December 2011, Mt. Kilimanjaro Base Camp, Nalemoru, Tanzania: The porters and guides gawked and giggled. They had never seen a climber this large on Mt. Kilimanjaro. They called her Mama Kubwa, Swahili for ‘big woman.’ At 300 pounds, Kara Whitely was the biggest woman...
Each New Year we have the opportunity to write a new chapter in our lives. What we do with our life matters. What is it that you know in your heart you’ve been putting off but need to tackle this year? God created each of us with special talents and a unique destiny....
In 2000, the World War II veterans group to which Ernie Andrus belonged decided to tackle the restoration of a WWII LST ship. Andrus’ interest in the project was piqued by the fact that for 18 months he had served as a medic aboard such a vessel in the South Pacific....
In 1968, eighteen-year-old Philippe Petit was reading a magazine in a Paris dentist office when an article, a picture, and a dream captivated him. The article was about the construction of twin towers in lower Manhattan in New York City, that when completed would...
Author and speaker Andy Andrews once asked Gordon Mote, who has been blind since birth, “If you could snap your fingers and see, would you want to be able to see or are you happy just like you are?” Mote responded, “I think I would like to see, but maybe only for a...
Twenty-two-year-old Harvard University student Norman Vaughan was trying to make the freshman football team when he read the headlines in a Boston newspaper, “Byrd to the South Pole.” Thoughts of the expedition consumed him and he told his four roommates, “I’ve got to...
