GuineaField

You are hanging outside the window of the sixth floor of a burning building. The rusty shutter you are clinging to is slowly swinging in the breeze and your hands are burning with the intense heat of the wall and the flames leaping out of the gaping window. The NY Times archives recounts a three alarm fire in a six story livery and boarding stables at Madison and E 66th street in the early 1900’s. The firefighters had secured the safety of hundreds of horses from the buildings when the fire chief looked up and saw a man in the sixth floor window. They beckoned the man out of the window and pleaded with him not to jump so they could do their best to reach him. As Tony Shultz waited for rescue he had to climb out the window and hold on to the shutter. The witnesses said that the shutter swayed in the breeze as Tony’s life hung in the balance between being burnt by the flames or succumbing to the six story drop. Fire Lieutenant Jacob Levy and Fireman Frank Winterick charged up the ta...

John 1:11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. Have you ever had to reject someone’s gift? Perhaps you went to a silly gift exchange where people wrapped up crazy gifts to exchange. You open the gift and everyone laughs at you . . . that is great fun, right? I remember the joy of Christmas shopping for my family as a child. It was difficult. We did not have much more than ten dollars and we had to get a gift for so many folks. Not many items in the mall were less than $10 a piece. A dollar a person is not easy . . . except that the mall had a dollar store – a great help to three young brothers. Once our uncle ended up with a toilet plunger. And that was not at one of those silly gift exchanges – that was the real deal. Some folks just don’t appreciate a practical gift . . . our uncle didn’t mind. Another special gift from the three boys was when we all chipped in to get my mom a Christmas caroler. She collected these Christmas decoration dolls made to loo...