Another Special Life in Christ

These testimony lives are not stories of "role models". Jesus is the role model!
These are lives wonderfully touched & changed by Jesus!

John Wesley Fling (1921-2007):

Fling grew up on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, one of 19 children. "Our family was so poor," he says, "we weren't even sharecroppers. We were sharecroppers helpers. What we ate, we had to scavenge, catch out of the water, dig out of the ground, or shake out of a tree." The stories about John Fling giving away the clothes off of his back are true and legion and generally familiar to thousands of citizens in central South Carolina (see book, below). Equipped with only a third grade education and an insatiable desire to give, he says, "My mission in life is making the lives of others easier." He operated as John Fling Ministries in his home town of Columbia, S. C.

Calling JWF "The Saint of South Carolina," Halamandaris says (see book, below), "John Fling is the only man I have ever met who completely and consistently responds to the challenge of Aquinas. For fifty years--all of his adult life--he had given everything away--everything he has made, everything he has been given. Those clothes he gives away are often better than the clothes he wears. He doesn't own a television, but he has purchased several for others. He doesn't own a car and has never owned a home, but he has helped many people buy theirs. John lives in a cottage behind his mother-in-law's house. Although he has worked all his life, all he has to his name is five thousand dollars in savings in the bank, and that's to cover funeral expenses for himself or his wife."

"All he does is whatever needs doing for an extended family that includes four hundred children, two hundred seniors, and about forty blind people. Every day John Fling goes looking for someone else to help. He buys food, delivers food, and laundry, transports the need to medical appointments, and response to dozens of calls from people in need . . ."

Book:

The book, Be The Light: A Blueprint for a Happy and Successful Life, by Bill Halamandaris, is a road map for forging a life full of meaning and bolsters readers with a sense of empowerment. In Halamandaris' words, "Contrary to popular opinion, the secret of success in life has more to do with our hearts than our heads. What makes us different is not our ability to think, but our ability to love. It is the heart that is made in the image of God."

For those who have despaired while watching the evening news or felt helpless in the face of worldwide poverty, crime, hunger, and war, Halamandaris offers an incredible testimony to the power of each individual to dispel the darkness.

Based on life lessons from some of the most remarkable people in America, Be the Light... describes what each incredible person does and why, the greatest lessons they have learned, and the advice they have for others. Halamandaris is a master at profiling the lives of those who are well known as well as those who are everyday people -- showing the reader how much one man or woman can do and reminding us we can do more. Reading this book will remind readers of that incredible feeling that anything is possible.

The "teachers" (as Halamandaris calls them) include Wally "Famous" Amos, Jimmy Carter, Jane Goodall, Kevin Johnson, Dave Thomas and Mother Teresa and "ordinary" people such as Ranya Kelly, a housewife working out of her home, who generates millions of dollars of support for those in need every year, Tommie Lee Williams, a blind black man from Mississippi, who has found a way to support his poor community for more than a quarter of a century, and Melissa Poe, a university student who founded Kids for A Cleaner Environment at the age of eight.

Of "The Saint of South Carolina," Halamandaris says, "John Fling is the only man I have ever met who completely and consistently responds to the challenge of Aquinas. For fifty years--all of his adult life--he had given everything away--everything he has made, everything he has been given. Those clothes he gives away are often better than the clothes he wears. He doesn't own a television, but he has purchased several for others. He doesn't own a car and has never owned a home, but he has helped many people buy theirs. John lives in a cottage behind his mother-in-law's house. Although he has worked all his life, all he has to his name is five thousand dollars in savings in the bank, and that's to cover funeral expenses for himself or his wife."

"All he does is whatever needs doing for an extended family that includes four hundred children, two hundred seniors, and about forty blind people. Every day John Fling goes looking for someone else to help. He buys food, delivers food, and laundry, transports the need to medical appointments, and response to dozens of calls from people in need . . ."

Fling grew up on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, one of 19 children. "Our family was so poor," he says, "we weren't even sharecroppers. We were sharecroppers helpers. What we ate, we had to scavenge, catch out of the water, dig out of the ground, or shake out of a tree." The stories about John Fling giving away the clothes off of his back are true and legion. Equipped with only a third grade education and an insatiable desire to give, he says, "My mission in life is making the lives of others easier."

Obituary:

Mr. Fling died Thursday, August 10, 2007. Born in 1921 in LaGrange, GA, he was a son of the late John T. and Lillie Cottle Fling. Interment was in St. Peter’s Catholic Church Cemetery, Columbia, S. C.. He served in the U.S. Army during WW II. He worked for The State newspaper for 17 years and retired from Love Chevrolet after 24 years. He organized and operated Fling Ministries for 45 years, helping those in need - from the blind to the old and especially the many young children to whom he was known as “Everyday Santa.” Mr. Fling was a member of the Federation of the Blind and a lifelong member of Earlewood Baptist Church. He was invited to the White House during the tenure of Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George Bush. He was a recipient of the International Sertoma Award and the Order of the Palmetto.

Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Jane Regal Fling; sons, Richard A. (Miriam E.) Fling of Columbia, John W. (Amy) Fling of Columbia; sisters, Margaret Phoney of Columbia, Betty Jackson of Charleston, Madge Daniel of W. Point, GA, Mable Brand of LaGrange, GA, Ann Harkin, Sarah Brand, both of Birmingham, AL; grandchildren, Richard A. Fling, II, and Sarah N. Fling. He was predeceased by three brothers and nine sisters.

John's Find a Grave MEMORIAL.

For more information, use an on-line search engine for his/her name and secondary search word, testimony.

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[posted 20 Jan. 2002; latest update 13 August 2007]

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