Miracles

In his book, A Million Little Miracles, Mark Batterson believes we’re walking through a world brimming with the miraculous—we just don’t have the eyes to see it.

“There are miracles happening all around us all the time, hidden in plain sight,” Batterson says. “If you miss them, life can become a little bit of a chore and a bore. But if you rediscover the miracle that is life, it takes on a different dimension.”

It’s not just the big, cinematic miracles—the Red Sea parting or a blind man seeing. It’s the fact that we’re currently spinning at 1,000 miles per hour on a planet hurtling through space at 67,000 miles per hour, all while our bodies conduct trillions of biochemical reactions every second.

What if the real problem isn’t that miracles are rare—it’s that we’ve trained ourselves not to notice them? Psychologists call it “inattentional blindness.” If something is constant—like the sun rising, our hearts beating, or our lungs breathing—we stop paying attention to it. Batterson explains, “We should be startled by the sun, not the eclipse.”

The same is true of our own bodies. Batterson says:

Right now, you have 37 sextillion biochemical reactions happening inside of you. Your heart will beat 100,000 times today, pumping six quarts of blood through 60,000 miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries—that’s twice the circumference of the Earth. And yet, we go about our day saying, ‘Well, I’ve never seen a miracle.’ With all due respect, you’ve never not seen one. In fact, you are one.”

So how do we start seeing the miracles around us? Learn to take nothing for granted. To wake up each day and marvel at the ordinary. To stop waiting for the grand, spectacular moment and realize that the spectacular is happening all around us, all the time. And maybe, just maybe, if we start paying attention, we’ll realize that life itself is the miracle we’ve been waiting for.

The great scientist Albert Einstein said that he stood on the shoulders of James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish physicist. Maxwell’s insights into electromagnetism laid the foundation for the communication technologies we enjoy today.

In 1873 Maxwell delivered an essay at Cambridge titled “On Determinism and Free Will.” In that address Maxwell spoke about miracles, which he called “singular points.” A singular point occurs within history, but its occurrence is so infrequent and so relatively small that when it occurs, the finite mind cannot grasp its force for change. For example, in 1809 all the world was looking at Napoleon’s vast military exploits. Yet who noticed that a baby named Abraham was born that same year in northern Kentucky in a tiny log cabin? Retrospectively, of course, the world can now see the significance of that hour, which opened up a chance for this ship of state to be guided through the storms and into safe harbor, thereby preserving the Union and freeing those in the bondage of slavery. A singular point.

According to Maxwell, history is replete with these miracles that have changed the destiny of civilizations. A single person, a small group, an idea, a book—all can be points at which the vital moves the massive. We cannot see singular points of history in their origins. We can only grasp their significance years if not eras later.

“Any assessment of history which does not take into account the possibility of miracles is a false assessment of history,” said Maxwell. H.G. Wells named names: “I am a historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”

Rodney Holbrook no longer has to clean up his shed—he has a mouse to do that. Holbrook, a wildlife photographer and retired mailman, noticed that things were moving around in his Builth Wells, Wales, shed overnight. He set up a night vision camera and discovered that a mouse was picking up nuts, bolts, corks, and other items and putting them back into their box.

Holbrook dubbed the tiny housekeeper "Welsh Tidy Mouse," and said that "99 times out of 100," the mouse cleans up during the night. Holbrook said the mouse seems to have fun moving the objects. He doesn't even "bother to tidy up now, I leave things out of the box and they put it back in its place by the morning.”

Watch the adorable 1-minute video here.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Throughout the Bible, God uses a variety of animals to help his people in significant ways. The Scripture references are just a few examples of the many ways God used animals to help, guide, and protect those he cares for. Each story offers unique insights into God's character and relationship with his creation.

“Life will not be contained, life breaks free, it expands to new territories, it crashes into barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously,” said Jeff Goldblum, playing the role of chaos theory mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm in the iconic 1993 film Jurassic Park. “I’m simply saying that, well, life finds a way.”

That line was part of a fictional exchange, but it might have just as easily been uttered by real life scientists, baffled by a recent discovery at a storefront aquarium in North Carolina.

