Topics:<\/b> Acceptance; Church; Community; Encouragement; Perseverance; Weakness; Witnessing<\/p>\n
References:<\/b> Philippians 3:13\u201314; 2 Timothy 4:7\u20138; Hebrews 10:24; 12:1\u20133<\/p>\n
Eric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea was an unlikely hero of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. The twenty-two-year-old African had learned to swim only nine months before the games, had only practiced in a twenty-meter pool without lane markers, and had never raced more than fifty meters. Through a special program that permits poorer countries to participate, even though their athletes don\u2019t meet customary standards, Moussambani had been entered in the 100-meter men\u2019s freestyle.<\/p>\n
When the other two swimmers in his heat were disqualified because of false starts, Moussambani was forced to swim alone. He was reportedly \u201ccharmingly inept.\u201d He never put his head under the water\u2019s surface and flailed wildly to stay afloat. With ten meters left to the wall, he virtually came to a stop. Some spectators thought he might drown. Even though his time was more than a minute slower than what qualified for the next level of competition, the capacity crowd at the Olympic Aquatic Center stood up and cheered him on.<\/p>\n
After what seemed like an eternity, the African reached the wall and hung on for dear life. When he had caught his breath and regained his composure, he said through an interpreter, \u201cI want to send hugs and kisses to the crowd. It was their cheering that kept me going.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Greg Asimakoupoulos and Rubel Shelly, \u201cHelp for Long Race,\u201d PreachingToday.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Topics: Acceptance; Church; Community; Encouragement; Perseverance; Weakness; Witnessing References: Philippians 3:13\u201314; 2 Timothy 4:7\u20138; Hebrews 10:24; 12:1\u20133 Eric Moussambani of Equatorial Guinea was an unlikely hero of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. The twenty-two-year-old African had learned to swim only nine months before the games, had only practiced in a twenty-meter pool without … Continue reading “CHEERING
\n THE SWIMMER IN”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}