True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
19 illustrations found
Albert Lexie Gave His Tips Away
Twice a week for more than 30 years, Albert Lexie rose before dawn and rode buses for an hour and a half from Monessen to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Captain Tom’s Hundred Laps
In April 2020, during Britain's first COVID lockdown, a World War II veteran named Tom Moore set out to walk 100 laps of his garden in Bedfordshire before his 100th birthday.
Chuck Feeney Gave It All Away While He Was Alive
Chuck Feeney co-founded Duty Free Shoppers in 1960 and became a billionaire. Then he did something almost nobody does.
Clemente’s Last Flight
Roberto Clemente was one of baseball's greatest stars: 3,000 hits, four batting titles, two World Series championships with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Could You Patent the Sun?
In the early 1950s polio terrified American parents. In the last years before a vaccine, it paralyzed somewhere between 13,000 and 20,000 children every year.
Eugenio Monti Lends a Bolt
At the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Italian bobsledder Eugenio Monti was the most dominant driver of his era. During the two-man event, the British team of Tony Nash and Robin Dixon suffered a broken axle bolt on their sled in their first run, and without a replacement they were finished.
George Müller’s Ten Thousand Orphans
George Müller lived a wicked life as a young man in Germany before he was converted at about age 20. Later, as a preacher in England, he made a decision: he would never take a salary or ask anyone directly for money.
Handel Gave Messiah to the Orphans
When Handel's Messiah first played in London, it was not a hit. Some people thought a sacred work did not belong in a theater.
James Harrison Never Missed an Appointment
When James Harrison was 14, he had lung surgery in Australia and needed many blood transfusions. He woke up in intensive care determined to give back.
Johnny Appleseed Walked Through a Snowstorm for His Seedlings
Johnny Appleseed was a real man named John Chapman, born in Massachusetts in 1774 and raised in a home where he grew a lifelong devotion to the Bible.
Julio Diaz Buys His Mugger Dinner
Julio Diaz was a 31-year-old social worker in the Bronx who always got off the subway one stop early so he could eat at his favorite diner. One night in early 2008, a teenager pulled a knife on him on the platform and took his wallet.
Lottie Moon Gave All She Had
Lottie Moon served as a missionary in China for nearly 40 years. Her letters home kept begging for more workers and more support, and in 1888 Southern Baptist women started a Christmas offering for foreign missions.
Moody’s Candy and Pony Rides
Dwight L. Moody came to Chicago selling shoes, dreaming of making a fortune of $100,000. But after he came to faith, it slowly dawned on him that his life should be spent helping people instead of piling up wealth.
Ninety Guests and Five Deer at Plymouth
The only eyewitness account of the 1621 harvest celebration at Plymouth comes from Edward Winslow in a letter published in Mourt's Relation.
Oseola McCarty Gives It All
Oseola McCarty spent her life washing and ironing other people's clothes in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In 1995 she gave $150,000, most of her life savings, to the University of Southern Mississippi to help students who needed scholarships.
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.
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 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 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.