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June 3. Thomas Becket. Thomas became the Archbishop of Canterbury—the unofficial head of all the Anglican bishops in England.

He was also chancellor to King Henry II and the keeper of the great seal, which was used to authenticate royal documents. In this political position, he destroyed castles, repaired the Tower of London, and led troops in war. He was a powerful man.

And he was always determined, but he wasn’t always so other-centered. Listened to what happened when Thomas was a young man.

When the God who loves you is determined to rescue you, pay attention.

Before Thomas ever became a priest, like most young men in the twelfth century, he loved the outdoors. For him, life was all about doing what he wanted to do, only what he wanted to do, only when he wanted to do it.

Tall and lean, his favorite thing to do was to hunt—with his trained falcon, one of the fastest birds in the world.

One day, Thomas and his friend Richier went hunting, and Thomas loosed his falcon into the air to find an animal. The bird soared toward the river, where he would swoop down on a duck or a goose or a water vole.

Through the fields, Thomas galloped after the falcon, and Richier rode close behind. They would scoop up what the falcon captured. As they galloped, the wind whipped through Thomas’s cloak, and in the freedom of the hunt, he felt alive.

When Thomas reined up on the riverbank, the falcon flew above a splendid duck. Thomas and Richier would feast tonight! It was apparent the falcon hadn’t knocked the duck out of the air; that web-footed wonder was bobbing on the surface of the river. He was taunting the falcon. It was like he was daring the falcon to try to catch him. Absurd!

The falcon took the bait, and with fantastic speed he swooped down.

But at the last second, the duck dove underwater. The falcon had no time to slow, and he plunged hard into the rushing waters, and the current swallowed him.

Panic! Thomas loved that falcon. He’d be a poor owner if he allowed the bird to drown. Leaping off his horse, Thomas dove into the river.

The icy waters shocked Thomas’s body and mind. So much colder than he had imagined. Suddenly he realized how foolish he had been to jump into a raging river. The water weighed down his cloak and clothes, and the current hurtled him further downstream. He was out of control. Thomas was quickly being swept away. He had to think. Had to protect his head. Had to get out of the river.

He flailed his arms and shouted for Richier, but the current drove him fast and hard—toward the wooden wheel of the flour mill just ahead.

The giant wheel turned and thwacked the surface of the water and created a stronger current. And it was pulling him in. If the paddles didn’t crush him first, the rush of water would certainly drown him.

Richier frantically shouted toward the millhouse in front of them. Somebody inside had to hear him and shut down the wheel. But its thundering drowned out his voice.

The mill wheel rushed closer, and the paddles sliced through the water, and Thomas was about to die.

Tumbling forward now, he was a few seconds from the giant wheel. The next turn would crush him.

Then the wheel stopped. The noise died. The current calmed, and Thomas floated. Soon Richier caught up to Thomas, and a miller peeked out of the mill, shocked to learn there was a man in the water. He quickly fished Thomas out.

Thomas figured the miller had heard Richier’s cries for help. Surely, that was why the mill had stopped. But when he and Richier thanked the miller for stopping the wheel, the old man shook his head. He had only stopped the mill because it was time to stop the mill. He turned it off every day at this time.

Thomas’s eyes widened. Had it been any other time, even a minute off, he could have been killed. When Thomas returned home and told his mother what had happened, she was awestruck at how God had miraculously saved him.

Thomas realized this brush with death was a wake-up call and he ought to serve this powerful God instead of himself.

And Thomas went on to become the unofficial head of all the Anglican bishops in England.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1 NIV).

Can you remember a time you needed help? When the God who loves you is determined to rescue you, pay attention.

Hinds, Allen Banks, M.A. A Garner of Saints: Being a Collection of the Legends and Emblems Usually Represented in Art. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1900. Hathi Trust Digital Library. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.ah2265&view=1up&seq=9

Morris, John. The Life and Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. London: Granville Mansions, 1885. Accessed May 7, 2020. https://archive.org/details/LifeAndMartyrdomStThomasBecketPt1/

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June 2. Bill Wilson. Bill founded Metro World Child, the largest ministry to children in the United States.

For more than fifty years, Bill Wilson has rescued hurting children, loved them, introduced them to Christ, and helped them stay in school and out of gangs. He offers a message of hope.

With headquarters in New York, Metro Ministries operates programs at more than 200 places in the United States, the Philippines, Romania, and South Africa.

Metro Ministries has the world’s largest Sunday school, serving more than 42,000 children. And it feeds children in 51 schools in Kenya and in 7 of the poorest neighborhoods in Manila. Here’s how it got started.

When a man reaches out to a boy, the boy gets a chance to become a man.

With the smog, despondency hung over the ghettos of New York City, and Bill often felt like he was fighting it all by himself.

At the top of the stairs, the door burst open, and six-year-old Jerome launched himself through the door, across the hall, and into Bill’s arms, and Jerome held as if his life depended on it.

In that instant—at least for that instant—all Bill’s questions faded. Kids like Jerome endured poverty, hostility, and hunger. Jerome’s was an abandoned generation, and there were too many children for one man to save. But when Bill looked at a child’s aching expression, he saw himself.

At twelve, Bill had been abandoned on a street corner. Rescued by one man who cared. Changed by the love of Jesus.

