General News
3 August, 2025
In good faith
We live in an age when sceptics love to tell you that God doesn't exist and that miracles don't happen.
I was recently watching a TV show where a real event was described which demonstrated
that not only is God still willing to perform the miraculous, but that he can also do so with a sense of humour.
The following is an extract of an article written by Connie Leinbach describing that event, which is on the website of the ‘Ocracoke Observer’, a community newspaper from the town of Ocracoke, North Carolina USA.
It describes how the Providence Methodist Church was “moved by the hand of God.”
“… its story goes back to 1874 when members of the Methodist faith in Swan Quarter NC decided it was time to abandon the temporary place where they had been holding services and to seek a location for their own church.
The leader, Benjamin Griffin Credle and his committee picked out a site for a church on the highest spot in the heart of town.
They approached the owner of the lot, Sam Sadler, one-time clerk of Hyde County Superior Court, and asked to purchase the land, but Sadler declined to sell.
The Methodists then accepted a gift of a lot offered by James W. Hayes, which was about 1,000 feet … [away], and a short time later, building began. When the church, a modest structure on brick piers, was barely enclosed, people began to worship in it.
At that time, it was the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
Then, on September 16, 1876, on the eve of the dedication of the church, a storm began to brew and turned into a tempest. … rain fell and wind blew until the morning of September 17, 1876.
As often happens when hurricanes strike the region, floodwaters rose quickly from the sound and creeks surrounding Swan Quarter.
The water rose that day to five feet or more and dislodged the little Methodist church from its
location into the road, now called Oyster Creek Road.
The building floated down the road to the corner of Oyster Creek Road and … Main Street.
Then, it took a sharp right turn and headed down Main Street for about two city blocks until it
reached the corner of what is now Church Street.
Then it moved slightly off its course, took another turn to the left, crossed the Carawan Canal … and settled in the centre of the Sadler property, the site which had been refused. … The man who owned the lot went to the courthouse the next day … and said, ‘Okay, I’ll sell it.’…”
The true story of this miracle certainly has a humorous side to it, but it does demonstrate one
everlasting truth, that God's will cannot be stopped.
In the book of job, it is written “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
Solomon, the writer of the Proverbs said, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”
The Bible teaches that God is the creator and sustainer of the entire universe.
He controls all things and will accomplish all that He wills according to his purpose.
Contributed by DAVID YOUNG