True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
83 illustrations found
Takacs Came to Learn
In 1938 Karoly Takacs was a sergeant in the Hungarian Army and a member of his country's world champion pistol team. During an army exercise a grenade exploded in his right hand, his shooting hand, and shattered it.
Team Hoyt: A Father Who Pushed
Dick Hoyt's son Rick was born with cerebral palsy and couldn't walk or talk. Starting in 1980, Dick began pushing Rick in a custom racing chair in the Boston Marathon.
Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope
In March 1977, when Terry Fox was only 18, doctors amputated his right leg above the knee because of bone cancer. Within weeks he was walking on an artificial leg, and the night before his surgery a coach had brought him a story about an amputee who ran the New York Marathon.
The Arctic Tern Goes the Distance
The Arctic tern is a small seabird with a big reputation. Audubon calls it a long-distance champion.
The Butterflies That Know the Way
Every fall, monarch butterflies in eastern North America head south, some of them flying up to 3,000 miles to the mountain oyamel forests of central Mexico.
The Doctor Who Drank the Bacteria
In the early 1980s in Perth, Australia, a young doctor named Barry Marshall teamed up with pathologist Robin Warren, who had spotted curved bacteria in stomach biopsies.
The Doctor Who Said Wash Your Hands
In the 1840s, a young doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis started counting deaths in two maternity wards at Vienna General Hospital. Women in the ward run by doctors and medical students died at nearly five times the rate of the ward run by midwives.
The Farm Boy Who Fed Millions
Norman Borlaug grew up on a farm near Cresco, Iowa. In 1944 he took a job in Mexico directing a wheat research program, and he spent years in the fields crossing and testing wheat varieties.
The Lahaina Banyan Tree Puts Out New Leaves
In August 2023 a wind-driven wildfire tore through the historic town of Lahaina on Maui, and the famous banyan tree on Front Street, planted in 1873 to mark 50 years since the first Protestant mission there, was left scorched and standing in the ashes.
The Man Who Planted a Forest
In 1979 a teenager named Jadav Payeng started planting trees on barren land on Majuli, an island in the Brahmaputra River in Assam, India. He just kept planting, year after year, one seedling at a time.
The Marathon That Took 54 Years
Japan sent only two athletes to the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, and one of them was marathon runner Shiso (often spelled Shizo) Kanakuri. The trip took ten days by train, and race day was brutally hot.
The Milkmaids and the End of Smallpox
Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases in human history. It's believed to have been around for at least 3,000 years and it killed millions.
The New Testament Sewn into a Pillow
Adoniram and Ann Judson were American missionaries in Burma. In 1824, when war broke out with the British, Adoniram was arrested as a suspected spy and thrown into the death prison at Ava.
The One-Armed Outfielder
When Pete Gray was six, he was hitching a ride on the running board of a produce truck. The driver stopped suddenly, Gray fell, and his right arm got caught in the wheel spokes.
The Survivor Tree
A month after the September 11 attacks, workers at Ground Zero found a badly damaged Callery pear tree in the rubble. Its roots were snapped and its branches were burned and broken.
Togo Ran the Longest Leg
In January 1925, diphtheria broke out in Nome, Alaska, and the town needed antitoxin fast. Planes could not fly in the winter conditions, so dog sled teams formed a relay to carry the serum 674 miles from Nenana to Nome.
Tu Youyou Looked in the Old Books
Malaria is caused by a tiny parasite spread by mosquitoes, and it has killed millions over the centuries. In the 1970s a Chinese scientist named Tu Youyou took an unusual approach.
Twelve Seconds at Kitty Hawk
Everybody was watching Samuel Langley. He had backing from the Smithsonian and the War Department, and the press followed his every move.
Two Runners Who Stopped to Pick Each Other Up
In a women's 5,000 meter heat at the 2016 Rio Olympics, New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin tripped and fell, accidentally taking American Abbey D'Agostino down with her.
Wangari Maathai Started with One Tree at a Time
Wangari Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya, in 1940 and became the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate. In 1976, while serving with the National Council of Women of Kenya, she introduced a simple idea: plant trees with ordinary people.