rescue

Dirk Willems was arrested in his hometown of Asperen, Netherlands in 1569. His crime – choosing to be re-baptized as a devoted follower of Christ and hosting worship services in his home – was completely unacceptable to the religious and governmental leaders of his day. The young Dutchman was carted off to a palace that had been converted into a prison to stand trial alongside other religious “troublemakers.” 

Let’s say you’ve accidentally ran your truck off a mountain-side road. Now, you’re trapped in a vehicle that’s dangling over the side of a deep cliff. In that situation, what’s your first priority?

For driver Mathew Sitko, the answer was as obvious as it was wrong.

Imagine that you’ve just been set free from an oppressive concentration camp. You’ve been ruthlessly worked and have seen friends and loved ones die in the process. How would you react to your freedom?

It’s a safe bet that Viktor Frankl responded differently.

Each year, millions of babies are abandoned by their parents for a variety of reasons: physical deformities, mental handicaps, or the mother’s inability to care for them. In South Korea, one man is making sure no more children die this way.

His strategy hinges on the love of Jesus…and a box.

Dr. Fred Craddock had no qualms about calling his childhood neighbor, Mr. Cook, a “hateful man”; after all, when Fred was just a young boy, Mr. Cook killed his dog. Fred’s sentiment toward Mr. Cook is easy to understand because many people have had a neighbor like Mr. Cook.

But few people have had a father like Fred’s.

Believer or not, just about everyone is familiar with the account of Daniel’s night spent with the lions. In the well-known story, a pagan king threw one of God’s prophets into a den filled with the terrifying animals. Of course, Daniel walked out the next morning completely unscathed.

The same cannot be said about a man in Taipei who willing confronted a group of lions.

Kaleb Eulls, a 6’ 4” 255 lb defensive end, is used to protecting against the pass rush for his Yazoo County High School football team. But on Tuesday morning, September 1, 2009, he had to protect a school bus full of kids from a student carrying a .38 caliber pistol.

While no two Christmas lists are ever the exact same, it’s a sure bet that most kids want the hi-tech staples that have come to define our culture: an iPad, a video game or two, and a new cell phone. But a few kids from India had a different list entirely; they just wanted to be set free from slavery.

And thanks to a recent raid, they got just what they wanted.

Rules. Statutes. Laws. Decrees. Commandments. It doesn’t matter what you call them, most people don’t like them. Many simply view them as constraints in life that keep them from experiencing what they call “true freedom.”

But goldfish disagree. Just ask Albert.

On a snowy February night in 1940, William Miller’s speeding car careened off an icy road near his hometown of Harrisburg, PA. He was ejected through the windshield and landed in a snow bank, unconscious. Fortunately, a man named Warren Felty was driving by, found him, and took him to a hospital.

But this wouldn’t be the last time Warren Felty would pull William Miller’s unconscious body from the snow.