Charlotte the stingray lives at the Aquarium and Shark Lab in Henderson, North Carolina. She’s more than two thousand miles away from her natural habitat, off the coast of southern California. And it’s been more than eight years since she shared a tank with a male of her species, instead sharing a tank with five small sharks. But somehow, Charlotte has become pregnant.

Marine biologists call the process parthenogenesis, where a mammal can reproduce offspring from unfertilized eggs. It’s a rare phenomenon, but similar behaviors have been observed in other animals like California condors, Komodo dragons, and yellow-bellied water snakes. According to Katy Lyons, a research scientist at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Charlotte’s pregnancy is the first occurrence of her species, the round stingray.

“I’m not surprised,” said Lyons. “Because nature finds a way of having this happen.”

Editor’s Note: Unsurprisingly, the casual temptation for a skeptic may be to suggest that, even if there were a Jesus of Nazareth born of a virgin, it could have been through a parthenogenetic process. But given that parthenogenesis results in a near clone of the parent—and hence, all offspring are female—no one can suggest that a virgin conception of Christ could have been anything but miraculous. For further information, follow this link to Answers in Genesis.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God is sovereign and will not be constrained by any earthly obstacles, whether from biology or technology. Miracles do happen and they testify to God’s power. If we continue to submit our lives to God’s will, we might very well witness an unexpected blessing.

Community leaders in the Kansas City area have been breathing sighs of relief after the news that Ralph Yarl is expected to make a full recovery.

Sixteen-year-old Yarl was shot in the face after ringing the doorbell of the wrong home in an attempt to pick up his younger siblings. His plight went viral on social media, sparking outrage because local police initially declined to charge the shooter, 84-year-old Andrew Lester. After a series of local protests and national media coverage, Lester was charged in connection with the shooting, which prosecutors believe involved a “racial element” because Lester is white and Yarl is black.

Still, many were in high spirits after a photo began circulating of Yarl seated next to attorney Lee Merritt on an outdoor patio, smiling in the sun. Despite being in recovery from a traumatic brain injury, Yarl was referred to as “a walking miracle with a head of steel.”

Yarl’s mother said her son had a bullet in the left frontal lobe in his brain until it was removed by a team of surgeons. She said, “Had the bullet hit his head a fraction of an inch in any other direction he would probably be dead right now.”

Yarl’s aunt also provided an update: “Ralph is currently at home with his family. He can ambulate and communicate. A true miracle considering what he survived.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Even in the face of overwhelming wrongdoing and injustice, God can heal, renew, and restore.

In his book, Every Deep-Drawn Breath, Critical Care Doctor Wes Ely explores the ordinary miracle of taking a breath.

We take for granted our ability to breathe. We do it again and again, one breath after another, without thinking. Yet the lungs are incredibly complex, the respiratory system made up of so many different actors, structures, and functions. Cells with hair like projections called cilia move fluid, goblet cells secrete mucus, and column-like cells line and protect. Our lungs have cells that are integral parts of our nervous system, lymphatic system … and immune system. They contain cartilage, elastic tissue, connective tissue, muscle, and glands, and all of this gives rise to a system of airways that is 1500 miles long, from New York City to Dallas, and filters every ounce of air entering the body.

Dr. Ely feels so much admiration for the simple process of taking a breath that he compares it to how “an artist admires a Rembrandt [painting], the way the light, the colors, the brushstrokes all work together to create something more.”

Undercover narcotics officer Norm Wielsch was parked on a dark frontage road in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was about 9 p.m., and he was writing a suicide letter to his wife. Then he pulled out his gun as the most effective way to ensure a quick and painless death. Norm thought, I have investigated dozens of suicides. How had my life spiraled out of control to the point of wanting to commit it myself?

Norm had grown up in a middle-class family. One night, he went on a police ride-along. He loved it and knew he had found his calling. Norm writes,

Police protect the thin line between good and evil. They witness the worst that Satan has to offer. Few can endure the emotional stress and physical wear and tear, and after 10 years, PTSD had taken hold of me. Outwardly I appeared to have it all: marriage to my high-school sweetheart, two beautiful daughters, a great job, and a nice house. But inside I was a mess. My wife could take it no longer, and we divorced.

