SIGNS OF TIMES ARE UPLIFTING

Motorists traveling Cape Girardeau streets are treated to inspirational or thought-provoking messages in four lines or less.

Message signs, often intended for advertising, have taken on a new role at a number of area churches and businesses.

Signs read "Laugh at yourself before someone else can" and "Moses found the perfect 10" and "The vitamin for friendship is B1."

Wes Kinsey and Greg Illers come up with the sayings posted outside Grace United Methodist Church, Broadway and Caruthers.

Each Monday the two meet to discuss ideas and then change the sign. Because of the high visibility of the church sign, the pair feels responsible to come up with something good.

"It is a lot of fun, but sometimes it's tough coming up with something almost controversial that will get people to reading and thinking and still fits on four lines," Kinsey said.

Often the sign reflects a religious or inspirational message. Recently it read: "Beat the Christmas rush. Attend church now."

Kinsey said one message that drew lots of comment played on hometown celebrity Rush Limbaugh's oft-quoted phrase. The sign read: "Each of us possesses talent on loan from God."

Other times the sign reflects something happening in the community. One week during last summer's flood, the sign read: "Row row row your boat."

About half the sayings are original, dreamed up by Kinsey and Illers. The other half are compiled from a variety of sources. "Sometimes we get one liners out of the sermon, or one of the members hears something and passes it on."

One week last year, the pair used the space to advertise for words of wisdom. Kinsey was pleased with the response. "We had quite a few people drop off messages. There were a lot of cute ones and we used all of them."

Earlier this summer, Sherry and Jim Rowland, owners of Muffler Express and Automotive Repair, 1205 N. Kingshighway, got too busy to change the message on their sign.

During lunch at a McDonald's restaurant one day, Sherry Rowland got some complaints. People missed the messages, so the Rowlands got back to work.

"We never, ever put the sign up for advertising. We wanted to put some thought-provoking things up there to make people stop and think," Sherry Rowland said.

The Rowlands keep a scrapbook of letters and notes sent to them from appreciative message readers.

"It makes me feel like it's worth the effort. Someone is reading," she said.

Dreaming up messages for the sign has become a family project.

Rowland's 89-year-old mother periodically mails a page or two of her original thoughts. The couple's two children think of ideas. They get sayings from magazines and customers.

"We have a whole folder of message ideas," she said. "Some are typewritten. Others are just scribbled."

Dan Upchurch puts messages on the sign at Bethel Assembly of God Church, 1855 Perryville Road.

The sign has messages on both sides to catch motorists coming and going.

Upchurch said he enjoys placing messages on the sign because of the positive response from the public.

"We have two or three phone calls a week from people commenting on the sign," he said.

When he puts up new messages, motorists often stop to compliment him. One person gave a donation to the church to ensure that the sign is maintained.

Some of Upchurch's favorites: "A smile is a language understood by all people" and "The Bible does not need to be rewritten, but re-read."