Legacy Youth Ministry Resources

Illustration texts

Schaeffer on Perserverance

?The reality in the life of an evangelist or a ?teller of the truth,? is not pointed out as a series of miracles which remove all sickness, hardship, and fatigue from that person, but a series of hard, slogging days of work during which a sufficient amount of the Lord?s strength has become evident in the human being?s weakness.? (Edith Schaeffer, Affliction) p. 34

Roosevelt on Hanging On

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. ? Franklin D. Roosevelt, former President of the United States that was afflicted with polio as a young man

I Stuck Around

?veni, vedi, velcro? -- ?I came, I saw, I stuck around.?

Victory is Fighting Longer

Victory is the ability to fight five minutes longer than any other army in the world. -- General Wellington

Don't Quit When You May Be So Close

Many of life?s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -- Thomas Edison

Pasteur on Tenacity

My strength lies mainly in my tenacity. -- Louis Pasteur, scientist

Roosevelt on 90% of the Work

Ninety percent of the work done in this country is done by people who don?t feel well. Theodore Roosevelt

Joe Dudley Perseveres

Don't let your handicaps, your shortcomings get you down. They are only dead ends if you let them be. Joe is a guy who used his trials and shortcomings as a springboard to motivate him to become all he was meant to be. Here's his story... Joe was born into a large family that eventually had 11 children. His parents raised them in a three-room farmhouse in the little town of Aurora, North Carolina. His family was poor, but that wasn?t Joe?s biggest problem. He was born with a speech problem that caused his teachers to label him as mentally retarded. School was not Joe?s favorite place as a boy. One of his favorite places, however, was Sunday School. "We were involved in Sunday school," said Joe. "When my teacher read those stories, it gave me hope. If you have hope for the future, you have power for the present." Also, Joe had a mother that believed in him, despite what the teachers said. She said, "Joe, I don?t care?.I believe that slow people could rule the world, because when a slow one gets it, they got it." A turning point came in Joe?s life through a girlfriend?s rejection. Joe was now 17 and deeply in love. She said to him, "Joe, I want to get married. But I want smart kids and you?re retarded." She left Joe for a smarter boy who she soon married. This was the impetus for Joe to finally buckle down and pay attention to his studies. He went all the way back to the first grade books and studied each one, first, second, all the way up to 10th grade, until he learned everything that he?d ignored the first time. Joe said, "I decided that day that I was gonna put something in my head and nobody could ever take that away from me." Joe decided that he was going to be somebody and he was willing to do whatever it took. "I think that was one of the determined points in my life that changed me around," Joe said. "Every time I wanted something, I realized you can go to the library and you could find it and I studied. That was the beginning." Dudley left North Carolina to join the ranks of Fuller Brush salesmen in Brooklyn, New York. He knocked on doors where people would come to the door and teach him how to correctly pronounce the words he was using in his sales script. "It didn't bother me, because I knew I didn't know today, but tomorrow I would," said Joe. "That's how I got started. It was hard. My first day I sold $2.60. I made about $1.20." Joe Dudley sold brushes during the day and went to college at night, finally finishing when he turned 26. Joe was trying to expand the items that he sold, but the Fuller Brush Company couldn?t help him. So, Joe turned to his old friend, the public library for information. He returned to North Carolina to sell his own products that he learned how to make through a library book. His wife would type out the labels for the containers and he would make the products on the stove. He would go to beauty salons to pick up old containers that would be refilled and sold again. He and his wife would make the products every night and he?d sell them every day. Eventually Joe became such a good businessman that the President of the Fuller Brush Company called him and asked him to buy the company. Which he did. Currently Joe?s company grosses over $35 million in business every year and employs 400 people. In the spirit of learning, Joe sponsors an employee reading program to help his employees find the same freedom he learned between the covers of books. President Bush once called Joe?s business one of America?s "points of light." Joe tells his story for others who may feel that they have no future and are bound by their circumstances. He called it "Walking by Faith." (C.K. Miller, adapted from Christian Broadcasting Networks' Amazing Stories series. http://cbn.org/living/amazingstories/finance-joedudley.asp)