In 1998, I moved to a state police narcotics unit to work as an undercover agent. Soon after, I was diagnosed with a neurological disease called peripheral neuropathy, which was complicated by a degenerative muscular condition. After each of the 30 surgeries, doctors prescribed opioid pain medications. Before long, it was dozens a day and my physical and emotional condition was deteriorating. My second wife begged me to seek professional help, but I was too prideful.

In 2010, his daughter was diagnosed with liver tumors. Doctors gave her a 50 percent chance of surviving. This put Norm in a downward spiral of depression and so on that night he resolved to end his life. Norm writes, “Thankfully, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Even so, the next few months were a nightmare.”

Then he made a destructive decision. A private investigator he’d illegally helped in the past by checking license plates and warrant details, needed money for bills. He asked if Norm could supply drugs seized during narcotics investigations. At first, Norm declined, but the PI threatened to reveal their illegal collaborations. So, Norm gave in, not knowing that federal investigators had already sniffed out the scheme. He was arrested the next day and bailed out a few days later.

This was my darkest hour. But God began his mighty work in my life one evening when the telephone rang. It was Pastor Jeff Kenney in Concord, California. I did not know Pastor Jeff, and I did not believe in God. Even so, he invited me to church but I declined. But my wife suggested that God was missing from our lives. She insisted we go to church the next Sunday and so we did.

During one Sunday sermon, Pastor Jeff asked the congregation to pray for my daughter’s healing. Shortly thereafter, we went to get the results from her latest biopsy. The doctor presented two scans: one showing the tumors, and another on which they had disappeared completely. He could not explain the results. It hit me like a ton of bricks. This was no coincidence—God had healed her! I finally believed there was a living God!

After pleading guilty to my charges, I was sentenced to 14 years in prison. There, I got a job in the chapel and earned a master’s degrees in theology and counseling. As I serve the remainder of my sentence, I’m working as an addiction counselor in a men’s residential facility, where I provide pastoral care as a credentialed chaplain. All the hardship, guilt, and pain changed me from the inside out. God may not heal my body in this life, but I know that I am healed—body and soul—for all eternity.

Dr. Eric McLaughlin is a missionary doctor in Burundi, one of the poorest nations on the planet. After years of watching one out of seven of his patients die, it is hard for him to hold onto hope. He tells the story of Odette, a young woman who was hospitalized with terrible kidney failure. Odette’s family pooled their money to send her to a kidney specialist in the city. Long-term dialysis was not an option, so Dr. McLaughlin wondered if the expense of such a trip would change anything for her.

Dr. McLaughlin writes, “I fear to hope sometimes. My recent weeks had been filled with tragedies like Odette’s. More than that, there had been several times when it seemed like someone was going to recover but then suddenly died. ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick,’ says Proverbs 13:12. Exactly; my heart was sick.”

Amid his lament and doubt, his phone chimed. Dr. McLaughlin saw that the messages were from a friend named Onesphore, a former student and coworker. Now he works at a hospital in the city.

“Good morning doctor. I wanted to let you know that we have been caring for Odette. We have not been able to do much. But some fluids and careful observation have resulted in her kidneys returning almost to normal! We’re sending her home today. I just thought you would want to know. Praise God!”

Not only was Odette healed, but I heard the news from someone I had helped train for his current job. The good news arrived precisely when I was sitting there thinking about how afraid I was to hope. The idea that God was present was no longer theoretical; it was real and sudden. In a moment, the revealing of this whole story filled me with tearful joy, not a small amount of fear, and a renewed hope.

A tourist named Ivan was swimming in the ocean at Myti Beach in Greece when he was carried away by a series of powerful currents. Friends alerted the nearby coast guard, but they couldn’t find him, and he along with a friend were eventually declared to be lost at sea.

But 18 hours later, rescuers pulled Ivan out of the ocean, cold and shaken, but alive. That’s because shortly after his ocean ordeal began, he found an unexpected floatation device--a children’s ball. Just like Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away, Ivan found himself clinging onto the ball for survival, except rather than a volleyball, it was a child-sized soccer ball.

Ivan’s recovery was covered extensively in Greek national media, and several newspapers carried the photo where he posed with his grateful father, the mayor of Kassandra, and the fateful ball. The ball in the photo caught the attention of a mom who recognized it as the toy her son lost at the beach 10 days prior. Not only had the sea currents pulled the ball over 80 miles before he was able to grab onto it, but Ivan testified that the ball was only half-inflated. In Ivan’s home region of north Macedonia, people are rightfully calling it a miracle.

