Peter Kennedy has written:

Roy Robertson was a soldier at Pearl Harbor in 1941: 'My ship, the West Virginia, docked at Pearl Harbor on the evening of December 6, 1941. A couple of the fellows and I left the ship that night and attended a Bible study. About fifteen sailors sat in a circle on the floor. The leader asked us to each recite our favorite Scripture verse. In turn each sailor shared a verse and briefly commented on it.

I sat there in terror. I couldn't recall a single verse. I grew up in a Christian home, went to church three times a week, but ... I couldn't recall a single verse. Finally, I remembered one verse - John 3:16. I silently rehearsed it in my mind. The spotlight of attention grew closer as each sailor took his turn. It was up to the fellow next to me. He recited John 3:16. He took my verse! As he commented on it I sat there in stunned humiliation. In a few moments everyone would know that I could not recall from memory even a single verse. Later that night I went to bed thinking, "Robertson, you're a fake."

At 7:55 the next morning I was awakened by the ship alarm ordering us to battle stations. 360 planes of the Japanese Imperial Fleet were attacking our ship and the other military installations. My crew and I raced to our machine gun emplacement, but all we had was practice ammunition. So for the first fifteen minutes of the two-hour battle, we only fired blanks hoping to scare the Japanese airplanes.

As I stood there firing fake ammunition I thought, "Robertson, this is how your whole life has been - firing blanks for Christ." I made up my mind as Japanese bullets slammed into our ship, "If I escape with my life, I will get serious about following Jesus."

Roy Robertson did get serious. He became the first missionary of "The Navigators" and did a lot of work with Billy Graham as well.

Check this out ...

"We bought a house FULL of JUNK...!! What did we get ourselves into?"

The internet is filled to overflowing with stories just like this one — people buying homes at auction or in foreclosure, only to have to deal with all the old furnishings and junk that were left behind. 

A house filled with old junk and clutter is not fit for habitation. It would be of little value to us until it is emptied of its contents. We need an empty house in order to properly set up housekeeping and make a house a home.

On April 15, 2019, thousands of horrified Parsians and tourists looked on, many with tears in their eyes as Notre Dame was on fire. Many of us remember watching the fire as well, seeing flames shoot into the air and rapidly spread over the Gothic building’s roof, known as “The Forest” because of its long planks of 800-year-old wood.

The next day, the French President vowed to rebuild the edifice within five years. While many thought a complete restoration would take decades, five years later, the historic renovation is nearly 90% complete. 2,000 oak trees were sourced from forests around Europe for the rebuild. Some of them are up to 400 years old. They were left to dry for 12 to 19 months before the carpenters used them. The estimated cost was $760 million. As of April 15, 2024, 340,000 donors from more than 150 countries have donated around $895 million. 

Ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, work by this team of carpenters, scaffolding experts, professional climbers, organ mechanics, and others continues at the cathedral. While most of the modern building methods are being employed, there are tools that were re-created on site to match those used a thousand years ago by the original builderss.