When Bill started a Sunday school for the kids of inner-city New York, he had little financial support and a note in his pocket—written to him by an inner-city pastor. The note read: “I’ll give you six months, and you’ll be gone like everyone else.”

The negativity could have been discouraging, but Bill’s commitment made no concession to discouragement or any other lame feeling.

Bill rented space from a church, a pickup truck, and a Yogi Bear costume. Then he paid a young drug dealer $20 a day to drive the pickup, while Bill ran alongside it with a megaphone yelling. “Be outside on Saturday morning. Look for the big yellow bus!” he hollered. “We’re taking you to Sunday school.”

The first day more than a thousand kids showed up.

More children than space. The church who’d rented the space tired quickly of the arrangement, so Bill rented from another church, but they soon asked Bill and his kids to move on. Next, he rented a vacant warehouse, and when Sunday school started that Saturday, it was seventeen degrees outside.

Inside, it was also seventeen degrees.

Most of the children had no coats. Nobody had told Bill the boiler had blown up. Bill stood and announced, “Sorry, kids, it’s over.” He cut the program short, sent the kids home, and canceled his lease. They were devastated, and Bill felt he’d let everyone down. For almost a year—no Sunday school. He almost quit. But the question was always, “Whose child is this?” and the only answer was, “Mine.”

When Bill asked God for another chance, he found a building, but the down payment was $25,000. And Bill had $98.16. Not quite enough.

But when God told a pastor in Texas to invite Bill to tell his story, the church collected $10,000. Other churches joined. In eight days, God provided $28,000, and Bill placed the down payment.

The Sunday school, later named Metro World Child (www.metroworldchild.org), still ran out of room, so they turned small trucks into traveling stages and took “Sidewalk Sunday School” to more kids in harder-to-reach places. The kids and the staff loved it.

But space issues were the good problems. Other problems—especially the heartbreak—were harder. And when you served in the inner-city, heartbreak was a way of life.

Over the years, Bill has been beaten, stabbed, and shot. And when he was shot, people thought, “He’s tough … but he’s going to retire today.” But Bill had committed—no matter how bad it got, he wasn’t leaving.

Today more than 200,000 kids attend Sunday school in inner cities around the world. Consider 12-year-old Vincent, who started Sunday school at 3. Statistics say he’ll be carrying a gun soon, but Vincent disagrees. “What they don’t know is what a difference God’s made in my life,” he said. “You’ll never see me … shooting anyone … I am standing for Jesus.”

Someone once said Bill had a shepherd’s heart. “Thus says the LORD: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed’” (Amos 3:12 ESV).

What challenges threaten your commitment? When a man reaches out to a boy, the boy gets a chance to become a man.

Based on an interview with Bill Wilson, 2019.

Wilson, Bill. Whose Child Is This? A Story of Hope and Help for a Generation At Peril. Brooklyn: Metro World Child, 2016.

Story read by: Chuck Stecker
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
© 2020, 365 Christian Men, LLC. All rights reserved.

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June 1. Desmond Doss. Doss was a United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic in World War II. In 1945, in Okinawa, where at least seventy-five fellow soldiers were wounded, Doss stayed—the only medic in a fire-swept area.

During training, he had learned a special double-bowline knot, and he used it during the battle to lower wounded soldiers from the ridge where they were fighting. His pledge was that no soldier would be left in enemy hands. Here’s the story.

In the heat of the battle, sometimes the best weapon is faith in action.

Hundreds of feet below, soldiers lay bleeding and dying. Above—at the edge of the 400-foot-high, jagged Okinawan cliff—Doss tied a rope around a strong tree stump. He worked to secure the knots until his hands bled. Corporal Doss signaled instructions and lowered another injured soldier into their arms of safety.

“Lord, help me get one more … just ONE more,” the young medic prayed between quick, shallow breaths. Ignoring the constant spray of gunfire and the rising smoke of exploding grenades all around him, Doss focused on the Soldiers Creed: “I will never leave a fallen comrade.”

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; he protects me from danger—whom shall I fear? When evil men come to destroy me, they will stumble and fall! Yes, though a mighty army marches against me, my heart shall know no fear! I am confident that God will save me” (Psalm 27:1–3 TLB).

He dedicated the hours ahead to this routine. While the horrific sights and smells of heavy combat continued, Doss relentlessly pressed on in his mission and saved as many lives as possible, without ever using any kind of conventional weapon.

The lone medic’s 150-pound frame was exhausted, his hands and uniform were covered in blood, and his mind was in shock at the magnitude of unthinkable atrocities he was taking in. Somehow, with each victorious drop of another wounded friend over the cliff, Desmond found his strength renewed.

“One more, Lord. Please help me get ONE more,” he breathed into the hell-on-earth surrounding him, and he tucked behind a rock formation to catch his breath. Suddenly, a grenade exploded nearby. Around him, the earth shook, and dirt and debris rained down on his head.

Doss grasped the Bible that was faithfully stowed in his shirt pocket. Astounded at how God had miraculously protected him, Doss stood, yanked his right boot out from where it had sunk into the deep Japanese mud, and set his sights on the next life to save.