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Word of God - When our lives are at stake, we must hold on to God's Word, for in it is life and salvation; 2) Rescue - God can use the most unlikely things to rescue his people. He has used: A whale (Jonah 1:17), a raven (1 Kings 17:6), the jawbone of a donkey (Judges 15:15), and a handful of flour (1 Kings 17:12).

Bill Scott spends hours on his ham radio every day. He takes it on walks, vacations, and even social gatherings. Over his 40 years of being an amateur radio operator, he has communicated with people everywhere from South Africa to the Space Station.

This past June, he received a phone call and recognized the voice on the other end. Scott said, “It was all kind of skewed and everything. I thought it was a prank call at first. The voice said, ‘You are an amateur radio operator.’ He said ‘Yeah’ and then it all started coming together.”

His ham radio friend, Skip Kritcher, 500 miles away in Myrtle Point, Oregon dialed Bill’s number by mistake. Scott said Kritcher was on the floor and in need of help. Kirtcher later said, “I couldn’t see the numbers too good on the cell phone and I wound up pushing the button and calling Bill.”

Scott’s wife Sharon, a retired nurse of nearly 60 years, quickly realized Kritcher was having a stroke. She explained, “The speech that he had was slurred and my husband couldn’t seem to keep him on task, and he was confused.”

The line dropped, and that’s when the Scotts called 9-1-1. The couple had been to Kritcher’s house before and knew where to direct first responders to his house. A family member of Kritcher told the Scotts their quick actions saved his life. Sharon Scott said, “The family member said that the EMT told her that he would’ve died within a couple of hours. It was just a miracle that he called the wrong number and he got us and we were able to do something to help him.”

A life was saved by long-distance friendship.

In a fictional YouTube video, the main character, Eric, is walking his dog Nova. The dog sees a rabbit, runs after it, pulling the leash from Eric's hand. The dog is soon lost and Eric spends several days frantically searching for Nova. After a week Eric is devastated. He is upset about the bad luck of a rabbit jumping out just at the wrong time and leading Nova on a wild chase.

After another week a woman, Vanessa, rings Eric's doorbell with Nova in tow. After the emotional reunion with Nova, Eric slowly gets to know Vanessa and they fall in love. Eric realizes how lucky they were that Vanessa was at the right place at the right time to find Nova.

Two months later as Eric is driving to visit Vanessa, he is T-boned by a negligent driver. He suffers a severe head injury and tests are immediately done at the hospital. He is furious that his life could be ruined by this random accident when he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The next day the doctor tells him of the results of the CT scan. There is a tumor growing in his brain. It had nothing to do with the accident, from which Eric would make a full recovery. The tumor was discovered because of the accident and the CT scan. It was in its early stages, and could effectively be treated. Normally the tumor is discovered when there are symptoms, when it is almost always too late. The doctor tells him the car accident saved his life.

A week later Eric has successful brain surgery. Days later Eric is at home, recovering, with Vanessa. To get some fresh air he takes Nova out for a walk.

You can watch this 6 min. video here.

Possible Preaching Angle:

This short story video is quite compelling and an excellent illustration for Bible verses like “All things work together....” (Rom. 8:28), facing trials (Jam.1:2-4) and restoration after suffering (1 Pet. 5:10). Christians are often perplexed by the things happening to them but God intends that good should come out of evil. (Gen 50:20)

Professor Craig Keener shares the following story in an issue of CT magazine:

Around 1960, in the Republic of Congo, a two-year-old girl named Thérèse was bitten by a snake. She cried out for help, but by the time her mother, Antoinette, reached her, Thérèse was unresponsive and seemed to have stopped breathing. No medical help was available to them in their village, so Antoinette strapped little Thérèse to her back and ran to a neighboring village.

According to the US National Library of Medicine, brain cells start dying less than five minutes after their oxygen supply is removed. After six minutes, lack of oxygen can cause severe brain damage or death. Antoinette estimates that, given the distance and the terrain, it probably took about three hours to reach the next village. By the time they arrived, her daughter was likely either dead or had sustained significant brain damage.

