True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
195 illustrations found
Ruby Bridges Walks into First Grade
On November 14, 1960, a six-year-old named Ruby Bridges walked into William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans escorted by U.S. marshals.
Ryan Did Chores for a Well
In January 1998, six-year-old Ryan Hreljac heard his grade one teacher, Mrs. Prest, explain that people were getting sick and even dying because they had no clean water.
Saint Cyr Helped Lis Hartel onto the Podium
In September 1944, while she was pregnant, Danish rider Lis Hartel developed polio. For a while she could not walk at all.
Saman Kunan’s Last Dive
In the summer of 2018, twelve boys and their soccer coach were trapped deep in a flooded cave in northern Thailand. Saman Kunan had already left the Thai navy, but he came back to volunteer in the rescue.
Sarah Hale Wrote Lincoln One More Letter
Before 1863, there was no national Thanksgiving Day. Each state picked its own date, mostly in New England and the North.
Seventy Years in an Iron Lung
Paul Alexander caught polio in 1952 when he was just six years old, and within days the disease left him unable to breathe on his own. He spent the next 70-plus years in an iron lung, a seven-foot metal cylinder that pushed air into his lungs.
Spurgeon in the Snowstorm
As a teenager, Charles Spurgeon was miserable under the weight of his sin and kept visiting churches hoping somebody would show him how to be saved.
Stone and Smith Shook Hands
On Saturday, January 1, 1832, two groups of believers met at the Hill Street church in Lexington, Kentucky: the Christians who followed Barton W. Stone and the reformers associated with Alexander Campbell.
Sugihara Kept Writing Visas
In the summer of 1940, Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat in Kovno, Lithuania, when Jewish refugees from Poland began crowding outside his consulate.
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.
Thanking Everybody Behind One Cup of Coffee
Writer A.J. Jacobs decided to thank every person who had a hand in his morning cup of coffee. He started with the barista and kept going: the people who roasted it, the truckers who hauled it, the farmers who grew it, even the folks who made the cup and the lid.
The Amish Families Who Forgave
In October 2006 a milk truck driver named Charles Roberts walked into a one-room Amish schoolhouse at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, shot ten young girls, killing five, and then took his own life.
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 Candy Bomber Wiggles His Wings
In July 1948, during the Berlin Airlift, American pilot Gail Halvorsen met about 30 hungry kids at the barbed wire fence at Tempelhof airfield.
The Carpathia Raced Toward the Ice
At 12:35 am on April 15, 1912, the wireless operator and first officer of the Carpathia woke Captain Arthur Rostron with news that the Titanic had struck ice and was sinking.
The Christmas Truce of 1914
Picture the first winter of World War I. British and German soldiers are freezing in muddy trenches, sometimes close enough to shout across to each other.
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.