As machine gun bullets fired past, the medic and another survivor carefully worked their way through the chaos until they arrived at the stump at the cliff’s edge. Desmond quickly secured the rope around the soldier. The wounded man stuck out his muddy hand, and the medic gripped it and shook heartily. Then Doss tightened his grip and gently pushed the wounded brother out over the edge. Grabbing the rope with both hands, Desmond slowly lowered the last soldier to safety.

Five months later, on October 12, 1945, President Harry S. Truman presented Corporal Desmond Thomas Doss with a Congressional Medal of Honor for the unprecedented heroism displayed during his service in World War II. His selfless acts saved the lives of at least seventy-five men that day and irrefutably shaped the outcome of numerous battles. During the ceremony, President Truman honored the humble Doss with the remarkable words: “I’m proud of you. You really deserve this. I consider this a greater honor than being President.”

What unconventional path might God be calling you to pursue in faith? In the heat of the battle, sometimes the best weapon is faith in action.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. “Desmond Doss.” Accessed May 8, 2020.

https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/desmond-t-doss

Leepson, Marc. “Desmond Thomas Doss (1919–2006).” Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Published 2015. Accessed May 8, 2020 https://www.lva.virginia.gov/?public/?dvb/?bio.asp?bDoss_Desmond_Thomas

Story read by: Chuck Stecker
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Story written by: John Mandeville, https://www.johnmandeville.com/
Editor: Teresa Crumpton https://authorspark.org
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
© 2020, 365 Christian Men, LLC. All rights reserved.

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May 31. RA Torrey. Torrey’s parents were Christians, but early on, he was not interested in the Christian life. He entered Yale in 1871, determined to become a lawyer. But God had other plans, and—after a dramatic conversion in 1875—he graduated and entered Yale’s Divinity’s School. Three years later, hearing DL Moody preach moved Torrey to give himself wholly to evangelism. So the not-interested-in-Christianity Torrey became an evangelist, pastor, educator, and prolific writer.

In 1889, Torrey became the first superintendent of Moody’s new Bible School. In 1902, he embarked on a worldwide evangelistic tour that lasted for 3 years. He embarked on another tour in 1911, and in 1912, he moved to the west coast where he became the dean of a bible college and started the Church of the Open Door, and he pastored that church until he was 68 years old, when he resigned to return to full-time evangelistic work.

When we let God interrupt our plans, He lets us take part in His.

One chilly, Minneapolis morning, Torrey arrived at his City Mission Society office and found a note on his desk from a family he didn’t know. They wanted him to visit and to pray for the family. Torrey never ignored such requests.

He traveled about four miles outside the city, and arrived at the family’s home. They were French and the husband and wife had been Catholic, but had become Protestants.

Now the wife had been sick for four years and had received care from nine different doctors, but none of them were able to help her. “She was helpless. She could move her hands, but she had to be lifted upon a sheet when they made the bed,” Torrey said. He sat next to her sickbed and asked her what she would like him to do.

She wanted to be healed.

Torrey read to the woman James 5:14-15, “Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven,” (NLT).

“Do you believe He will heal you?” Torrey asked the woman.

She said she believed God could heal her.

“But do you believe He will heal you?” he asked her. “Do you believe God will heal you?”

She did.

He read to her several promises of God from the Scriptures, explained to her that the anointing with oil meant that she was fully surrendering to God of all her physical powers.

One of the Catholic relatives in the room said she’d become a Protestant that day if the woman were healed.

Then Torrey knelt by her bedside. He anointed her with oil in the name of the Lord and prayed that God would come in with the healing power of His Holy Spirit and restore her to perfect health, then and there.

As Torrey prayed, God assured him that his prayer was answered. So he told the woman, “I expect you, as soon as I am gone, to get up and go about your work.”

Certain of this, when he returned to his office, he told one of the missionaries, “…I expect you are going to hear something tonight.”

“… and, sure enough, when the meeting was opened for testimony a neighbor of this woman arose and said that God had completely healed the woman, and that immediately after my departure she did get up, dress, and go out for a call,” Torrey said.

Torrey had the confidence in God and in his Word to risk a moment with the woman and boldly pray for her healing. “How often God has given me faith as I have prayed for some sick one, and healing immediate, complete and wonderful has followed.”

Years later he was speaking on the power of prayer in Los Angeles. When he recounted this story to the people, a man stood up from the crowd and said, “Mr. Torrey, that’s my wife … and [she] is a well woman.”

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most,” (Hebrews 4:16, NLT).

Where can you activate the power of faith and pray for someone in need? When we let God interrupt our plans, He lets us take part in His.

“Evangelism, Revival, and Healing” Healing and Revival. Accessed August 11, 2020.
https://www.healingandrevival.com/BioRATorrey.htm

“Reuben Archer Torrey.” Moody Bible Institute Archives. Accessed August 11, 2020. https://library.moody.edu/archives/biographies/reuben-archer-torrey/

https://www.truthfulwords.org/biography/torreytw.html, accessed 031419

Divine Healing, R. A. Torrey, New York/Chicago, Fleming H Resell Co., p. 21.

Story read by Nathan Walker
Story written by Abigail Schultz https://www.instagram.com/abigail_faith65

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May 30. Todd White. Todd is a former drug addict. And he is a former non-Christian. Everything changed for Todd the day he had a close encounter with the living God. Ten years later, he launched Lifestyle Christianity, a ministry geared toward activating the church to walk daily in love and power as they share the love of God with the lost.

