Thursday, June 29, 2000
Thursday, June 29, 2000
He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people
were brought to the Lord.
Wild Bill Shannon, a trapper from the city of Nenana, suggested a better way to get the medicine
there. If each town between Nenana and Nome would prepare a fresh dogsled team and driver,
they could act as a relay team. Wild Bill calculated that it would take only nine days for a relay
team to deliver the medicine.
The relay idea worked well at first. Slowly but surely, the medicine made its way through the first
four towns between Nenana and Nome. But for the fifth driver, Gunnar Kaasen, something went
wrong. A blizzard threw Kaasen off his route so that he passed by the cabin of the sixth driver.
Kaasen was utterly lost in the storm. To make matters worse, the blizzard temporarily blinded
him. His only hope was that his lead dog, Balto, would remember the way. For 53 miles, the
blizzard pounded both the driver and the dogsled team. Balto should have needed to stop and
rest, but he kept on going. And somehow, in spite of the blizzard, they made it. By the time they
reached the city, Kaasen was only semiconscious and actually frozen to his sled. But Balto and
the other dogs had gotten him safely to Nome. Amazingly, medicine had been delivered in only
six days. All but two people in the city of Nome survived the epidemic.
That story grips us because of the heroism involved. Did you know that our heritage as the body
of Christ is filled with stories equally as dramatic?
(Acts 11:24
NRSV)
In 1925, an epidemic of diphtheria hit the city of Nome, Alaska. In those days, diphtheria could
be fatal. A medicine existed to treat the disease, but the closest available supply was a 1,000
miles away. At that time, dogsleds were the only form of transportation.
Dear God, thank you for those who have gone before me, so that I can believe in you.
Amen.
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