Message from Margaret Crotts, First Grade Teacher

The story is told that in the late 1800’s, a great sailing ship

left San Francisco on its way to New York around the tip of

South America through the Straits of Magellan. On the

voyage, it encountered heavy seas and was blown off course. 

As it came up the east side of the coast of South America

opposite Brazil, the days lost as a result of the storm had

caused the ship to run dangerously low of fresh water.

For days, the great ship had seen no other vessels. Finally,

however, another vessel was spotted and the following

message sent:  “ We are running short of fresh water, can you

help us?”  The reply came from the sister ship, “Dip where you

are.”   Thinking their request had been misunderstood, the

message was repeated. Back a second time came the reply,

 “Dip where are you.”

Heeding the message, buckets were lowered and water from

the sea was hauled aboard. Much to the surprise of the crew,

the water was fresh. The great sailing ship in its journey had

come to a position 200 miles off the coast of Brazil in line with

the mouth of the Amazon River which pours fresh water 300

miles into the Atlantic ocean.

The Christian life is often like that. The needs of a particular

hour require resources that we don’t have. The promise of God

is that those resources will be available to us in the moment

of need. Often the resources are about us and to have them,

we simply need to “dip where we are”.

“My God shall provide all your needs according to His riches

in Christ Jesus.”     Philippians 4:19

Message by Bruce Consier, Athletic Director

The story of the Paralytic.

Vs. 18 “And behold some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in, and set him down in front of Him.”

Vs. 19 “And not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, right in the center, in front  of Jesus.”

I heard a sermon on this story a while back and it touches me every time I hear it or read this story. What you have to like about the paralytic and his friends is that they were a determined group, full of passion and had a goal. 

Things do not go as they had planned but that did not stop the men. Do you have any days like that?

They had to do something drastic.  There was an opportunity to see Jesus and get their friend healed. They had to climb the walls and bust through a roof.  The men did not care how they got to Jesus and on that day and nothing was going to stop them.  They found an opportunity and got it done. The man was lowered right in front of Jesus.  Jesus healed him and told him to take his bed and go home.

I wished I was more than the paralytic and his friends. In the craziness of that day, they had created a way to get to Jesus. Nothing stopped them. NO crowd or walls would prevent them from their goal.

An important part of our life is to create some God space in our daily lives. Otherwise we may just face an obstacle and give up.