When God speaks, let’s be smart and listen up.

Standing at the payphone, Todd White was using every strategy he had to get his drug dealer to hook him up. Even though he had no money, he desperately needed the high. Still talking, he looked up and saw his 12-year-old daughter staring at him. And she looked totally disappointed. In a separate car, his girlfriend had brought his daughter.

“You promised, daddy,” she said.

He told her he was sorry, and he felt it. He was sorry. But he didn’t have the will power to change. He turned from away from her and asked his dealer again if he’d give him the drugs upfront. Todd would pay later. He was desperate.

He considered himself a Christian. Or at least he felt he was because five months before, he had prayed the prayer of repentance. But Todd still dominated everything in Todd’s life.

Nothing in his life changed.

He hung up the phone, hopped in his car, and sped down backroads and alley ways to lose the car his girlfriend and daughter were in. He didn’t want them to see what he was going to do next.

In an alley, Todd stopped and picked up a kid from New York City, who had the goods he needed. As the kid—no older than 15—got in, Todd turned on him and impersonated a cop. Todd read him his rights, grabbed his bag of cocaine, and told what is npp him to get out of the car and put his hands behind his head.

Visibly shaking, the kid climbed out. But just as the door closed Todd stomped on the gas pedal.

As his tires fought for traction and speed, a loud bang exploded around Todd. The 15-year-old kid unloaded his nine-millimeter on Todd as he was trying to speed away. From 10-feet away, bullets sizzled through the air toward his car. But the bullets never landed.

As Todd drove away from the gunshots, a clear, stern voice spoke: “I took those bullets for you. Are you ready to live for me now?”

Not wanting to listen, Todd drove home. He got out of the car and shone a flashlight all over the body of the car. No bullets had even grazed the finish.

Not wanting to accept what had happened in the alley, he smoked the whole bag he’d stolen. Yet he couldn’t get the high he was craving. Instead that voice replayed itself over and over in his head. It wasn’t leaving. Todd knew God was real.

Morning dawned, and something had changed. He drove to the same church he had been to five months before and found the pastor who’d first told him about Jesus. Todd talked to him openly, and the pastor suggested intensive rehab.

From that moment on, his life changed. He gave every part of himself and his life over to be stewarded by Jesus. There was no plan B. This was it. The more he dove into Jesus he knew this wasn’t something to keep to himself, and he began to teach others.

Now he ministers to thousands who need Jesus. He helps those who want deeper intimacy with Jesus through his ministry school, Power and Love. He prays for everyone he meets; no one is excluded from God’s family. He dives into the Bible every day to stay grounded in what truth looks like.

God wanted the whole book. Not just a chapter.

“Lord, you have come to my defense; you have redeemed my life,” (Lamentations 3:58, NLT).

As God speaks to you today, what is he saying? When God speaks, let’s be smart and listen up.

White, Todd. “About Todd White.” Facebook. Accessed August 11, 2020.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/ToddWhiteLC/about/?ref=page_internal.

“Todd White – My Testimony”. Youtube, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsnMTWxFNRU.

Lancaster, Jessilyn. “Todd White’s Testimony: I Got Shot At, And That’s When The Lord Spoke To Me”. Charisma News, 2019. https://www.charismanews.com/culture/76510-todd-white-s-testimony-i-got-shot-and-that-s-when-the-lord-spoke-spoke-to-me.

Story read by Nathan Walker
Story written by Abigail Schultz, https://www.instagram.com/abigail_faith65

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May 29. Rees Howells. Ever since he was twelve, Rees had worked in a coal mine. But in 1906, God called him out of wage-earning and into a ministry of praying for people. For more than forty years, Rees prayed for his daily bread, and God always provided.

While on the mission field in South Africa, and he and his fellow missionaries travelled more than 11,000 miles across the continent.

God commissioned Rees to build and sustain a Bible College in Wales. They were to pray for the funds, and God would provide. With 15 cents (US) in his pocket, Rees obeyed, and he prayed. Soon, the Bible College of Wales owned two buildings for its students, and one building to house missionary children, who could not accompany their parents on the field.

The Bible College became a house of prayer for all nations. Rees, his staff, and his students prayed about everything.

On this date in 1940, while the Battle of Dunkirk raged on, Rees saw a vision of God with his sword drawn at Dunkirk.

When we wage war in prayer, we can change history.

Before the Nazi’s lightening war hurled shockwaves across the world, God hid a secret weapon in Wales. His name was Rees Howells.

God had taught Rees to fight by means of prayer. And Rees taught the faculty, the staff, and the students at the Bible College of Wales. The upshot: the community vowed to serve God as intercessors.

“‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams,’” (Acts 2:17, NLT).

Before Hitler waged war on the world, God showed the dictator’s true character to Rees, and his intercessors waged war on Hitler.

Nearly a hundred praying people fought “the battles of the Kingdom…as if called to fight on the Western Front.” Intercessory prayer started at seven every evening. After a supper break at nine, the people moved to the blue room, where they prayed until they felt released. When battles were especially fierce, the prayer warriors prayed and fasted all day.

In May 1940, the Nazis pushed Allied forces toward Dunkirk, which was only 21 miles across the English Channel from Great Britain. Britain lived in extreme danger.

