Book 1

Acknowledgements and extra information about many of the stories in Book 1

Story 1 Lightning strike
Jarryd and his family live near grandma south of Sydney.

Story 2 Runaway rabbit
The family lived in Port Macquarie when this incident occurred. Dad repented of his impatience enough to letterbox the near neighbours with news of the runaway rabbit, and the rabbit’s owner was soon found and bunny was returned to his hutch.

Story 5 Double delivery
The children were impressed with the bag of toys mum brought home. They are all grown up now with families of their own.

Story 6 Lost suitcase
Gordon Fietz, the baby in the story, heard his parents tell this story often as he was growing up. He is retired now after living in Darwin for many years. He told this story at a church camp and has generously given me permission to write and publish it.

Story 7 Near miss
Ralph lived in New Zealand with his family at the time this story took place. He became a minister and worked for many years in the islands.

Story 8 Leapfrog
Jimmy, or Sprint as he was called, became a nurse. He worked in Kenya for six years at the Kendu hospital and has two children. He is now retired.
Colin worked as a teacher in Vanuatu for many years. He says the story of the dry tank really showed him the power of God and His willingness to help His children.

Story 10 Simon wins a medal
The Dickin Medal is the highest award for animal gallantry, often called the "animals' Victoria Cross," awarded by the British veterinary charity PDSA. Instituted in 1943 by Maria Dickin, it recognizes animals for acts of "conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty" while serving with military or civil defence forces. Recipients have included dogs, pigeons, horses, and one cat, for their bravery in various conflicts

Story 11 Smelly Melly
Colin is a retired teacher now and has led an eventful life working for God. With two children and a lovely wife he is very grateful God did not answer his desperate prayer to end his young life early!

Story 12 Topaz
John became a specialist in immunology and practised for many years in the South of Sydney. However his first love is still jersey cows. He loved entering his prize cows at the Royal Easter Show where he won a plethora of ribbons and awards. He was ‘mucking’ out the cows in their stalls once at the show, dressed in filthy farming gear, and was amused to hear a mother admonish her teenage son, “Now see, if you don’t study harder you’ll end up working like that poor man all your life!”

Story 13 Jonny floated away
Jonny and his family live in NSW where his dad is the CEO of a large charity organisation.

Story 14 Sarah said Grace
Sarepta Myrenda Irish Henry (1839 –1900) didn’t go to school, and instead learned to read from the Bible her grandmother gave her when she was young. Her father taught her what he could until she was nineteen. Sarah became an American evangelist, temperance reformer, poet and author. She was very active in the organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and through her evangelistic work saloons were closed, churches built and hundreds converted. She wrote 14 books.

Story 15 Kooka
Patricia told this story in church one day and generously gave me permission to write it up for other children to read. She has retired now with her husband on the Central Coast. She says “Kooka was very gentle when he hung onto my nose. It didn’t hurt at all (I believe God was in that as well). I was more shocked that he managed to keep flying while I ran and mum only had to speak to him for him to let go of my nose.”

Story 16 Finders keepers
Ethan lives with his parents and little sister in NSW. He still wishes he could have kept the transformer but he knows he did the right thing!

Story 18 Just in the nick of time
Mum still gets the heebie jeebies whenever she thinks of what would have happened had she not looked up at that precise moment. Another minute and Gregory would have sunk to the bottom of the pool where the yelling, laughing boys were having so much fun, and no one would have noticed. Mum is so very grateful to God that Gregory was not one of the 35 pool deaths, on average, that occur in Australia every year.

Story 19 The big lie
Nick’s mum remembers the relief and joy Nick experienced once he confessed his wrong. A guilty conscience can make life miserable! And he really did jump on his bed, turn cartwheels and leap around his bedroom out of sheer happiness that his guilt was gone!

Story 20 Squishy banana
Hardy and Alice live in America with their parents and extended family. It took mum a long time to find that rotten banana, thanks to Hardy burying it so deep in a cupboard!

Story 21 The tallest boy in the world
Robert Wadlow was blessed with the middle name of "Pershing" - a most unusual personal name! It is a name with Germanic roots, often an Americanized version of the German surname Pfersching, meaning "peach grower" so he probably had German ancestors. It is most famously known as the surname of General John J. Pershing, a prominent American military leader in World War I.

Story 22 Maverick
Maverick is a super intelligent, loving schnauzer, adored by his owners Rick and Jen in New Zealand. Jen does not have good health, and was standing exhausted at the kitchen bench one day, feeling she ought to lie down. She felt Maverick nudging her leg, and he wouldn’t stop until she finally lay down to rest. Since then Jen has noticed that he seems to sense when it is time for her to rest and will nudge her leg until she does. He’s a self-taught Service Animal. Smart!

Story 23 Racing the train
Bev, Darrell and Shirley lived with their parents in India for 5 years where dad worked as a school headmaster and mother was the school nurse. She was constantly on call, and as the children were home schooled they quickly learned to disappear to play when mum was away! Consequently, Bev could barely read on their return to Australia when she was 8 years old. But Bev was smart and rapidly caught up with the rest of her class. And she could do something the rest of her class couldn’t – she was fluent in speaking the Malayalam language and had often interpreted for her parents!

Story 24 Dishwashing drama
This story happened many years ago before there were dishwashers! James WAS the dishwasher and as the eldest child he was happy to help with the dishes - so long as his little sisters helped. They often didn’t help and there was continual warfare around the old home sink!

Story 25 Running with his eyes shut
Coby and his family lived on the Central Coast many years ago and the break wall at the Entrance is still there, though there are many more shops and gardens there now – and a lot less parking! Mum was grateful that the water was calm and not too deep, although Coby still couldn’t reach the bottom with his feet and was doing a lot of thrashing around before being rescued.

Story 26 Singing for Christmas
Emma and Noah are now grandparents and living in different parts of the world. Noah became a minister and has retired in Australia, while Emma became a nurse and has retired in Wales.