Stone the Preacher

This tragic event happened on the same day that Ambassadors’ Academy #18 was taking place at the pier. Hopefully, the two reported below were born again Christians. If not, maybe they heard the preaching on the Pier or on Main Street where the Academy was practicing. Maybe they were encouraged in a one-to-one conversation, or possibly took a Gospel tract, read it and believed.

You never know what God will do with a person who is fully consecrated to Him.

Two young men on a beach outing disappeared off the Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday afternoon and were presumed drowned after a search was called off at sundown.

Four ventured into the high surf on the south side of the pier and were caught in a rip current. One of the men was able to swim ashore. Huntington Beach lifeguards rescued a second but the other two never returned. Read the rest from the L. A. Times here.

(Aug. 6) — A Mexican baby that had been pronounced dead was discovered to be still breathing — just hours before she was scheduled to be buried.

Dafne Marisol Hernandez, 17, was preparing to say farewell to her daughter, who died not long after her premature birth this week.

To Hernandez’s surprise, she could hear noises coming from inside the coffin. When she opened it up, she saw that her baby was alive — and crying. Read the rest here from AOL news.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A contestant in a night-time desert race in California lost control of his pick-up truck and plowed into a group of spectators, killing eight and injuring at least 12, officials said on Sunday.

Police did not identify the driver involved in the accident. Local reports said he needed to be escorted away from the area when spectators threatened him and began throwing rocks.

“He got airborne and when he landed, rolled over straight into the spectators,” CHP officer Joaquin Zubieta said in the Los Angeles Times. “People didn’t have much of a chance… to get out of the way.” Read the rest here.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A van carrying two metal bands crashed Monday on Interstate 5, killing a vocalist and injuring two guitarists, police said.

The San Francisco-area bands Early Graves and The Funeral Pyre played a show in Oregon on Sunday and were heading to Nevada when the driver lost control after falling asleep, state police Lt. Gregg Hastings said. Read the rest here.

(Thanks to Caryl Sheehan for this odd entry.)

If you’ve never picked up a Bathroom Reader you’re really missing out. Every now and then I like to post a few items from these compilations of useless facts:

#1: On June 24, 2005, veteran actor Paul Winchell died at age 82. He voiced the character of Tigger in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh films. The next day, John Fiedler died at age 80. He was the voice of Piglet.

#2: In 1911 three men—named Green, Berry, and Hill—were convicted of murder. They were hanged at London’s Greenberry Hill. —From Uncle John’s Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader

A search-and-rescue effort was initiated after authorities received a call at about 10:45 a.m. of a possible swimmer down in the water, Det. Greg Carpenter with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said. Read the rest here.

ALPINE, Texas (July 5) — A patient and his wife were among the dead when an air ambulance crashed shortly after takeoff from a West Texas airport, killing all 5 people on board. Read the rest here.

BELLEVUE, Iowa (July 4) – Two runaway horses pulling a wagon trampled spectators at a small-town Fourth of July parade, killing a 60-year-old woman and injuring at least 23 other people, four critically.

The horses bolted after one rubbed its head against the other, removing that horse’s bridle, police said. They galloped for several blocks with the wagon in tow, trampling parade-goers. The wagon flipped and ejected its two passengers, police said. Read the rest from aolnews.com by clicking here. (Thanks to Jaylene Daugherty for this.)

Consumer Protection Safety Commission staff has reports of two fireworks-related deaths during 2009. Both fatalities involved aerial shells. In the first incident, a 41 year-old male was killed in an explosion of a professional display mortar shell that he lit in his backyard. In the second incident, a 26 year-old male lit a consumer grade mortar shell that was in a launching tube that he held over his head. The shell discharged from the bottom of the tube resulting in a skull fracture. From 2009 Fireworks Annual Report

CPSC staff has reports of 7 fireworks-related deaths during 2008. (more…)

It’s not always bad news on Sudden Death Mondays…. Sometimes a safety commercial can actually bring tears to your eyes, like this one, which has been seen over 9 million times on YouTube. Have you viewed it yet?

Ronnie Lee Gardner, the convicted double-murderer executed by a firing squad in Utah in the predawn hours Friday, died in a manner that even the state that killed him no longer wants to use.

Gardner, 49, was killed just past midnight after spending his final day reading a spy novel and watching the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He was strapped to a chair inside a state prison, his head hooded and a target affixed to his chest. Asked whether he had any final words, he said: “I do not. No.” Read the rest of the article from the Los Angeles Times “Murderer is executed by firing squad” here.

A 60-year-old man has died after his hang glider broke during a San Bernardino aerobatics event and he fell 300 feet to the ground, authorities said Monday. Read the rest here.

Yellowstone National Park officials say two Montana men have died while trying to climb a frozen waterfall below the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.

Rescuers found the climbers’ bodies Monday on a rock ledge about 300 feet below the canyon rim. Park officials say it appears an ice column collapsed during the men’s ascent. Read the rest here.

A 15-year-old boy died after colliding in midair with another baseball player at first base in what police describe as a “freak accident.”

The player was trying to make an out and had his hand outstretched to catch the ball. Witnesses said he stepped in the base path and collided with the runner. Both fell to the ground. The player didn’t get back up. Read the rest from Foxnews here.

Check out the book, Death at the Ballpark here.

Is it any wonder why I try to ask the Million Dollar Question everyday? Here it is: “If you died today, would you go to Heaven or Hell?”

If you haven’t yet weighed in on my controversial—yet accurate–analogy called “The Drowning Woman,” which explains why we do what we do as an evangelism team, then click here to offer your opinion. So far, the atheists have all the questions and the Christians have all the answers.

A community is mourning the tragic death of a teen who died after accidentally eating peanut butter on prom night. Click here to read the rest from CBS2.com.

PERRIS, Calif. (CBS) A man from Russia was critically injured Friday when he collided with another skydiver during a multi-person organized jump today in Perris. Read the rest here.

LARKSPUR – A woman was killed when her car’s emergency brake, which was not set properly,  rolled down a steep driveway. The woman, who had been standing next to the car, was snagged by the vehicle and dragged down the incline. Read the rest here.

(Thanks to David Hawkins for this submission)

A young woman was sunbathing in her family’s backyard when some 2-by-10-foot boards toppled, killing her. Read the rest here.

Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) wrote: You cannot stop their dying, but, oh, that God might help you to stop their being damned! You cannot stop the breath from going out of their bodies, but, oh, if the Gospel could but stop their souls from going down to destruction.!”

(Article submitted by Payton Dooley)