True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
195 illustrations found
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 Doolittle Raider Who Went Back to Japan
Jacob DeShazer was a bombardier in the Doolittle Raid of April 1942, the first American bombing of Japan after Pearl Harbor. His plane went down in enemy territory, and he spent 40 months as a prisoner, beaten, starved, and held in solitary confinement for 34 months.
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 Fish That Came Back from Extinction
For a long time scientists believed the coelacanth had died out with the dinosaurs, about 70 million years ago. They knew it only from fossils.
The Four Chaplains Give Away Their Life Jackets
Shortly before 1 a.m. on February 3, 1943, a German submarine torpedoed the Army transport ship Dorchester in the icy North Atlantic, with 902 men aboard.
The Gophers of Mount St. Helens
When Mount St. Helens blew in 1980, it flattened about 135 square miles of forest and buried the ground under ash thick enough to bury a car.
The Hole in Clara Barton’s Sleeve
At the Battle of Antietam in 1862, Clara Barton arrived near the Cornfield to find surgeons dressing wounds with corn husks because army supplies were far behind.
The Homeless Man Who Kept the Ring Safe
In February 2013, Sarah Darling of Kansas City accidentally dumped her diamond engagement ring into the donation cup of Billy Ray Harris, a homeless man who often slept under a bridge.
The House Built for the Big One
In October 2018, Hurricane Michael flattened Mexico Beach, Florida. Homes were flooded, roofs torn off, debris everywhere.
The Janitor Who Left Millions
Ronald Read pumped gas and worked as a janitor in Brattleboro, Vermont. He wore old flannel shirts, drove a used car, and gathered fallen branches for his wood stove.
The Lady with the Lamp
In 1854, Florence Nightingale answered a government call for nurses and headed to Scutari, near Constantinople, to care for British soldiers from the Crimean War.
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 Little Ships of Dunkirk
In late May 1940, more than 300,000 British and French soldiers were trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk with the German army closing in. The beaches sloped so gently that big warships couldn't get close, so the British Admiralty appealed to the owners of small boats for help.
The Man in the Red Bandanna
Welles Crowther was a young equities trader and former Boston College lacrosse player. On September 11, 2001, survivors in the South Tower's burning 78th floor sky lobby saw a young man appear with a red bandanna over his face.
The Man in the Water Kept Passing the Line
On January 13, 1982, an Air Florida jet struck a Washington bridge and plunged into the ice-covered Potomac River. A rescue helicopter dropped a line to the few survivors clinging to the wreckage in the freezing water.
The Man Who Didn’t Pick Up the Phone
In the early hours of September 26, 1983, at the height of the Cold War, Soviet officer Stanislav Petrov was on duty at a nuclear early warning center when the computers announced that the United States had launched missiles.
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 Navajo Code Was Never Broken
In World War II, the Marines needed a code the enemy could not break. They decided to try one based on the Navajo language, which was unwritten and spoken by very few people outside the Navajo Nation.