DVD of Johnny Cash's local concert to help fund minister’s hospital dream

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September 15, 2008

By BERNIE HORNICK The Tribune-Democrat Mon Sep 15, 2008, 10:25 PM EDT

Decades after he envisioned building a hospital in Africa, the Rev. Jack Shaw says stone walls are going up around a 10-acre property in Kenya.

To help raise funds for the project, a DVD featuring Shaw’s friends Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash will be released in October.

The disc features a benefit concert the Cashes performed Sept. 17, 1991, at the Greater Johnstown Christian Fellowship.

“(Cash) called me and said, ‘June and I want to do a concert for your ministries,’ ” the 66-year-old Richland Township minister recalled.

About 2,000 people attended, and $15,000 was raised that night.

Shaw said it’s been a slog raising money for the hospital and cutting through red tape in Kenya, but he singled out a $100,000 contribution from a Rhode Island church.

He said it will take about $65,000 to build the first structure in Nakuru, Kenya, before a doctor can arrive. With good fortune, that building could go up in 2009.

“I don’t really have a timeline,” Shaw said. “ ‘The appointed time will come,’ ” he added, quoting Scripture. “I do expect I’ll see it, though God doesn’t give any guarantees on life.”

Shaw said the needs in Kenya are critical, adding that more than 850 people die each day from AIDS alone in the nation of 32 million.

The clinic will provide prenatal care, first aid and early care for those who need to go to bigger hospitals, he said. Eventually, he hopes to build a school as well.

“It’s going to take millions (of dollars),” said Shaw, now an elder at the Greater Johnstown Christian Fellowship along Elton Road.

Shaw and the Man in Black became fast friends after they met in 1981 at a recording studio in Nashville, Tenn.

“John and June were board members of Jack Shaw Ministries,” Shaw said. “They believed in this.”

At breakfast on the morning after the show, Shaw recalled, Cash wrote a check to go toward the hospital’s creation.

With the DVD, the Cash family’s contributions to the project continue.

“My father is still here in spirit and his enlightened passion endures,” John Carter Cash wrote in the disc’s liner notes.

“His wish to see the continuance of Jack’s vision is coming true, in numerous ways. So as you watch this concert, and are taken in by the man’s music, his charm and charisma, remember what he is singing for.”

The disc includes many favorites, including “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Ring of Fire,” “Jackson,” “If I Were a Carpenter,” “The Wabash Cannonball,” “Keep on the Sunny Side” and “Will the Circle be Unbroken.”

Cash for Kenya

What: DVD featuring Johnny and June Carter Cash’s Sept. 17, 1991, benefit concert in Johnstown, which drew 2,000 people.

When: “Cash for Kenya: Live in Johnstown” goes on sale Oct. 21.

Proceeds: All profits will go toward building a medical facility in Kenya.

To order: E-mail cashforkenya@aol.com or call 269-3377 or (800) 537-1714.

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