Inspiring Others

These messages tell us about those who inspired us through their own lives.

    • Enduring Hope

      Julia Welles was born in Wisconsin in 1916, but her family moved to Louisiana when she was just 4 months old. She studied education at Louisiana State University (LSU). She needed to work three jobs in order to fund her education. During her freshman year, she met her...

      Read More

    • The Last 15 Meters

      All of us have had the experience of being challenged to do something we know we would fail at. How do you maintain hope in such cases? To answer that essential life question, imagine that you are Eric Moussambari from Equatorial Guinea. The year is 2000 and you are...

      Read More

    • Joseph Barrow

      Joseph (Joe) Barrow was born in 1914 in Alabama. His grandparents had been slaves. Joe had difficulty speaking and said very little until he was 6 years old. His father was institutionalized when Joe was 2, so he never really knew his biological father. When his...

      Read More

    • It Is Well With My Soul

      Horatio Spafford was born in 1828 in New York. He was a lawyer by profession and a real estate investor. He was married in 1861 and had four daughters. The first of many tragedies to strike Horatio was the Great Fire of Chicago. It destroyed properties that Horatio...

      Read More

    • Songs that Unite Us

      It was 1908 and Jack Norworth was riding a subway train when he saw a sign that inspired a tune. Norworth was a songwriter as part of the Tin Pan Alley Music scene in the early 20th century. He teamed up with Albert Von Tilzer to set the lyrics to music. The original...

      Read More

    • A Life of Hope

      J.C. Hall was born in 1891 in Nebraska. He had a tough early start to life. His parents divorced and his father died when he was seven. When J.C. was eight, J.C. became a door-to-door salesman of perfumes for what would become Avon products. When J.C. was 14, he and...

      Read More

    • Hope from Life’s Struggles

      Louis Zamperini was born in New York in 1917. His parents were immigrants from Italy and neither he nor his parents spoke English. Louis was a subject of bullying and that led Louis to having a rebellious childhood. Louis’ older brother encouraged him to try out for...

      Read More

    • Hopes in Perspective

      Charley was unsure what he wanted to do with his engineering degree other than he wanted to make a difference. When he graduated, he started his career working as a design engineer for a socially responsible company. His work was highly praised, but Charley wasn’t...

      Read More

    • Hope and Finding Your Life’s Purpose

      George was an indifferent student. He had gone to college hoping to find a career, but he really wasn’t interested in any of his courses. When George returned home in the summer, he didn’t expect to return to college. But all that changed when the father of...

      Read More

    • An Inventive Mind

      Lonnie Johnson was born in Alabama in 1949. His father had not completed high school but was a skilled handyman who taught Lonnie and five siblings to create their own toys. This was the start of Lonnie’s lifetime of tinkering. Lonnie went to a segregated high school...

      Read More