But Rees stood firm in God’s promise that Hitler would not “invade Christian England….There has to be the ‘doom of the Nazis,’” Rees said. “It will come now if we can prevail.”

Still, the Nazis kept advancing. On May 18th, Rees asked God to bring “disaster on the Nazis.”

On May 19th Allied commanders made plans to rescue stranded troops, while Nazi tanks bore down on Dunkirk. “The destiny of England will be at stake today and tomorrow,” Rees said. “There is an enemy that we must keep in check.”

Suddenly—five days later—on May 24th, Hitler halted the German Panzer Divisions. It was a military blunder no one understood, but it gave the Allies time they desperately needed.

On May 26th, Nazi tanks rolled again, and Prime Minister Churchill called England to a day of prayer.

The German military’s relentless bombing sank British ships and pounded the men crowding the shore. And Dunkirk’s shallow beach kept British naval ships from reaching their troops to rescue them. German submarines called U-boats patrolled like sharks stalking their prey. They were out for blood.

Rees and his team of a hundred intercessors asked the Almighty God, who created all people, to save “our men.” Rees then separated himself for deeper intercession as the hundred prayed together.

On May 27th, Churchill called for civilian boats to help. Finally, on May 28th as the prayer warriors continued to battle on their knees, a sense of relief washed over them. They felt sure something had happened while they prayed.

On May 29th, Rees rejoined the people praying. “The battle is the Holy Spirit’s,” he said. “He is there on the battlefield with His drawn sword.” That day “the little ships of Dunkirk,” sailed a calm sea. Churchill had hoped to save 45,000 men, but in the Miracle of Dunkirk, God rescued 338,000 troops.

World War Two continued, and the intercessors continued. Sometimes, like during the Battle of Salena, God told them how to pray before the news reported that the Allies were in peril.

As troops landed in Normandy in 1944, Rees cried to God, “If You hadn’t intervened at Dunkirk, not one of us would be here today. So…don’t allow us to be slack.”

The intercessors prayed. Allied troops crossed the channel on the only night German U-boats didn’t patrol it. Under the cover of thick fog 4,000 ships and 11,000 planes never met a single enemy ship or plane.

How can God use you as secret weapon? When we wage war in prayer, we can change history.

History.com Editors. “Battle of Dunkirk.” History. A&E Television Networks. Updated October 11, 2019.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/dunkirk.

“Rees Howells, Intercession, and the Bible College of Wales.” Rees Howells – The Story Continues. Byfaith.co.uk. Accessed August 11, 2020 https://www.byfaith.co.uk/paulreeshowells.htm.

Rees Howells—Intercessor, Norman P Grubb, 1973 Lutterworth Press Guildford And London Paperback Edition 1973 Printed In Great Britain By Cox & Wyman Ltd, London, Reading And Fakenham, Reprinted digitally in 1993 by Holiness Data Ministry. Offered free at: https://breakoutministry.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/rees-howells-intercessor-ebook.pdf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv_zzh5XilU Interview with Ruth Williams, intercessor during the war, and Samuel Howells, son of Rees. Interview by Christine Darg of the Jerusalem Channel

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/dunkirk

Story read by Peter R Warren https://www.peterwarrenministries.com/

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May 28. Brendan Eich. Eich is a computer programmer and technologist, whose 10-day creation, JavaScript, is a widely-used computer language. Eich also launched the Mozilla project, then the Mozilla Foundation, and eventually the Mozilla Corporation. Mozilla is an internet company that “protects you rather than profits off you.” Mozilla Firefox is an open-source (technology for everyone) web browser designed with user privacy in mind, whose slogan is that they put people before profit. He served briefly as the CEO of Mozilla (2014) before resigning and moving on.

On this date in 2015, Eich founded a brave, new browser called Brave. He is the CEO of the browser’s parent company—also named Brave.

It is an internet security company which seeks to block ads and trackers, and to protect user data. Rather than selling user data to advertisers, Brave give users the options to receive ads. If they decide they are willing to view ads while using the internet, users receive currency tokens from the advertisers—in effect, the advertisers are paying the users to view ads. Eich’s model could change everyone’s internet experience for the better.

In any crisis, there’s a high road called humility. Take it.

The morning of April 3, 2014, tech-media blogs and news websites were in a frenzy. Just ten days earlier, Mozilla Corporation executives hand-selected Brendan Eich to be the CEO for the CEO for the groundbreaking technology company he’d co-founded 15 years before.

Mozilla’s mission statement emphasized the inclusion of all people, with a vision of a better internet derived from multiple cultures and contexts.

Under Eich’s leadership, Mozilla had revolutionized the internet and gave us Firefox—the free and open-source web browser. But within a week or so, the internet Eich had helped to create turned on him.

Six years earlier, in alignment with his conservative biblical values, Eich had made a small donation in support of traditional marriage. Within days of becoming Mozilla’s CEO, this information began circulating the web, an online fury erupted, and many suddenly accused him of an anti-gay agenda.

Eich had listed Mozilla as his employer on a personal donation to a California petition known as Proposition 8, and this was misinterpreted as a Corporate endorsement of his personal views. Because Proposition 8 proposed to limit the legal definition of marriage in California to a marriage between one man and one woman, this information seemed to put him immediately at odds with the culture of inclusion at Mozilla.

