Message #27 - "Life Is A Gift" - Live it, Embrace It, and Remember The One Who Gives Life

Live Life to the Fullest. Don't Settle for Less. Life is Too Precious to Settle for Less

There was a blind girl who hated herself just because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She said that if she could only see the world, she would marry her boyfriend.

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. She was then able to see everything, including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, "Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?"

The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend was blind. She then refused to marry him. Her boyfriend walked away in tears and later wrote a letter to her saying: "Just take care of my eyes dear, for I loved you so much that it was I who was the donor of your gift.

"This is how the human brain changes when our status changes. Only few remember what life was before, and who's always been there even in the most painful situations. "Life Is A Gift”

Today before you say an unkind word...Think of someone who can't speak.

Before you complain about the taste of your food...Think of someone who has nothing to eat.

Before you complain about your husband or wife...Think of someone who's crying out to GOD for a companion.

Today before you complain about life ...Think of someone who went too early to heaven.

Before you complain about your children...Think of someone who desires childrenbut they're barren.

Before you argue about your dirty house someone didn't clean or sweep...Think of the people who are living in the streets.

Before whining about the distance you drive...Think of someone who walks the same distance with their feet.

And when you are tired and complain about your job...Think of the unemployed, the disabled,and those who wish they had your job.

But before you think of pointing the finger or condemning another...Remember that not one of us are without sin and we all answer to one MAKER.

And when depressing thoughtsnseem to get you down -Put a smile on your face and thank GOD you're alive and still around.

Life is a gift, Live it, Enjoy it, Celebrate it, And Fulfill it. We Serve an AWESOME GOD !!!!!!

Message #18 - Dreaming Big Shackleton Style

Sir Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance

In December 1914, Shackleton set sail, on "the Endurance" with his 27-man crew, to accomplish something that had never been done before...to be the first to completely cross the Antarctic continent on foot. This was an extremely dangerous mission.

To select many of the 27-man crew, it is said, they had responded to the following recruitment notice: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success. —Ernest Shackleton."

Ice conditions were unusually harsh, and the wooden ship, which Shackleton had renamed Endurance after his family motto, Fortitudine Vincimus—"by endurance we conquer," became trapped in the pack ice of the Weddell Sea. For 10 months, the Endurance drifted, locked within the ice, until the pressure crushed the ship. With meager food, clothing and shelter, Shackleton and his men were stranded on the ice floes, where they camped for five months.

When they had drifted to the northern edge of the pack, encountering open leads of water, the men sailed the three small lifeboats they'd salvaged to a bleak crag called Elephant Island. They were on land for the first time in 497 days; however, it was uninhabited and, due to its distance from shipping lanes, provided no hope for rescue.

Recognizing the severity of the physical and mental strains on his men, Shackleton and five others immediately set out to take the crew's rescue into their own hands. In a 22-foot lifeboat named the James Caird, they accomplished the impossible, surviving a 17-day, 800-mile journey through the world's worst seas to South Georgia Island, where a whaling station was located.

The six men landed on an uninhabited part of the island, however, so their last hope was to cross 26 miles of mountains and glaciers, considered impassable, to reach the whaling station on the other side. Starved, frostbitten and wearing rags, Shackleton and two others made the trek, and on the afternoon of May 20, 1916, Shackleton, Worsley and Crean walked into South Georgia's Stromness station. They had marched non-stop for 36 hours. Dressed in rags and black with blubber smoke, they were unrecognizable. The station manager asked "Who the hell are you?" "My name is Shackleton," was the modest reply.

After arriving at the Stromness station, Shackleton made immediate plans to rescue the Elephant Island group. The Norwegians volunteered a ship; but 60 miles from Elephant Island, the ice prevented the unprotected vessel from continuing. As the months passed, Shackleton made increasingly frantic rescue attempts, each time thwarted by ice or weather. At last, on August 30, they succeeded in bringing through the Yelcho, a tug loaned by the Chilean government. It was their fourth attempt. Four months had passed since the Caird's departure, and Shackleton feared the worst.

On Elephant Island, the Yelcho was spotted. As the castaways ran onto the beach, Shackleton, straining through binoculars, counted anxiously. "They are all there!" Worsley reported him crying. It was August 1916, 21 months after the initial departure of the Endurance, Shackleton returned to rescue the men on Elephant Island. Although they'd withstood the most incredible hardship and privation, not one member of the 28-man crew was lost.

Shackleton was quoted as saying "If anything should happen to those fellows while waiting for me, I shall feel like a murderer."