Stories - Page 64 of 82 - The Christian Heart

How Everyday People Live Out Their Christian Faith

Illustrating how men and women display their love for Jesus in their day-to-day lives.
Little things that may have an eternal impact. Might these stories motivate you to use your talents?

Hospital Mentoring Overcoming Obstacles
GOD’S TIMING IS AMAZING

When I look back on my life, I can see God's hands along every step, even when I experienced a rare brain tumor. Life was going along wonderfully. My wife, son and I had just adopted our 12 year old son from Colombia. I was doing well in my real estate job and even training for a marathon. One morning, I went out for a run and became extremely dizzy. If not for a park bench, I may have collapsed. I found my way home and thought it was just a chemical imbalance. But my wife convinced me to go to the ER. The MRI showed a tumor the size of a fist lodged in my brain. When the doctor said those words, I was devastated. It was causing my entire brain to be scrunched to one side. But by God's grace, it looked to be clear, meaning it was non-cancerous. Still, it was a very rare and large brain tumor. One of the country's top neurosurgeons performed my surgery, which was anything but smooth. There was a tremendous amount of hemorrhaging. He had to call his medical mentor in Europe for a consultation. I was in a medically-induced coma for two days while a team of neurosurgeons decided on a course of action. Four surgeries later, I'm a walking miracle. It took two months in the hospital and rehab before I was anything close to my normal self. I lost hearing in my left ear and still have some lingering imbalance, both somewhat common side effects with brain surgery.… Read More

March 16, 2018
Church Activities Verbalizing the Gospel
HITTING THE STREETS IN GHANA

As a pastor in Ghana, it pains me to see how few people follow or even know about Jesus. You can see it in the traffic patterns. During the weekdays, there's a lot of traffic in town whilst on weekends, there's very little traffic. A lot of people take their work more seriously than God.
But some others just haven’t heard the good news of Jesus. It struck me that only about 50% of the population of my region go to church regularly on Sundays. So I thought, how can we reach the other 50% to let them know how much God loves them and how much He yearns to fellowship with them? On 1st July, which was a public holiday in Ghana, my congregation hit the streets of Kaosa in what we called the Street Rhema. We shared the Word with everyone we met. We started in the township of Kasoa and went out to Kokrobite Beach. We were so surprised to find that some people had never heard the name of Jesus. We wore t-shirts and held placards with messages of hope. We played music along the streets of our town to draw people's attention to what we were doing. We had over 100 souls won to Christ that day. Most of them now go to church on a regular basis. One very important thing I learned from my father---until a soul grows to the point where he desires to bring others into the house of God, that soul has not been won completely. I believe the word of God… Read More

March 13, 2018
Children Labor Special Needs
WONDERFUL THEME PARKS

When God placed individuals with special needs on my heart back in high school, I had no way of knowing He was already preparing me for life with my daughter, Morgan. She has physical and cognitive special needs. Loving a child with special needs has taught me a lot about the fragility of life and how to see the world through a different lens. Just through her smiles and hugs, she is able to inspire others. I am blessed to have her in my life. And, she is the inspiration behind everything I do. After I retired at an early age, I felt called to provide services for the special needs community based on our own experiences with Morgan. I learned early on that Morgan is one of the lucky ones when it comes to having access to medical care. It is costly and difficult, and many of those in the special needs community simply do not have the ability to get their children the help they need. I wanted to develop things and places that would make their lives better and help them feel included. I developed Morgan's Wonderland, the first fully inclusive and ultra-accessible family fun park, after a personal experience. I was with Morgan in a pool one day where other children were playing. When Morgan tried to play ball with these children, they ran off. As a parent, I recognized the hurt and confusion in my daughter's eyes. Because of this incident, I started thinking about where I could take her to play with children where everyone would feel… Read More

March 9, 2018
Children Church Activities Mentoring
GETTING INVOLVED IN THEIR LIVES

As a father of three, my life is pretty busy. My evenings are filled with volleyball games, track meets, and dance recitals as I work to be the best dad I can be. Wednesdays nights, though, are my sacred time. Those are the evenings I spend as the Royal Ranger Commander at my church. When my son turned six, he joined our local Royal Rangers program. Since I wanted to spend time with him, I decided to become the leader of his age group. Each Wednesday evening, I work with a group of boys teaching them life skills as well as how to grow into godly men. We go camping a few times each year, memorize scripture together, and learn about the importance of giving back to the community. What started as a simple way for me to spend time with my son has grown into something much bigger than I imagined. My son is now 20, and I am so proud of the man he has become. He is kind and generous, thoughtful and strong. But I am also proud of the dozens of other young men I have worked with over the years through this program. Some of my boys come from broken homes full of pain. I have prayed with them, fed them, brought them clothes, and mostly, just loved them as a father should love his son. These young men have brought so much joy to me. I know I am much more blessed as their Royal Ranger commander than I could ever bless them. I… Read More

March 6, 2018
Children Hospital Overcoming Obstacles Unique Ministries
THE KIDNEY PILLOW

When she was six years old, my daughter, Erin, was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease: FSGS. Her disease causes her immune system to attack her kidneys, and slowly, they fail. She is nine now, and we remain hopeful and have faith that God is able to sustain her. But, it isn't always easy. When Erin was first diagnosed during one of her early hospital stays, a sweet child life therapist saw her struggling and feeling down. She asked Erin what she would do if she could do anything in the hospital that day. Erin told her she would like to make a pillow that looked like a kidney. Armed with a t-shirt, hot glue, and stuffing, that's what they did. This strange looking pillow ended up being a comfort to Erin---so much so that she asked if we could start making kidney pillows for other kids going through the same ordeal. But, we hesitated. Then, in 2017, Erin went through a rough time and the pillow idea came back up again. This time, we went for it. We started making kits that come with all the materials a child needs to make a silly kidney pillow. In just a short time, it grew in popularity. It blossomed from taking pillow kits to our local hospital to sending them to other countries. My daughter and I have a heart for kidney kids, so it began as a way to offer encouragement and hope to other families struggling with the diagnosis. As a believer, I wanted to give them a little more to help them… Read More

March 2, 2018
Church Activities
THE CHURCH PIANIST

I've played the piano and organ in churches for the last 50 years. I began playing piano at my church when I was about 15 and have continued doing so ever since. Every Sunday, I have found great joy behind the keys at my church. I spend hours pouring over music for Sunday's service. Each week is a wonderful challenge in finding just the right songs to encourage and inspire the congregation. In college, I discovered an even deeper love for music when I was introduced to the organ. I decided to study music and spent almost every waking moment between those two instruments, learning new arrangements for old hymns. I would then try them out on a local congregation I played for throughout college. It was a wonderful time. Since then, each Sunday finds me behind an instrument at two different churches in my community. Because both churches are very small, there just isn't anyone in the congregation who can play any music. Thankfully, the two services have times different enough to allow me to attend both churches. I have served the congregations of these two churches for over 30 years and have loved every minute. Each week when my fingers hit the keys, I look up to see the faces in the audience as their voices belt out praise to God. It truly is a privilege to be used by God to praise His name each week. My prayer is that someone younger will be inspired by the music and begin her own journey in church music, giving God all the… Read More

February 27, 2018

Browse all categories

Adoption/Foster Care 38

Church Activities 60

Financial Help 18

Loss Of Loved One 38

Loving Your Neighbor 66

Mission Work 52

Overcoming Obstacles 115

Prison Ministry 11

Senior Citizens 22

Special Needs 47

Unique Ministries 165

Verbalizing the Gospel 74

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