Antoinette immediately sought out a family friend, Coco Ngoma Moyise, who was an evangelist in the neighboring village. They prayed over the lifeless girl and immediately she started breathing again. By the next day, she was fine—no long-term harm and no brain damage. Today, Thérèse has a master’s degree and is a pastor in Congo.

Craig writes, “When I heard this story, as a Westerner I was naturally tempted toward skepticism, but it was hard to deny. Thérèse is my sister-in-law and Antoinette was my mother-in-law.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Not every claim to a miraculous raising today is authentic. Everywhere in the world, most people who die stay dead. Even those resuscitated miraculously, such as Lazarus, die again; all healing in our mortal bodies is by definition temporary. Such miracles do, however, remind us that Jesus Christ, who raised the dead during his earthly ministry, is the risen and exalted Lord. Sometimes he continues to grant signs of the future, reminders of the resurrection hope that in him awaits us all.

Sometimes the things that seem inconsequential can end up making a huge difference. When Eyal and Sara Nir moved into the Champlain Towers South with two of their six children, they had a choice between a penthouse unit and one on the first floor. Sara liked the first-floor unit better, so that’s the one they picked. Because of that one choice, along with several other routine choices, the family narrowly avoided death.

That’s because during the early morning hours of June 24 the Champlain Towers South suffered a devastating building collapse, killing at least 97 people. Eyal was out of town, but Sara and her children Gabe and Chani were home, and happened to be awake. Regular night owl Gabe had just returned from the gym, and noted that the whole family was out of their regular routine. Gabe said, "For some reason, we all were doing things later than usual. And my mom decided to stay later at her event, my sister decided to come back home late [from babysitting].”

It was nearly 1am when all three of them made it home and Gabe heard what sounded like construction noises, unusual for the middle of the night. This prompted their mom to talk to a security guard. Gabe said, "As soon as she goes down to the front, I hear this loud rumble. Like, you feel like an earthquake is happening right in front of you,”

As he and his mother and sister ran from the scene, Gabe dialed 911 and began describing the scene as the ground opened up and started swallowing everything whole. Gabe feels a sense of gratitude for their survival. “There's got to be a reason we came back later. And I feel like fate really — God really came and saved us.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Even in times of calamity and disaster God is still present and can still protect us. It doesn't mean we're automatically insulated from any negative experience, but it does mean that we never walk alone, and God's power is present in us to endure whatever we face.

George Wood was a superintendent of the US Assemblies of God. He shared the following story in a Preaching Today sermon:

When I was a boy, my sister left our home in Pennsylvania, and traveled to Central Bible College. She had a lifelong problem with her eyesight. She had 20 percent vision in one eye and 50 percent vision in the other, and wore thick, Coke-bottle glasses.

During a fall revival at Central Bible College, she had been praying at the altar and saw a vision of Jesus on the cross. She felt a voice, saying to her, "Doris, take off your glasses." In those years, if you wore glasses, you were prayed for on a regular basis—that you would be healed. My sister had had enough of that, so she said, "No."

Again, she felt the voice say to her, "Doris, take off your glasses."

Again, her response was, "No."

A third time, while she was having the vision of Jesus on the cross, she felt this voice say to her, "Doris, take off your glasses." She sensed it might be the Lord, so she prayed, "Lord, if I take these glasses off, I don't want to ever put them on again."

The vision disappeared, she opened her eyes, and she had perfect sight. It's been 50 years. She has never put on a pair of glasses to this day.

Author Russell Moore writes:

A few years ago, I stood at the grave of Thomas Jefferson, and I was prompted to give thanks for his life and legacy. After all, if it weren’t for Jefferson and his majestic Declaration of Independence, there might not even be a United States of America, and certainly not a country quite like it is now.

But standing at Jefferson’s grave prompted me to realize that Jefferson is, well, in a grave. Jefferson’s anti-supernaturalism is seen in visual form in his famous Bible, with the miraculous parts cut out, most significantly the bodily resurrection of Jesus. I love Jefferson for standing up against King George, but not for standing up against King Jesus.

And yet, two hundred years later, belief in the resurrection of Jesus persists. Just days after I was at this hero’s grave, Christians from all over the world, despite all this science and all this progress and all this technology, confessed what the earliest believers in the catacombs of Rome cried out: “Christ is risen indeed.”

