True, sourced stories for sermons and lessons. Search by keyword, theme, or Bible book.
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Anthony Robles Wrestled on One Leg
Anthony Robles was born without a right leg. He tried a prosthetic, but at age three he pulled it off and chose crutches instead.
Banting Read One Article
In the early 1920s, doctors knew diabetes was linked to a missing substance from the pancreas, but every attempt to extract it had failed. Frederick Banting, a young Canadian doctor, read a medical article by Moses Baron about what happens when the pancreatic duct is tied off.
Beethoven Couldn’t Hear the Applause
On May 7, 1824, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered in Vienna. Beethoven stood onstage, but he was so deaf that the conductor told the orchestra and choir to ignore Beethoven's beat and watch him instead.
Ben Hogan Threw Himself Across His Wife
On a foggy morning, February 2, 1949, golf champion Ben Hogan and his wife Valerie were driving home to Fort Worth on a two-lane Texas highway when a Greyhound bus trying to pass a truck came straight at them in their lane.
Bessie Coleman Learned French to Fly
Bessie Coleman grew up in Texas and later worked as a manicurist in Chicago. When her brother came home from World War I talking about women flying airplanes in France, she decided the sky would be her arena.
Bethany Hamilton Couldn’t Wait to Surf
In 2003, thirteen-year-old Bethany Hamilton was lying on her surfboard off Hawaii with her left arm dangling in the water. A shark came up and attacked, pulling her back and forth.
Bikila Ran Barefoot Through Rome
The 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome started at 5:30 in the evening and finished in the dark, with torches lighting the ancient streets. One of the runners was an Ethiopian named Abebe Bikila, and he was running barefoot.
Booker T. Washington’s Entrance Exam
Born into slavery, young Booker T. Washington heard about Hampton Institute in Virginia and decided he would get there somehow, even though it was about 500 miles away.
Bunyan Would Not Promise to Stop Preaching
When Charles II took the throne, the freedom to worship outside the Church of England ended. By January 1661, preacher John Bunyan was in the county jail.
Cal Ripken Just Kept Showing Up
Lou Gehrig played 2,130 games in a row, a streak so long that people called it unbreakable. On September 6, 1995, Baltimore's Cal Ripken Jr. played his 2,131st straight game.
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.
Cliff Young Shuffles to Victory
In 1983 a 61-year-old potato farmer named Cliff Young lined up for the Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon, about 875 kilometers, against some of the best ultramarathon runners in the world.
Dan Jansen’s Victory Lap
At the 1988 Winter Olympics, speedskater Dan Jansen learned just five hours before his 500-meter race that his sister Jane had died of leukemia.
Derek Redmond and the Father Who Came Down from the Stands
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, British runner Derek Redmond was finally healthy and running well in the 400-meter semifinal. About 150 meters in, his right hamstring tore and he crumpled to the track.
Diego the Tortoise Went Home
On Española Island in the Galapagos, the giant tortoise population had dropped to just 15 animals. A breeding program begun in the 1960s brought together two other males and 12 females with a tortoise named Diego, who had spent decades at a zoo.
Eighty-Six Years I Have Served Him
Polycarp was an old man, the bishop of Smyrna, and tradition says he had been taught by the apostle John. Sometime in the second century, Roman authorities came to arrest him.
Emily Roebling Finished the Bridge
As the Brooklyn Bridge project got underway in 1869, designer John Roebling died, and his son Washington became chief engineer. Then Washington was struck down by caisson disease, what we now call the bends.
Endurance Found After 107 Years
In 1915, Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance was squeezed and crushed by Antarctic sea ice and sank, leaving his men stranded on the ice. Shackleton led an astonishing escape on foot and in small boats, even sailing a lifeboat across brutal seas to go get help.
Enough at the Opera to Have Carried It
William Wilberforce had spent nine years fighting to end the British slave trade. On March 15, 1796, his bill finally looked like it might pass.
Eric Liddell Wouldn’t Run on Sunday
When Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell learned that the 100 meter heats at the 1924 Paris Olympics would be run on a Sunday, he refused to take part, even though the 100 was his strongest distance, and news of his decision travelled around the world.