1 Corinthians 1:27-29 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. NKJV
Chocolate Pockets & Ripples of Goodness
John Cadbury was outdone in terms of the number of children he had, in that his son Richard Cadbury had eight! One of these good chocolate soldiers, the granddaughter of the famous founder of the best chcololate company in the whole world, was a young lady called Helen Cadbury.
Helen’s father Richard was a practicing Christian (is there any other?) and had set up a mission hall outside of the then most ‘Heavenly Ville,’ of Bourneville, in one of the slum districts of the city of Birmingham. Helen, used to the regular visitors of evangelical Christians to her home, used to the daily morning family prayer and Bible readings led by her father, was moved to accompany him one night to that same little Christian mission hall. Here, Helen was well aware of the two kinds of people in the hall. The first kind were the hopeless, the hurt and the destitute. The second kind were those who USED TO BE hopeless, hurt and destitute! The source of change in these latter folk with respect to their new possessions of hope, purpose and presence was Christ and Christ alone! The invitation from the preacher that night for people to come forward and believe on this life-changing Christ, was met by the trembling legs of little Helen. It was her father, in the little back room of the Christian mission hall that led the quaking hearts of men and women to faith and peace in Jesus Christ. That particular and blessed night, his daughter Helen was among them. How wonderful.Helen, then aged just thirteen, finding it difficult to share her new found faith and intimate experience of Jesus with her peers, found that simply reading the Bible in front of them solicited many questions, from which she could then answer by reading to them from the Scriptures. Ever the little organizer, from this practice, Helen founded a club with her friends, called the ‘Pocket Testament League’. This little group of girls issued hand-made membership cards and the girls even sewed pockets in their dresses to carry these small Pocket Testaments. Their goal was simply to “Read, Carry and Share.” Little did she know, but Helen, through this small collection of female friends, was in process of making another chocolate ripple on the dark surface of humanity.
The well-focused child became a lovely and organised, wealthy single woman. Just then, as often happens in stories, a single and well-connected man came upon the scene who was associated with Moody and Torrey and Chapman, all prominent World Wide Evangelists of the time. The man was Helen’s soon-to-be husband, the Gospel singing Charles McCallon Alexander, who had also become a Christian aged just thirteen, and had been involved in innovative city-wide simultaneous mission meetings for many years. It was this same Charles, who with love and connectivity, helped take the once schoolgirl organisation of the Pocket Testament League into an official body which on this day of my writing, has over 170,000 members and has distributed over 100 million Pocket New Testaments to people around the world! Amazing or what! You see, it was God, who joined up the dots. It was God, who hooked Helen up with the right man at the right time with all the right connections. It was God who also no doubt answered exceedingly abundantly, all that could be asked and thought of, in the prayers of a young and quaking ‘Chocolatier.’How did this little schoolgirl cause such a splash through the depression and two world wars? Well you see, Helen didn’t just have any old chocolate in her pockets dear friends, no, she had a Cadbury’s 'Ripple' tucked away in there as well, which in obedience and faith, she cast upon the water’s of the world. What ripple effect of good might it have on the world if you were also to cast that good chocolate in your own pocket, and also cast on waters of your life in obedience and faith?
C'mon, tell me. What’s that in your pocket tonight and what are you doing with it?
Listen: - Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21NKJV
Pray: - Lord, come join up my dots. Lord, help me to strike the waters in such mighty believing faith that lives in this and coming generations will be touched and changed forever. In Jesus name I ask it, amen!
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