Letters in the Sand

[Pirate1974]

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Some of the letters are comical (a man asking God to let him win the lottery, twice), others are heartbreaking (a distraught teen asking forgiveness for an abortion, an unwed mother pleading with God to make the baby's father marry her).

The letters — about 300 in all, sent to a New Jersey minister — ended up dumped in the ocean, most of them unopened.

The minister died two years ago at 79. How the letters, some dating to 1973, wound up bobbing in the surf is a mystery.

"There are hundreds of lives here, a lot of struggle, washed up on the beach," said Bill Lacovara, a Ventnor insurance adjuster who was fishing last month with his son when he spotted a flowered plastic shopping bag and waded out to retrieve it. "This is just a hint of what really happens. How many letters like this all over the world aren't being opened or answered?"

Many of the letters were addressed to the Rev. Grady Cooper, though many more simply said "Altar." According to the text of several of them, they were intended to be placed on a church's altar and prayed over by the minister, the congregation or both.

Some were neatly written in script on white-lined paper, others in a feverish scrawl on tattered scraps of parchment or note cards. Many were crinkled from being in the water and then dried out after Lacovara fished them out of the sea.

A dog-eared business card inside one of the letters identified Cooper as associate pastor of the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Jersey City. A woman who answered the phone at the church office confirmed Cooper once was a minister there, and had died nearly two years ago. The current pastor did not return several calls from The Associated Press over the past few days.

There's more to this story that you can read here:

Unanswered Prayers

Interesting, but what really caught my eye, was the last line:

Lacovara said he is sad that most of the writers never had their letters read. But he hopes to change that soon: He is putting the collection up for sale on eBay.

Say what?

[SafariVista]

Huh... This guy’s real concern seems to shine in his last statement… hoping for a bundle of cash? <_<

[Belle]

Is his ad going to state, "God told me to tell you to read and reply to these letters." Fishy indeed... :huh:

[Kit Sober]

Stuff like this is how people promote the "Christianity is for fools" philosophy.

IMHO there is a loving God who hears the weakest cry of the smallest child.

Of course it helps for people to read and pray over the prayer lists of others, but the putting into words the cry of the heart helps a person receive their answer from the Lord.

I can imagine that a church member or family member not knowing what to do with the letters received cast them into the ocean like casting them to the Lord.

Hope this story has a nice ending.

[krys]

What emoticon do I use for "I want to vomit"?

[Sudo]

Krys,

Its heart breaking but as Thoreau said about the mass of men who lead lives of quiet desperation....

sudo