“I agree with people who say it wasn’t private, but it was personal,” he said of the donation.

“I’m an employee of @mozilla and cannot reconcile having @BrendanEich as CEO with our org’s culture & mission. Brendan, please step down,” tweeted one of the new CEO’s employees. And her sentiment was re-tweeted across the web. Simultaneously, three of Mozilla’s board members resigned for other reasons, and misinterpretations of this fueled public outrage. Clearly, it wasn’t Eich’s best week in the business culture that he had spent decades cultivating.

When Eich was accused in interviews of bigotry, intolerance, or having an anti-gay agenda, he refused to take the bait, remaining humble rather than fanning the flames of controversy.

“I don’t want to talk about my personal beliefs because I kept them out of Mozilla all these 15 years we’ve been going…I don’t believe they’re relevant.”

Instead, he clarified the reasoning that he held about keeping his personal views out of the office. Eich’s definition of an inclusive Mozilla culture did not require anyone to identify themselves in the workplace with a particular worldview or religion. He operated this way out of the hope that no one would become a cultural target, or perhaps be seen as divisive. Ironically, the backlash over his personal views was now testing these very principles.

Not every online voice turned against Eich, however. Writers like John Howard, a free-market enthusiast at humanevents.com, challenged the “mob rule” online riot in Eich’s defense.

“People who actually believe in tolerance and intellectual diversity have no difficulty understanding the deep sickness of declaring someone a non-person because he disagrees with them,” he wrote.

On this varied backdrop of opinion, Mitchell Baker, Mozilla chairperson, made an announcement. “Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made this decision for Mozilla and our community…Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard.”

Eich confirmed the news on his personal blog. “I have decided to resign as CEO effective today, and leave Mozilla. Our mission is bigger than any one of us, and under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader.”

Roughly a year later, Brendan Eich, a humble man of principle, unveiled his development plan for the Brave internet browser. As if the angry, online mob had never gathered.

“When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly” (1 Corinthians 4:12-13, NIV).

When others are offended because of your values, how do you choose to respond? In any crisis, there’s a high road called humility. Take it.

“JavaScript Creator ‘Brendan Eich’: Six Facts You Need to Know.” Recro. Accessed August 11, 2020.
https://recro.io/blog/javascript-creator-brendan-eich/

Mozilla Firefox https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/

https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2014/04/05/faq-on-ceo-resignation/

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/

https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=54501157&privcapId=317170098

Story read by Joel Carpenter
Story written by John Mandeville, https://www.johnmandeville.com/

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May 27. Louis Zamperini. Family and friends had little hope for young Louis. He was a thief and a bully—until he joined his high school’s track team. Soon, he became one of southern California’s best high school athletes.

Louis competed at the 1936 Olympic games and was a leading candidate to break the four-minute-mile barrier. He was all set to compete at the 1940 Olympics, but World War II preempted the Olympics that year.

The Army Air Corp beckoned, and Louis served as a bombardier and ran search-and-rescue missions. On this date in 1943, while on a search-and-rescue mission, his plane lost power and crashed into the Pacific. Eight of the eleven crew members died instantly. Louis and two other survivors of the crash drifted for several weeks before heat, dehydration, and near-starvation took the life of one of the survivors.

Two weeks later, the Japanese Navy captured Louis and his single surviving fellow castaway. They had drifted almost 2,000 miles. Louis was held as a prisoner of war for the next 2 years, and he endured brutal conditions until he was liberated in 1945, following the Japanese surrender.

Broken in body and spirit, plagued by post-traumatic stress, Louis became dependent on alcohol. He credits a Billy Graham sermon in 1949 with turning his life around. Louis went on nationwide tours to discuss his conversion, and he started a wilderness camp for troubled youth. In 1950, Louis returned to Japan to meet and forgive many of his former captors, who were now being held as war criminals.

Hate leads to death. If you want to live—forgive. 

WWII hero Louis Zamperini drifted through life, even after he was rescued from 47 days in a lifeboat—lost at sea. As a B-24 bombardier, he’d flown many missions and completed them under fire.

On May 27, 1943, Zamperini and his crew were flying a search-and-rescue mission over the Pacific Ocean. With 11 men on board, 2 engines lost power, and the plane took a nose dive into the sea. Only three survived the plunge—Zamperini, pilot Russell Phillips, and tail gunner Francis McNamara.

McNamara survived 33 days, but somehow Zamperini and Phillips managed to hang on longer. They drank rain water collected in their raft and devoured whatever birds or fish they could capture. Sharks encircled the raft in search of blood. The men’s weight plummeted under 100 pounds.

One day a low-flying gunner riddled the ocean with bullets barely missing Zamperini and Phillips. In desperation Zamperini promised God that if his life was spared, he would seek Him. He was bargaining with God, but didn’t yet know what he was bargaining for.

The men drifted 2,000 miles and were somewhere between Hawaii and the Philippines. Finally, a patrol boat approached—but it was Japanese. They hoisted Zamperini and Phillips into the boat and shipped them to a prison on the mainland.

