Sermon Illustrations

In the spring of 1982 Kenneth Nordvall was the speaker at a Morning Prayer group that meets in a town near Springfield Illinois. Before he spoke, a neighboring pastor shared about a recent mission trip to Mexico. While his group was returning, their van developed mechanical problems. After jacking up the van, the pastor crawled underneath to check out the problem. You can know it wasn’t your pastor. I know nothing of the underneath side of a vehicle. Any way, back to the story, the jack collapsed, and he suddenly felt the crushing weight of the van on his chest. His companions quickly grabbed the bumper to lift the van in an effort to free the pastor. They weren’t able to budge the vehicle. He cried out, “Jesus! Jesus!” Within a few seconds a youthful-looking Mexican came by. As he reached the van, he grabbed it, and lifted it. The others, joined in and it lifted like a feather. As he was freed, the pastor quickly crawled from under the van. The visitor then lowered the van, waved to them, and ran in the direction from which he had come, then at the horizon, disappeared. No one in that party knew the mysterious visitor, where he had come from, or where he had gone.