I suspect you’ve heard this before, “Success is never final and failure never total.  It’s courage that counts.”  Hi, I’m Tom Ellsworth from Sherwood Oaks Christian Church with a minute message.

Courage inspires.  Some acts of courage transcend the passing of time, remembered by all generations; other names have faded into the mist of the past.  Edith Cavell is likely one of those.  This autumn marks the one hundredth anniversary of the Allied victory in World War I.  Edith was a British nurse who helped establish a nursing program in Belgium before the war.  The school trained young women from all over Europe, but when WW I reach Brussels, Edith stayed to care for the wounded, both friend and foe. In time, however, she was captured and sentenced to death for helping some two hundred allies escape to England.  Shortly before her execution, she said, “I am glad to die for my country.  But I realize that patriotism is not enough.”  She then proceeded to give clear testimony to her faith in God and forgave her captors.  The bullet that ended her life in 1915 silenced her voice but not her bold faith.  Be courageous in your convictions of faith – courage is what counts!