Bethesda Shalom

Deuteronomy 8:1-6 Horatio Spafford was a Presbyterian layman from Chicago and was a successful lawyer and businessman. Humanly speaking, this man had everything going for him.  He loved the Lord and was happily married with five beautiful children.  However, things were about to take a drastic and sudden turn, in a series of events reminiscent of the life of Job.  Spafford had heavily invested in real estate along Lake Michigan’s shoreline but in the great Chicago Fire of 1871, he tragically lost everything!  If that wasn’t bad enough, shortly before this, he lost his only son to scarlet fever at the tender age of four.  With a grieving wife, Horatio Spafford decided to send her and their four daughters across to England where he planned imminently to join them.  In 1873, his family boarded the S.S Ville du Havre and set sail for England; but as the ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean, tragedy struck when the ship collided with another sea vessel.  Within just 12 minutes the ship had sunk taking the lives of 226