--CIRCLE OF FAITH
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By: Dick Eastman -

LITTLE ten-year-old Maria lived in a rural village in central Chile. When her mother died, Maria became the "woman of the house," caring for her father who worked the night shift at the local mine. Maria cooked and cleaned and made sure her father's lunch was ready when he left the house for work each evening.

Maria loved her father and was worried by how despondent he had become since her mother's death. Maria went to church on Sundays and tried to get her father to go with her, but he refused. His heart was too empty.

One evening, as Maria was packing her fahter's lunchbox, she slipped a gospel booklet inside that she had received from a missionary worker who had been distributing them home to home in the area where they lived. Maria prayed that her father would read the booklet and find the comfort she had found in God's great love.

It was 1:10 A.M. when Maria was suddenly awakened by a horrible sound--the emergency whistle at the mine was blaring through the darkness, calling the townspeople to come running with shovels and willing hands to help dig for miners caught in a cave-in.

Maria made her way through the streets to the mine in search of her father. Scores of men were frantically pulling debris away from the collapsed tunnel where eight men were trapped. One of the men was Maria's father.

Emergency crews worked through the night and finally broke through to a small cavern where they found the miners. Sadly, they were too late. All eight men had suffocated.

The rescue workers were devastated, but as they surveyed the scene, they noticed that the men had died, seated in a circle. As the workers looked closer they discovered Maria's father was sitting with a small gospel booklet in his lap opened to the last page where the plan of salvation was clearly explained. On that page, Maria's father had written a special message to his daughter:

'My darling Maria,

When you read this, I will be with your mother in heaven. I read this little book, then I read it several times to the men while we waited to be rescued. Our hope is fading for this life, but not for the next. We did as the book told us and prayed, asking Jesus into our hearts. I love you very much, Maria, and one day, soon, we will all be together in heaven. '~~
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