When many people decide to work together towards a common goal, they can accomplish great things. In 1981, Herman Ostry and his wife bought a farm near Bruno, Nebraska. The property had a creek nearby and came with a sturdy barn built in the 1920's. Due to its location, however, the barn floor was always wet and muddy. Something had to be done or the barn would be unusable.
The barn needed to be on higher ground. Ostry contacted a building moving company but their bid was too high. One night around the table, he commented that if they had enough people they could pick the barn up and move it to higher ground. Everyone laughed.
A few days later, Ostry's son Mike showed his father some calculations. He had counted the individual boards and timbers in the barn and estimated the barn weight. He also estimated the weight of a steel frame to lift the building, calculating the total weight to be just under 10 tons. He figured it would take around 350 people with each person lifting 57 pounds to move the barn.
In 1988, the town of Bruno was planning its centennial celebration. Herman and Mike presented their barn moving idea to the committee, and its members decided to make it part of their celebration.
On July 30, 1988, shortly before 11 AM, 350 people, including women and several elderly men, picked up the barn and moved it 115 feet south and 6 feet higher up a gentle slope and set it on its new foundation. The actual move took less than a half an hour.
A Youtube video of this actual move is found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o83W0gj_CRE. It is true: when many people decide to work together towards a common goal, they can accomplish great things.
The two key terms here are "many people" and "common goal." If only a few do all the work, it cannot get done. And if they do not have a common goal, the number of people will not matter.
When many of God's people have a common goal, God makes miracles happen. They build hospitals, churches, colleges, nursing homes, schools and work at all kinds of worthy ministries.
It it estimated that there are 2.25 billion Christians living in the world today. Imagine the miracles God would bring about if all of them worked together, prayed together and worshipped Jesus Christ together.
"Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!" (Psalm 144:15)
Seeing 350 people work together is exciting!
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