In 1965, during a family reunion in Florida, a grandmother woke everyone at 2:00, issuing orders to get empty coke bottles, corks and paper.
“I received a message from God. People must hear the Word,” she said.
She wrote verses on paper and also wrote her address in case people would want to make contact with her. The grandchildren corked the bottles. Then everyone helps to deposit 200 bottles into the surf a Coca Beach.
Through the years people contacted her and thanked her for the Scriptures which they found in the bottles.
She died in November 1974. The next month, the last letter arrived. It was someone from Ohio.
“Dear Mrs Gause,
I am writing this letter by candlelight. We do not have electricity anymore on the farm. My husband was killed in the fall when a tractor overturned. He left me with 11 children. The bank is foreclosing, there is one loaf of bread left, there’s snow on the ground and Christmas is two weeks away. I prayed for forgiveness when I made a decision to go and drown myself.
The river has been frozen over for weeks, so I didn’t think it would take long to die if I just jump into the cold water. When I broke the ice, a Coke Bottle floated up. I opened it and with tears and trembling hands, I read about hope. One of the verses said: But for him who is still alive, there is hope. A dog that is alive is better than a dead lion. (Ecc.9:4).
I came home, read my Bible and I am thanking God. Please pray for us. We are going to make it now.”
How did I bottle get from Coca beach in Florida to a farm in Ohio?
This side of eternity we will not know. It is a remarkable testimony. One of hope. And for me, it is a story of God’s providence. O, and also the obedience of a grandmother to the voice of God.
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