I
was traveling through Missouri a couple of years
ago, on my way to sell CD’s at the Minneapolis
Gift Show, when I stopped at the boyhood home of
George Washington Carver. I grew up in Alabama near
Tuskegee Institute where Dr. Carver became a world-renowned
scientist. He’s best known for helping to
prevent soil depletion in the South by convincing
farmers to abandon cotton farming and begin raising
peanuts. He invented peanut butter and hundreds
of useful products from sweet potatoes and peanuts.
Having grown up near Tuskegee, I knew about Dr.
Carver’s work as an adult, but I knew little
of his childhood.
George
Washington Carver was born into slavery in the early
1860’s and grew up in a one-room cabin on
the farm of Moses Carver in southwest Missouri.
George and his mother were kidnapped from the farm
when he was a young boy.
Moses
managed to get George back, but George’s mother
was never seen again. Moses and his wife were not
typical slave owners, for they helped George learn
to read and write. They helped him get situated
in a nearby town when he was ten so he could continue
his education. Despite his brilliance as a student,
George had to struggle to continue his education
as he got older, for few schools in this country
accepted African Americans at the time. After obtaining
a masters degree at Iowa State University where
he then taught, he spent the rest of his life at
the Tuskegee Institute teaching, researching, and
inspiring people around the world.
In
time, world leaders, including Gandhi, were seeking
his agricultural advice, and men like Henry Ford
and Thomas Edison were offering him huge salaries
to join their endeavors. Instead, he chose to remain
at Tuskegee, where he could best help his people.
Although he is best known for his scientific contributions,
George Washington Carver was also a very godly man.
There’s
a small spring just below the one room cabin where
George grew up. As I sat beside that spring, I could
visualize the young boy kneeling with his bucket
to draw water. I was grateful to those who had helped
him learn to read and write, enabling him to become
the great person that he was. I couldn’t help
but think of the children in Haiti and the work
of Beyond Borders. It moved me to deepen my commitment
to this ministry that offers an education to some
of the poorest children in the Western Hemisphere,
many of whom have been separated from their families
yet have great things to offer their own generation
and possibly generations to come, if they can obtain
an education.
I
feel very blessed that I get to make a living by
making music, especially music that brightens the
lives of children. I write and record children’s
records for many reasons, not the least of which
is so that I can contribute to the work of Beyond
Borders and the lives of these Haitian children.
