Our current Increased Offertory Program at Sts. Joseph and Paul reminds me of ways to be a better steward.- At a very young age in 1938 I learned stewardship by good example and prayer from my parents Joseph and Mary Fleischmann.
- Each week Dad would buy two Sunday Visitors for five cents each at St. Mary Magdalene. We kept one for our family and Mother would tell my brother Marvin and me to take one to a family who lived near the Green River which we did each week.
- My wife Maxine and I were married in 1960 and gave weekly to our church without fail. Through our married years we had very compassionate responses from priests when talking to them about our level of giving.
- In 1965 we told our good Pastor, Fr. Aloysius Powers that we had not been giving 10% and he just said “just do the best you can”.
- Recently when I asked Fr. Kalombo how much I should give to the church he said in a very kind way, “give ‘till it hurts”.
- In addition to giving to our church, we decided to give each year to St. Jude’s Hospital (following the example of my brother-in-law), Right to Life of Owensboro and most recently to St. Benedict’s Homeless Shelter. I cannot emphasize enough that our church family has been a great inspiration to me and is a great supporter of our church.