Jim Otto Endures Hurt

Jim Otto, who wore the number "OO" for the Raiders pro football team, was arguably the greatest center to ever play the game. For those who don't know football, the offensive center mans the middle of the bone-crunching action, on one play protecting the quarterback from 300 pound defensive linemen and on the next play drilling through them to pave the way for a run. His dedication, intelligence and leadership helped transform the Raiders into one of the most successful football franchises ever. He was selected to an incredible 12 Pro Bowls and inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But what amazes me about Jim Otto is not so much his talent, but his willingness to play hurt. You see, the center gets hit every play, and Otto took quite a beating. His freshman year in college, he had surgery on both knees, but rebuilt his knees and played both offense and defense the next year. In his 15 years with the Raiders, he broke his nose 10 times and endured 9 knee surgeries. He played with a hip pointer injury, broken fingers, broken ribs, a broken jaw, neck stingers (stretched or pinched nerves), numerous concussions, kicked-in teeth, one eye swollen shut and even double pneumonia in Super Bowl II. With all those injuries, how many games did he miss? None. That's right. He never missed a game, playing 210 consecutive games. In 1972, he tore five ligaments in his knee during a preseason game. He could have gone on injured reserve. Instead, he played so well that he made the pro bowl! Why did he keep playing even while he was hurt? In my opinion, it's because Jim Otto loves football. Although he's had a total of 37 football related surgeries; even though in his retirement he lives with two artificial knees and two artificial shoulders, enduring continuous pain, he holds no bitterness toward the sport and says he'd do it all again. Why? Because Jim Otto loves football. (Three ways to go with this illustration, depending on what you want to illustrate): Persecution: What does this have to do with the Christian life? Some people give up spiritually after so many failures. After Otto signed up with the Raiders, the newly formed team lost 19 straight games. Nineteen straight failures. How humiliating. But he didn't quit. Nor did he give up because of the suffering. One thing that helped Jim Otto was that he knew football was a rough sport and that his body would be beaten. Speaking of his painful retirement, he says, "I don't blame anybody. Every time you put on a helmet, you know ...you were going to get hurt. We knew the score." In the same way, Jesus warned his disciples that they would be persecuted (John 16:1-4). Peter told us not to be surprised by suffering for the faith (I Peter 4:12,13). Church: I'm amazed at how many people I talk to who say they don't go to church any more because someone hurt them or they didn't get anything out of the service - "Nobody sat with me." "The pastor didn't come when I needed him." "Some of the people were hypocrites." Yet, God's Word says to "not forsake the assembling of yourselves together." (Hebrews 10:24,24) If we truly love God, we'll bounce back from the criticism and either learn to live with the parts of the service that bore us or search for a church that's more alive. Jim Otto didn't let hurts keep him from participating in the sport he loved. He played hurt. If we love God, we won't allow hurts to keep us from worshiping Him. Endurance and Goals: Jim Otto endured inexpressible suffering because of his love for football. His last couple of seasons were especially painful. But his wife Sally says that she never told him to retire, because "I knew what his goal was, to win a Super Bowl." As Christians, we have a prize to shoot for far superior to any Super Bowl ring. Our heavenly reward will endure forever. As the Apostle Paul put it, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, be we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such as way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified." (I Corinthians 9:24-27) Written by Steve Miller, Copyright 2002. Sources: 1. (Newsday, Special Report: Life After Football (1-14-97, pp. A64) 2. index.htmlindex.html..\index.html..\index.html ; 3. http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/100/78.html ; 4. http://sports.insidebayarea.com/top50.asp?story=Leigh_Steinberg 5. http://sports.insidebayarea.com/top50.asp?story=Joe_Otto 6. Double-O was football's limping gladiator By Dave Newhouse 7. OTTO PLAYED IN PAIN THAT WON'T QUIT, By Bob Kravitz, The Coffin Corner, Volume X, 1988, From The Pittsburgh Press, Dec. 23, 1984 8. Booklist review

Using One Finger for His Glory

We arrived at her apartment by night in order to escape detection. We were in Russia (in the region of Lithuania, on the Baltic Sea). Ellen and I had climbed the steep stairs, coming through a small back door into the one-room apartment. It was jammed with furniture, evidence that the old couple had once lived in a much larger and much finer house. The old woman was lying on a small sofa, propped up by pillows. Her body was bent and twisted almost beyond recognition by the dread disease of multiple sclerosis. Her aged husband spent all his time caring for her since she was unable to move off the sofa. I walked across the room and kissed her wrinkled cheek. She tried to look up but the muscles in her neck were atrophied so she could only roll her eyes upward and smile. She raised her right hand, slowly, in jerks. It was the only part of her body she could control and with her gnarled and deformed knuckles she caressed my face. I reached over and kissed the index finger of that hand, for it was with this one finger that she had so long glorified God. Beside her couch was a vintage typewriter. Each morning her faithful husband would rise, praising the Lord. After caring for his wife's needs and feeding her a simple breakfast, he would prop her into a sitting position on the couch, placing pillows all around her so she wouldn't topple over. Then he would move that ancient black typewriter in front of her on a small table. From an old cupboard he would remove a stack of cheap yellow paper. Then, with that blessed one finger, she would begin to type.All day and far into the night she would type. She translated Christian books into Russian, Latvian, and the language of her people. Always using just that one finger - peck.peck.peck - she typed out the pages. Portions of the Bible, the books of Billy Graham, Watchman Nee, and Corrie ten Boom - all came from her typewriter. That was why I was there - to thank her. She was hungry to hear news about these men of God she had never met, yet whose books she had so faithfully translated. We talked about Watchman Nee, who was then in a prison in China, and I told her all I knew of his life and ministry. I also told her of the wonderful ministry of Billy Graham and of the many people who were giving their lives to the Lord. "Not only does she translate their books," her husband said as he hovered close by during our conversation, "but she prays for these men every day while she types. Sometimes it takes a long time for her finger to hit the key, or for her to get the paper in the machine, but all the time she is praying for those whose books she is working on." I looked at her wasted form on the sofa, her head pulled down and her feet curled back under her body. "Oh Lord, why don't You heal her?" I cried inwardly. Her husband, sensing my anguish of soul, gave the answer. "God has a purpose in her sickness. Every other Christian in the city is watched by the secret police. But because she has been sick so long, no one every looks in on her. They leave us alone and she is the only person in all the city who can type quietly, undetected by the police." I looked around at the tiny room, so jammed full of furniture from better days. In one corner was the kitchen. Beside the cupboard was her husband's "office," a battered desk where he sorted the pages that came from her typewriter to pass them on to the Christians. I thought of Jesus sitting over against the treasury, and my heart leaped for joy as I heard Jesus bless this sick old woman who, like the widow, had given all she had. What a warrior! Today we got a letter from her husband. In the early morning hours last week she left to be with the Lord. But, he said, she had worked up until midnight that same night, typing with that one finger to the glory of God. (Corrie ten Boom, in her book, Tramp for the Lord, Fleming H. Revell, 1974, p. 175-177.)

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