Prison was brutal. Zamperini was singled out for extra abuse because he’d been a US distance runner and popular Olympic hopeful. One man named Mutsuhiro Watanabe used clubs, belts, his own fists to beat Zamperini mercilessly. He developed murderous thoughts toward Mutsuhiro that filled his mind with hate.

After the war, Zamperini came home to peace and a hero’s welcome, but war still raged in his heart. He drank and lived recklessly. And there were nightmares—horrible nightmares that wouldn’t go away. One night he woke and found himself strangling his beautiful wife Cynthia. He’d thought he was strangling Mutsuhiro. Something had to change. And it did. It wasn’t long before Cynthia told him she wanted a divorce.

Concerned neighbors invited the couple to a Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles. Cynthia attended and received Christ into her heart. Afterwards, she told Louie she no longer wanted a divorce, and she convinced Louie to attend with her.

The first night he stormed out. Incredibly, he agreed to return the next night and nearly left—but then something stopped him. He thought about how God had saved his life. He remembered his promise on the life raft, and a review of his godless years played itself out. He knew he needed Christ, so he turned right around and went to the prayer room.

He later explained, “I dropped to my knees and for the first time in my life truly humbled myself before the Lord. I asked him to forgive me for not having kept the promises I’d made during the war and for my sinful life. I made no excuses. I did not rationalize; I did not blame. He [God] had said, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” so I took him at his word, begged for his pardon, and asked Jesus to come into my life,” (Romans 10:13, NIV).

Louie’s marriage was restored, and the murderous thoughts he’d had were lifted. He wrote Mutsuhiro a letter telling him he forgave him. He even traveled to Japan to face his prison guards (now imprisoned themselves as war-criminals) and forgave them. Zamperini was a new man in Christ, finally able to forgive his captors and experience true joy in the Lord.

Who is God asking you to forgive? Now what step will you take? Hate leads to death. If you want to live—forgive.

Andrews, Evan. “Eight Things You May Not Know about Louis Zamperini.” History Stories. History.com. A&E Television Networks. Accessed August 11, 2020. https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-louis-zamperini

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/broken-louie-zamperini/ Ivan Mesa, article, Broken: The Power of Conversion in Louie Zamperini’s Life, October 24, 2014.

https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-louis-zamperini – Evan Andrews, 8 Things You May Not Know About Louis Zamperini, December 17, 2014.

Story read by Blake Mattocks

Story written by Toni M Babcock, https://www.facebook.com/toni.babcock.1

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May 26. Henry J. Heinz. When Henry was very young, he helped his mother make and sell pickles. He sold homemade grated horseradish in clear glass jars so his customers could see that he was not cheating them by adding turnips or wood pulp to his product.

When he was 12, he had his own vegetable plot, which he tended with zeal and skill. Soon, he was selling both his grated horseradish and his surplus garden produce to the local greengrocer. By the time he graduated from high school, he had to hire workers to help him.

Henry went to a top-notch business college, financed completely from his vegetable sales. After he graduated, he joined the growing canned-goods food industry.

That business did well until a combination of bumper crops and bank failures resulted in bankruptcy. Henry then started the Heinz Food company, which eventually grew into a national company known for quality organic production, a family-type working atmosphere, health and other benefits for his workers, and innovative advertising.

On this date in 1909, Henry convened the first board meeting of HJ Heinz & Co. By 2012, the company was an international success that employed around 32,000 people in more than 6 countries. Into the second decade of the century, Heinz embraces goals, which call for action toward ending poverty and protecting the planet.

Through Christ, in success and in failure, we can act with integrity.

Thirty-one-year-old Henry J. Heinz lay ill. His business bankrupt. How would he meet the final payday for his faithful employees, never mind Christmas presents for his wife and two children?

For a hard worker who’d been honing his entrepreneurial skills since he was eight, this failure was devastating. He’d brought all his Christian principles into his business dealings and had never known a day without work—suddenly helpless.

When he was 8, Heinz sold the surplus produce from his mother’s garden. By 16, his business had grown to employ three women, and he delivered to Pittsburgh grocers three times a week in his own wagon. By 28, he’d formed Heinz, Noble and Company and expanded their operational facilities into St. Louis and Chicago.

As usual, Heinz obsessed over ways to make this expansion efficient. In 1875, he contracted with an Illinois farm to buy all the cucumbers and cabbage they produced. It was a good plan. If only that year hadn’t produced a bumper crop.

Suddenly the cost of the vegetables they’d contracted to buy far exceeded their cash on hand. Failing banks meant no money to borrow to meet their commitment. They couldn’t bottle or sell the product fast enough, either.

By October of that year, Heinz was struggling to meet his financial commitments and avoid bankruptcy. In November, he wrote in his diary, “I have two thousand dollars to meet tomorrow, and not a penny to meet it with.”

By December, the end had come. He met the final payday with money borrowed from his wife—money she had brought into the marriage, but which he kept in an account for her.

But that same Christmas, he received an inspiring gift. With no money for material things, Heinz’s mother wrote him a card, a reminder of Christ’s faithfulness and a prayer of blessing on his efforts to provide for his family. She ended her note reminding him that his life in Christ was the most important thing.

Heinz painstakingly noted every penny he owed and to whom, determined to repay them because it was the right thing to do in the sight of God. By February, he was ready to start again. With borrowed money, he embarked on a new quest—F. And J. Heinz Company. Then he did what he had always done—he worked hard and trusted God.