Thomas Jefferson is still dead. I thank God for him, but standing at his grave reminds me how limited even his legacy can be in the grand scheme of trillions of years of cosmic time. It also reminds me of the contrast with (the One) whose monument isn’t a house or…even a simple grave-marker. It’s instead a borrowed tomb that isn’t filled anymore.

That empty tomb is, itself, a declaration of independence. By raising Jesus from the dead, God declared him (and all who are in him) to be free from death, free from the curse, free from Satan’s accusation. I suppose you could say that Jesus was endowed by his Father with certain unalienable rights, among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness … except that these blessings don’t end in a graveyard.

Pastor and author Craig Brian Larson writes:

In January, 2021, as the coronavirus continued to spread, we received concerning news from a family in our church. Jose Alvarado, his wife, Sayra, their son Antonio, and his mother Martha had all caught the virus.

While other family members were largely over it, Jose continued to get worse and he was admitted to the hospital. His symptoms included a fever over 104, uncontrollable coughing, and developing pneumonia. The oxygen level in his blood was dropping quickly, and doctors moved Jose to the intensive care unit the next day.

After a couple of days in ICU, his fever finally broke, but the fluid in his lungs persisted, along with coughing and weakness. Jose continued to fight and do various exercises, and this led to continued improvement over time. After 10 days in ICU, around 3 a.m., Jose saw four angels standing around his bed, two on a side. It was dream-like. He did not see their faces. He had been lying on his chest to drain the liquid from his lungs, but the angels helped him turn over to his back to breathe more easily, and he instantly felt healing.

The angels left, and the nurse came around 5 a.m. to draw blood for daily tests. Jose asked her what happened overnight, why there were so many people in the room. She said no one had been in the room until she came in, and even so only one person is allowed at a time due to COVID protocols. (Hospital rules do not apply to angels!)

After breakfast, the nurse told Jose they were moving him out of ICU to a regular room, since he was doing better. A few days later, the doctor surveyed Jose’s test results and oxygen reading and said, “You’re going home today.” That afternoon he was home with his family eating a delicious meal. Although Jose continued to useoxygen for a few days as he recovered at home, the turnaround in his symptoms was dramatic once the angels intervened.

On May 25, 1979, Denis Waitley was desperately trying to catch a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles. When he arrived at his gate, they had just closed the jetway. Denis begged them to let him on that airplane. No luck! Out of breath and out of patience, he made his way to the ticket counter to register a complaint and rebook his travel. While he was waiting in line, an announcement came over the airport intercom. AA Flight 191 to Los Angeles had crashed upon takeoff.

The engine on the left wing of that DC-10 sepa­rated from the airplane right after takeoff. The unbalanced aerodynam­ics caused the plane to roll, a roll from which it could not recover. All 271 people on board died in the crash. It was the deadliest aviation accident in United States history.

That near-death experience had a life-altering impact on Denis Waitley. Had he been on time, it would have been the last day of his life. Needless to say, he never registered his complaint. In fact, he never re­turned his ticket for Flight 191. He took his paper ticket and put it in a visible place in his office. On difficult days, the days when he felt like throwing in the towel, all it took was one glance at that ticket to regain perspective. That ticket was a constant reminder that every day is a gift.

Anil’s life took a sudden turn after his mother was miraculously healed following a woman’s simple prayer to Jesus. In this episode of God Pops Up, follow Anil’s journey to learn more about the man who he is convinced saved his mother.

After watching this episode of God Pops Up, read more about Apilang Apum’s call to Christ in a remote corner of India.

The movement in the Horn of Africa continues to make disciples, planting four new house churches every day. To date, they have seen more than 230,000 people become followers of Jesus. With a deep commitment to prayer and fasting, they follow Luke 10, looking for “people of peace” who then bring households, villages, and entire tribes to Jesus. Daily, their church planters face persecution for the sake of the gospel. But, they say, “we count it all joy so that we can share Jesus with more people.” For security reasons, we don’t divulge the identity of these brothers and sisters.

After watching this episode of God Pops Up, read Christianity Today’s article about a kindergarten teacher called to ministry aboard the Africa Mercy.