Eyam Shut Itself In

In September 1665, plague arrived in the English village of Eyam in Derbyshire. As it spread, the rector William Mompesson and the former minister Thomas Stanley led the village to do something hard. They sealed themselves off from the outside world so the disease would not spread to neighbouring towns. Over about fourteen months, 257 people in Eyam died. Some historians now question how voluntary the quarantine was and whether it raised the local death toll. Still, the story has inspired people for centuries with a picture of a community that chose to carry a burden so others would not have to.

Fire Ants Hold On to Each Other

When floods hit, fire ants do something amazing. They link together and build a living raft that floats. Researchers at Georgia Tech wanted to know how it works. They found that the ants grip one another with their jaws and legs at a force of 400 times their own body weight. Then they froze some rafts and scanned them inside. Each ant was connected to almost five neighbors, and averaged nearly 14 connections. Out of 440 ants scanned, 99 percent had every leg attached to a neighbor. That connection keeps the raft together in rough currents. No ant survives the flood alone, but together they float. The church is meant to be like that, holding on to each other when the waters rise.

The Prayer Meeting That Lasted 100 Years

In early 1727, the Moravian settlement of Herrnhut in Germany was a mess. About 300 people lived there, and they were full of arguing and division. Count Zinzendorf and others committed themselves to pray and work for revival. On May 12 revival came. The quarreling faded, and people came to faith. That August, 24 men and 24 women agreed to cover every hour of the day in prayer, each taking a turn. Others joined. That prayer watch continued nonstop for more than 100 years. By 1791 that small community had sent 300 missionaries around the world. It began with a fractured church on its knees. Revival does not start with a strategy. It starts when God’s people pray.

Emperor Penguins Take Turns in the Cold

Emperor penguins live through the Antarctic winter on the open ice, where wind chills can drop to 76 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. They survive by working together. They huddle in a big group to block the wind and hold in warmth. The birds take turns moving into the warm middle of the huddle. Once one has warmed up a bit, it moves back out to the edge so others can have a turn in the protected center. After the female lays her egg, she leaves on a hunting trip that lasts about two months. The male stays behind, balancing the egg on his feet and covering it to keep it warm. That is what a church family looks like in hard seasons. We take our turn in the wind.

Bald Eagles Came Back

The bald eagle is the national symbol of the United States, but by 1963 only 417 nesting pairs were known in the lower 48 states. Habitat loss, illegal shooting, and the pesticide DDT had nearly wiped them out. DDT made their eggshells so thin that many broke during incubation or never hatched. Then things changed. The government banned DDT, the Endangered Species Act protected their habitat, and ordinary people pitched in to help. By 2007 there were at least 9,789 nesting pairs, and that summer the bald eagle was taken off the endangered list. Today eagle sightings are common in many places. What looks finished is not finished when God gives a second chance and people choose to act on it.