be even close to accurate,
unless it included Jack's generosity.
God bless you, and have a wonderful day.