Where Angels Make Mistakes!

24 Pages·2014·0.83 MB·English

Where Angels Make Mistakes

By

Dr. Ferdinand Nweke

Burning Books

S 18 & 19 Shopping Complex, Box 2637, Bauchi 740001, Nigeria;
Tel: [phone];
[phone]; [phone]
www.eternityministries.org
E-mail: [email protected]
Where Angels Make Mistakes

By
Dr. Ferdinand Nweke

Burning Books
S 18 & 19 Shopping Complex, Box 2637, Bauchi 740001, Nigeria;
Tel: [phone];
[phone]; [phone]
www.eternityministries.org
E-mail: [email protected]

ISBN 978-38453-7-3

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise – without prior written
permission of the publisher, except as provided by international copyright law.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Copyright © 2009 by Ferdinand Nweke

Printed in the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Dedication

To

Frank Orinya

His record is on high
Contents
Dedication

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Great Mistakes

2. Fixed Appointments

3. Where Angels Make Mistakes

4. George’s Story

5. Lost Diamonds

6. Giant Steps
Preface

In 1928, British bacteriologist and Nobel laureate, Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) made a blessed mistake
– one that changed the course of history, and has saved millions of lives. Fleming, who had discovered
lysozyme (an antiseptic found in tears and other body secretions) in 1922, was researching on influenza when
he accidentally left one of his culture plates on which he grew his bacteria open. A mould contaminated the
plate, and Fleming accurately observed that the mould had destroyed all the bacteria (disease causing germs)
surrounding it. In his own words,

“It was astonishing that for some considerable distance around the mould growth the staphococcal colonies
were undergoing lysis. What had formerly been a well-grown colony was now a faint shadow of its former
self...I was sufficiently interested to pursue the subject.” a

Fleming’s observation led to the development of the antibiotic, Penicillin, a medical wonder in its time, which
rescued millions from the jaws of certain death; it was widely used to treat Allied soldiers during the Second
World War. Fleming later became Professor Emeritus at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London. He was
knighted in 1944, and, in 1945, won the Nobel Prize with other scientists with whom he had collaborated in
developing Penicillin. Mostly due to a mistake – by a discerning scientist!

Who hasn’t made mistakes in life? As Pa Enoch Adeboye said, “Anyone here who has never sinned since he or
she was born, raise your hand and let me pray for a liar!” We are all in the same boat. But there is hope. For
out of our willingness to try – from our daring and bumbling and stumbling – come progress, discoveries and
innovations, some, quite astounding.

But, angels making mistakes? Who could point an accusing finger at these creatures of light?

I wrote this little book just for you; I believe you will enjoy reading it. And who knows, this petite bundle of
hope could even ignite something wonderful in your life.

Let the discoveries begin!

a. Sir Alexander Fleming quotation from Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2008. © 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
1

Great Mistakes

While some dread them, several thinkers and writers have extolled the value of mistakes in the learning
process, and in the development of the individual. According to George Bernard Shaw, “A life spent making
mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” James Joyce describes
mistakes as “the portals of discovery”, a confirmation of Henry Link’s statement that “While one person
hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.” Mahatma
Gandhi’s comment sums it up: “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make
mistakes.” Obviously, these statements have their limitations but the principle of making progress by daring to
risk failure is incontrovertible.

There is wisdom in not letting mistakes stomp us, cause us to quit or become discouraged. When inventor
Thomas Edison was told that he failed hundreds of times on his way to discovering the light bulb, he explained
he’d invented hundreds of ways that would not work. He treated each of his failed experiments as an
invention – of how it could not be done!

Indeed, anyone who cannot make a mistake cannot make anything. But some mistakes are just too costly.
Here are a few of them.

The One Billion Dollar Mistake

September 2008 will remain an indelible nightmare to the shareholders of United Airlines Limited (UAL). TIME
magazine reported that shareholders of UAL lost a whopping $1bn in one day of trading. What happened?
Someone mistakenly posted an article on the 2002 bankruptcy of the airline as breaking news. Shareholders
panicked and went into a frenzied dumping of UAL stock. United Airlines stock went into a spin, losing 75% of
its value in eleven minutes! 1

Who could have made this huge mistake of resurrecting an event that happened six years earlier as breaking
news?

