The first two Scottish missionaries sent to the New Hebrides Islands were killed and eaten by cannibals on the day they arrived. After that it proved difficult to find missionary volunteers. But even when John G. Paton agreed to go, well-meaning people in the church tried to dissuade him. One elderly man warned that he would be eaten by cannibals.
Just before Easter in 2009, Fred Winters, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Illinois, was shot and killed during a Sunday morning service by a disturbed young man. The tragedy shocked the church and the pastor’s family, but it did not destroy their faith. The next week the newly-widowed Cindy Winters was interviewed on a national news broadcast. When asked about her husband’s killer she said, “I do not have any hatred or even hard feelings toward him. We have been praying for him.
Six-year-old Keirsten was talking with her grandmother about their church’s Easter sunrise service when she announced, “Nana, I’m not going to that rise-and-shine thing. I have to get up too early!”
Five-year-old Brian had a pivotal verse to recite in an Easter program: “He is not here, he is risen” (Luke 24:6). Unfortunately, he could not remember what to say, and the director had to quietly remind him of his line. He then confidently grabbed the microphone and triumphantly shouted, “He’s not here; He’s in prison!”
“The only investment I ever made which has paid consistently increasing dividends is the money I have given to the Lord.”—J. L. Kraft (head of Kraft Cheese Corporation)
“The person who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.”—Samuel Johnson
“Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.”—J.B. Phillips
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”—Missionary Jim Elliott
$1.00 spent for lunch lasts five hours.
$1.00 spent for a neck-tie lasts five weeks.
$1.00 spent for a cap lasts five months.
$1.00 spent for an auto lasts five years.
$1.00 spent for a railroad lasts five decades.
$1.00 spent in God’s service lasts for eternity.—Roger W. Babson
The story is told of a man who had a horrible dream. He said, “I dreamed that the Lord took my Sunday offering and multiplied it by ten, and this became my weekly income. In no time I lost my color TV, had to give up my new car and couldn’t make my house payment. After all, what can a fellow do on $10 a week?”
If the Lord took your offering, multiplied it by ten, and made that your weekly income, how much would you make?
In 1799, Conrad Reed discovered a seventeen-pound rock while fishing in Little Meadow Creek. Not knowing what it was made of, his family used it as a doorstop for three years. In 1802, his father, John Reed, took it to a jeweler who identified it as a lump of gold worth about $3,600. That lump of gold, which was used as a doorstop for three years in North Carolina, is one of the biggest gold nuggets ever found east of the Rockies.
When Hutson Taylor was sailing to China to begin his missionary work, his ship was in great danger. The wind had died, and the current was carrying them toward sunken reefs which were close to islands inhabited by cannibals—so close they could see them building fires on the shore. Everything they tried was to no avail. In his journal Taylor recorded what happened next: The Captain said to me, “Well, we have done everything that can be done.” A thought occurred to me, and I replied, “No, there is one thing we have not done yet.” “What is that?” he queried.
There was a very unusual military funeral in California in December of 2013. Sgt. First Class Joseph Gantt, who fought in both World War II and the Korean War, was laid to rest. He had been captured in Korea in 1950 and died the following year. But his body was not returned for many years, and his death was never confirmed by the North Koreans.