Who wrote the poem "Footprints?"

Is the story called "The Ant and the Contact Lens" true?

Elisabeth Elliot published The story above in her 1995 book, "Keep A Quiet Heart" (Servant Publications, Ann Arbor Michigan). She says the story is a first-person account given to her from Brenda Foltz of Princeton, Minnesota.  So, Brenda Foltz says it is true.  However, if your copy says it is a story by Josh and Karen Zarandona, please eliminate that part before passing it along and replace it with the above information.

Story

Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing.

Although she was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff. In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took hold of the rope, and started up the face of that rock. Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breather. As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda's eye and knocked out her contact lens. Well, here she is on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of feet above her. Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping it had landed on the ledge, but it just wasn't there.

Here she was, far from home, her sight now blurry. She was desperate and began to get upset, so she prayed to the Lord to help her to find it.  When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be found. She sat down, despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting for the rest of them to make it up the face of the cliff. She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that Bible verse that says, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."

Finally, they walked down the trail to the bottom. At the bottom there was a new party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?" Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it. Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a picture of an ant lugging that contact lens with the words, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You."

Is the story "The Price of a Miracle" true?

With no information in the story that can be indentified (who, what, when, where), no researcher has ever been able to find out.

Story

No one knows if it is true, but the source has been tracked down.  The original was published in a 1954 edition of Readers Digest and written by Howard C. Schade.  Editions I've seen in email (including the one shown below) have added to the original.

Story

The story of the death of then 17 yr. old Brian Moore is real, but Moore DID NOT write the piece in question.  When it was found in his locker, his parents assumed that he had written it.  The email got started shortly after that, and we all know, there is no way to stop an email once it get's started.  Moore died in 1997.  Brian Moore also never said the words to his father that are stated in the first part of this message.  That is a very new addition to the message, not appearing on the original version.  Some versions mistakenly identify Brian Moore as the son of popular author Beth Moore.  This is also untrue.

Moore found the piece and read it to his FCA group just days before he was killed in a car accident.  The piece was written by Joshua Harris and is included in his ever popular 1997 book, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye."  The book is available just about everywhere and there is absolutely no question about it's authorship.  Harris found the piece and really liked it and did read it to his FCA group shortly before the accident.

This is a very old story - it's been floating around by email since 1996.   It was known at least as far back as 1968.  A 1977 book tells the story as happening in the 1920's in Pennsylvania.  Even then, the writer was telling a story he had heard and was not an eyewitness to the event.  His professor was a Deist (not an atheist) named Dr. Lee, a chemistry professor.  The writer was Rev. Richard Harvey.  As Rev. Harvey was telling a story he heard, it is certainly suspect as being true and the story is just altogether too pat.  Versions being passed around by email make many changes including naming the supposed atheist professor.  This alone makes the story being passed untrue. 

The story is a shortened form of "A Dad's Story" written by Lloyd Glenn in 1994.  It is a true story of something that happened to his son in 1993.  However, because it has been shortened, some important information has been left out, making it seem like something it is not.  The shortened version has led many Christians to believe that the child miraculously saw angels.  However, according to Mr. Glenn, that is not the case.  Following is not meant to be mean spirited or an indictment of Mormonism, but it would certainly have a bearing on whether or not a Christian would want to pass it along.  Certainly if it is to be passed along, the full version is what should be sent. 

Mormons believe that all humans are pre-existent as spirits.  Their god, Elohim, and his spirit wives have spirit children.  These children wait in heaven to be provided with a physical body to inhabit. In order to ascend to godhood they must perform the temple ordinances and produce more physical bodies for more spirit children.  Since the road to becoming a god requires these things, all those spirit children are very anxiously awaiting their bodies.  The Mormon creed handed down from Joseph Smith says that, "As man is god once was.  As god is, man may become." 

In Glenn's story, these beings are pre-existent people waiting for their physical bodies.  There is no pretense about angels.  His story is very clear.  It also contains an urgent message to tell people to go to the "temple" and to provide bodies for these "caged" spirits.

If one chooses to send along the full story with a clear understanding of the actual meaning, that is one's own business, but it would be false to send it in it's redacted form with any pretense about it being a story about angels. 

Story

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