Heinz lived out the Apostle Paul’s instructions: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father,” (Colossians 3:17, NASB).

And his business thrived, in spite of the previous failure because people recognized Henry Heinz’s integrity as a businessman.

It took several years, but Henry Heinz paid off every creditor of his failed company even though he was not legally bound to do so. And he led the newly formed H. J. Heinz and Company into a worldwide, multi-million-dollar business known for taking care of creditors, customers, and employees.

Henry Heinz defined his success by the way he treated people, so even in his failure he found success by living a life pleasing to Christ.

In what ways do your business principles reflect what you believe about Christ? Through Christ, in success and in failure, we can act with integrity.

“Henry J. Heinz Biography: Success Story of Heinz Ketchup Empire.” Astrum People. Accessed August 11, 2020. https://astrumpeople.com/henry-j-heinz-biography/.

E.D. McCafferty. Henry J. Heinz, a biography (New York: Bartlett Orr Press, 1923) 81. On google books:

Story read by Peter R Warren, https://www.peterwarrenministries.com/

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May 25. Xu Yonghai. Dr. Xu is a Chinese evangelical and psychiatrist who shares the gospel with everyone he meets. He is a social activist in a place where activism can be hazardous to one’s health. He is an “unlicensed” preacher in a place where all religious activity (Christian and other) is controlled by the government.

Dr. Xu has been arrested three times. On this date in 1997, Dr. Xu was arrested for “smearing the government” in an article he had written about the growth of Christianity. For that, he spent two years in a labor camp. Because of another article that he wrote in 2003, he was arrested again. This article was about how the government treated Christians in southern China. They charged him with “leaking state secrets.” He was sentenced to two years in prison. In 2014, he was detained for one month because he was running a house church.

Dr. Xu his fellow believers persist in the face of persecution; they explain that their predecessors faced much harsher punishments, including life imprisonment. Here is his story.

Rejoicing in suffering means more than just bearing it.

In 1997, Xu Yonghai wrote an article about house churches for Chinese Christians. And it cost him two years in prison. He did two years of hard labor. He served two years with no trial. Mandated by police authority, not the judicial system, this was the “labor re-education” system in action.

When he was released—undeterred, he continued his work for the Lord. He had a respectable job as a doctor, and in everything he did, he demonstrated unusual love and concern for others.

But in 2003, he faced another two-year sentence, and he was once again thrust into isolation from his brothers and sisters in Christ.

In prison, the police placed Xu Yonghai in one room for work during the day and a different room for sleep at night. Both rooms were designed to reduce his contact with other prisoners. And the rooms came equipped with nasty insults, physical assault, sparse meals, and heavy labor.

The work started at six in the morning and often continued until 8 or 9 at night, sometimes even later. But even this pain was nothing compared to the pain of missing his wife. That was unbearable.

He longed to continue his daily practice of reading and studying the Bible, but in prison, it was hard to get one. In November, he wrote to his wife to send a copy of the Bible to him in prison, the police told him, “In prison you can’t read the Bible.”

“Why?” he asked.

“The Code of Conduct for Prisoners stipulates: ‘You cannot practice and spread cults.’”

“Christianity is not a cult,” Xu Yonghai said. “The Bible is legal here. If you won’t let my wife send me one, once I’m released from prison I’ll have to tell people that Chinese prisons didn’t even let me read the Bible.”

“I have to consult higher authorities,” the guard said.

It took a few months for the guard to consult the higher authorities. In February, the guard returned and gave Xu permission to ask for the Bible from home. “Don’t preach it to others, though,” he said.

So Xu Yonghai got a Bible and read it often to receive comfort from the Word. He had heard of many other brothers and sisters imprisoned for their faith, who had believed they could not read the Bible and could not receive that comfort, but he didn’t want to lose hope without a fight. One of the passages that especially strengthened him was this:

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed,” (1 Peter 4:12–13, NIV).

The daily reassurance from the Word gave Xu Yonghai hope in his suffering and allowed him to remember the joy of Christ all the way until his release.

Today how can you renew your hope in Christ? Rejoicing in suffering means more than just bearing it.

“Wife of Chinese Christian Prisoner Appeals to Christians around the World.” Asia News. Asianews.it. December 10, 2003. http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Wife-of-Chinese-Christian-prisoner-appeals-to-Christians-around-the-world-144.html

Yu, Katrina. “Chinese Christian Churches Targeted in Religious Crackdown.” SBS News. Updated January 8. 2017.https://www.sbs.com.au/news/chinese-christian-churches-targeted-in-religious-crackdown

Yina, Li. “My First Wedding Anniversary with My Husband.” A Hundred Schools of Thought Contend, 2 May 2006, https://blog.boxun.com/hero/201310/xuyonghai/14_1.shtml

Yina, Li. “My Husband Xu Yonghai.” A Hundred Schools of Thought Contend, 29 Jan. 2004,
https://blog.boxun.com/hero/201309/xuyonghai/34_1.shtml

Yonghai, Xu. “By Fighting for It, I Read the Bible in Prison.” A Hundred Schools of Thought Contend, 16 March 2006 https://blog.boxun.com/hero/201309/xuyonghai/91_1.shtml

Story read by Joel Carpenter

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