Ron Hutchcraft Ministries

"When I was unpacking in a hotel room once, I flipped on the television, and it automatically came on to the adult movie channel. I switched immediately, and later when I turned it off, I left it on the news channel I had been watching. I thought, 'Okay, I have this thing figured out. The next time the TV comes on, it will come on to the news channel.' Wrong. That TV was programmed to always come on to the sleazy channel!"  Ron Hutchcraft

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Technology is amazing. You can take the same camera and get two totally different views just by using two different lenses. For example, when you put on the wide-angle lens, you can get a picture of an entire football field with that camera. When you change over to what is called a macro lens, which really magnifies things, you can fill that camera’s view with one face in the stands. It's amazing to see how that camera can go from the big picture to the smallest details.

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A little known episode of American history came to light in the movie Glory. The Academy Award-winning film called attention to some unsung heroes from the Civil War—heroes no matter which side, blue or gray, you might favor. They were the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts, under the command of Colonel Robert Shaw. What was unusual about them was this: The entire company of men was black except for Colonel Shaw, and they left behind a tremendous example of courage.

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Nowadays you don’t have to physically go to work anymore; people can work from home. Some people start out working outside the home and easily move to working from home by transferring their calls to their house.

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You probably have a picture of yourself that you do not like, either on your driver’s license, an ID card, or a passport. There is probably a picture of you that you do like. That picture is the one that shows your good side, your hair is just right, there is good lighting, and you’re smiling. There was a lady who really appreciated the ministry of a certain speaker. She asked, “Would you mind if I give you a picture of myself?” He said that would be fine. She signed it and put it in a note, and he didn’t look at it until he got to lunch. It was an unusual personal photo; it was a picture of her hands.

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"When I was on a mission in England and Ireland, I had a day to spend in the historic English city of York. What a place! Surrounded by a medieval wall, it is dominated by a cathedral that might be second only to Westminster Abbey in London. There was an unusual scene out in front—an artist on his knees, painstakingly working on a chalk drawing on the sidewalk in front of the cathedral. When I moved closer and took a look at it, I saw it was the Mona Lisa. He must have been working on it all day. It was beautifully done. As I went inside a restaurant, I noticed the artist had left. Within minutes, a little boy came up, intentionally ran over the artwork, then stomped back and forth and made footprints all over it. Other kids followed him and did the same thing. They trampled all over an artist’s hard work. It hurt to see someone doing that." Ron Hutchcraft

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Sports give us a lot of thrills and also occasional tragedies, like the death of the captain of the Boston Celtics basketball team, Reggie Lewis. After he collapsed in a basketball playoff game, a team of doctors said he had a potentially dangerous heart condition, and he couldn’t play anymore. He went for a second opinion, and those doctors said he had a much less serious condition and could gradually return to playing. Well, he died doing some practice shooting in a gym a few months later.

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You can get into a pretty good debate among American sports fans over which sport is the most exciting. Basketball might be voted as the most exciting sport because basketball is pretty physical. It’s constantly changing, it’s intense, and it’s unpredictable. There’s only one point where it slows down a little—much to the relief of the players. If a player is fouled by someone from the other team he gets to shoot one or two free throws. That’s the one time when nobody’s bothering you and no one is trying to stop you from getting your shot. Actually, there might be others bothering you, especially if you are the visiting team. When you’re facing the basket, you are also facing all those local fans who want you to miss. They jump up and down, make noise, wave their arms, and wave signs. If you’re trying to score more points, you really need to concentrate.

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Ellis Island was the first piece of America that millions of immigrants ever touched. It is a little island in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor and the point of entry for immigrants coming through New York. They would book passage for the cheapest price they could and travel way down below the decks. Finally, the boat would reach America, they would step off and enter this long, red brick building on Ellis Island. It’s cavernous and echoes on the inside. They had to go through certain steps that eventually permitted them to move from the island and on to their real destination, which was New York City and the mainland. The people carried all their belongings in a basket, which was okay because they knew the island was not where they would live. Out of all those thousands who came to the island, not one ever set up a house there, because they were not going to be there very long.

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Have you seen the game show Jeopardy? What an appropriate title for a show that comes on right after the world news!

Three contestants are given several categories, ranging from U.S. presidents to cat food. First, a contestant picks a dollar value in a given category and the host provides the answer. Then the three contestants vie to see who can be first to phrase the question that fits the answer. Some of them do very well and win lots of money, but others fold. Some of these people wind up in a hole with their money. How do they get on the show? It’s hard to come up with right answers when you have all that pressure on you.

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"Our family has had the privilege to spend some unforgettable ministry days on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona. When you are there, you do a lot of driving because that one reservation is the size of West Virginia. The vehicle of choice there is not a car. No, you want a truck. Many places are only accessible by roads that are steep, bumpy, and full of craters. Driving is a major challenge to the durability of any vehicle—or passenger. You’ll hear many radio advertisements using this one phrase to promote the quality of their truck. This macho voice says, 'It’s reservation tested.' " Ron Hutchcraft

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When you drive in the New York area, lane switching becomes an art, and you need to see exactly what's around you. That one area you can’t see in any of your mirrors becomes pretty critical because it creates a dangerous blind spot. Also, right around the optic nerve in our eyes, there are no rods and cones to produce a visual image giving all of us a blind spot.

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