Actor Cuts Throat on Vienna Stage

An actor narrowly escaped death after slashing his throat on stage with a real knife, instead of a blunt stage-
prop blade.
Daniel Hoevels slumped to the floor with blood pouring from his neck during a performance at Vienna’s
Burgtheatre. He was rushed to hospital with a deep slice to his throat which fortunately missed his main artery.
Austrian police are investigating whether the incident was a mistake or a deliberate attack on the
actor.
“If the actor had put a little more pressure on the knife or even struck an artery, he would probably
have bled to death on the stage,” a doctor who treated d Mr Hoevels, 30, told the newspaper Oesterreich.
The real-life drama happened last weekend during performance of Friedrich Schiller’s play, Mary Stuart,
about Mary Queen of Scots. Mr. Hoevels’ character was supposed to commit suicide and the actor used what
he thought was a blunt prop weapon. The audience is said to have applauded what they thought was a
stunning special effect and only realized something was wrong when the actor staggered off stage to receive
treatment.
Austrian police launched an investigation and have not ruled on the possibility of foul play, Austrian
media reported. They were told that the knife had been bought at a local shop. “The knife even still had the
price tag on it,” one officer said.
Mr. Hoevels recovered after hospital treatment and, in true theatrical tradition, appeared on stage the
following night although with a bandage around his neck.2

We wish Mr. Hoevels many more years of fruitful and careful acting. As they say, all is well that ends well.

Some mistakes however are far more costly and devastating. Consider the following report by the Associated
Press:

California Rail Agency: Engineer's error caused wreck
A commuter train engineer who ran a stop signal was blamed Saturday for the nation's (U.S.A’s) deadliest rail
disaster in 15 years, a wreck that killed 25 people and left such a mass of smoldering, twisted metal that it took
nearly a day to recover all the bodies.
A preliminary investigation found that "it was a Metrolink engineer that failed to stop at a red signal and that
was the probable cause" of Friday's (12th September 2008) collision with a freight train in Los Angeles' San
Fernando Valley, Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell said.
"When two trains are in the same place at the same time somebody's made a terrible mistake," said Tyrrell,
who was shaking and near tears as she spoke with reporters.
The engineer was among the dead, said National Transportation Safety Board member Kitty Higgins. His name
had not been released late Saturday. Many of the 25 people killed had been in the front car of the Metrolink
train, which was crushed like an accordion in the wreck. A total of 135 people were injured, with 81
transported to hospitals in serious or critical condition…Many were described as having crush injuries.
Firefighter Searcy Jackson III, a 20-year veteran and one of the first to pull bodies from the wreckage, said he
had never seen such devastation. The 50-year-old said his team pulled one living passenger from the train and
cut the mangled metal to remove about a half-dozen bodies…
The collision occurred on a horseshoe-shaped section of track in Chatsworth at the west end of the San
Fernando Valley, near a 500-foot-long tunnel underneath Stoney Point Park. There is a siding at one end of the
tunnel where one train can wait for another to pass.
"Even if the train is on the main track, it must go through a series of signals and each one of the signals must
be obeyed," Tyrrell said. "What we believe happened, barring any new information from the NTSB, is we
believe that our engineer failed to stop ... and that was the cause of the accident…”3

We can understand the mistakes of mortals – from careless news editors and engineers to doctors in
operating rooms who sometimes forget operating instruments in the bodies of their patients. We all have had
our share of mistakes – some minor, others monumental. But angels making mistakes?

In the pages that follow, we will discover some fixed appointments and then proceed to visit the place where
even angels make mistakes.
2

Fixed Appointments

Appointment in Samara

A servant approached his master – a merchant in Baghdad – and asked for permission to go downtown to
attend to something personal. The master granted his request.

After a while, the servant rushed back and stood before his master, deathly pale. Alarm was written all over
his face; he trembled from his turban to his toes.

What happened?” the merchant asked the petrified servant. “You asked to go downtown not long ago”.

“I saw the spirit of death in downtown Baghdad”, the servant replied, voice quivering. “From the way the spirit
of death looked at me, it was obvious to me that I was his next victim. It looked like he was going to kill me, so
I ran back. Please, I must escape to Samara right away”.

The master wondered what was happening to his servant, but he granted his request. “You can go on to
Samara”.

After a while, the master himself decided to go downtown. And sure enough, he saw the spirit of death. He
went to the grim reaper and asked, “My servant was here a while ago and met you. Why did you look at him
like that?”

The spirit of death replied, “I was surprised to see him here in downtown Baghdad because I have an
appointment with him tonight in Samara.”4

The servant thought he would be safe in fleeing to Samara. He never knew he was actually headed for the
place of his fixed appointment with death.

The Crypts of the Capuchins

You might never have had a cappuccino – that delightful coffee drink that has made billions for Starbucks and
others, but permit me to introduce you to the Capuchin friars.

The Capuchin was an independent order of Franciscan friars (in the Roman Catholic Church) founded in 1525
in Italy. The term friar (from the Latin frater, meaning “brother”) was applied to “members of certain religious
orders who practice the principles of monastic life and devote themselves to the service of humanity in the
secular world. Originally, their regulations forbade the holding either of community or personal property, and