Time Traveling Dreams

Tales from the Road Series

In the mild temperatures of April in Bologna Italy 1874 a dream was about to be captured that would change the world and…

it would change your world.

I don’t have permission to use the name but I recently read an obituary that had footing and foundations from 145 years in the past.

This gentleman was a loving father, a father devoted to his family, his wife but also the work of the Lord. He fell in love with Missions work in Brazil and spent as much time as he could taking care of the of the little ones living in another part of the world as if they were his own. Not that this isn’t important but I want to put into perspective as only a story can.

This life we are talking about has ties all of the way back to Bologna Italy 1874 where our story started.

On April 12th, 1912 a journey began…a journey that has been in the planning for years and journey that ended on the cold frigid waters of the North Atlantic on a clear night of April 15th. HMS Titanic was steaming for America. That great ship would become a ‘time capsule of humanity and artifacts of an era long past. What’s left of the bones of the old, great mysterious ship lies in 12000 feet of dark icy water surrounded by the debris of her sinking but the ‘impact’ of those events continue to live today.

On board was Mary Sophie Halaut Abraham who held a 3rd class passenger ticket. Most of you might not know, though there were many women and children in the 3rd class compartments, most of the deaths from the Titanic came from this area of the ship. The societal and financial rankings and class back then had more power than the now time-worn rules of the sea, ‘Women and Children First’. As the ship was sinking, Mary somehow made it to the top decks where she was placed in lifeboat ‘C’ and watched the death throes of the great ship as she broke apart and sank collecting more than 1500 souls to die with her.

For the first time in maritime history, a new signal was sent from the wireless communication or ‘radio room’. This technology was still in its infancy, however …the brand new signal ‘S.O.S…’save our ship started radiating the airwaves that cold dark night. It wasn’t in a word, it was in Morris Code but none the less…ships from all over the Atlantic heard the signal which had the ships name, and location. Even as far away as our Cape Hatteras station, the signal was picked up. It’s recorded on the now ‘yellowed’ wore torn pages of the logbook from the radio operator that night, ‘distress signal from Titanic, ‘have struck an iceberg’.

Young Mary was rescued the next morning from the flotsam covered waters by the ‘Capathia’. Her Captain rushed his mighty steel ship through the wee hours of the morning, braving icebergs himself, praying to find a foundering Titanic. Instead, as the sun rose over those cold dark waters they arrived at the coordinates given. To his sorrow and horror there was no mighty ship but an ocean full of debris and a few tiny lifeboats with humanity with clinging to them.

Mary was pulled from the cold seas and placed on board the Carpathia. When the final boat survivors were picked up, the Carpathia sadly turned her bows away from the horrible scene and steamed to a waiting world asking…

‘What happened to the Great Ship Titanic?’

The Carpathia had to fight her way through storms and ice to make New York as if destiny itself didn’t want anyone from the great ship to make shore but on the night of April 18th, the great ship Carpathia entered the rainy, dismal New York Harbor. She briefly stopped at the waiting arms of the Titanic’s dock where a hushed silence overcame the crowds as she delivered what was left of the once great ship…her lifeboats. She then made her own berthing and disembarked her passengers. Mary eventually found her way to her original destination, Greensburg PA to a waiting family.

Mary’s life was full and she passed away in 1976 having numerous children. What do our missionary and Mary have in common? They both owe their lives to a man they never met and most likely never heard of…Guglielmo Marconi.

On April 25th, 1874 in Bologna Italy, 38 years before the Titanic was lost and Mary was saved, Guglielmo Marconi was born. Some of you will laugh but Marconi was one of your original ‘homeschooled’ kids. He came from a wealthy family and wanted to study science. By the age of 20, he has taken the newly discovered ‘radio waves’ and created a type of transmitter and receiver in his home. His first demonstration was to his mother by showing her he could transmit and signal and received it in such a way that it would ‘ring’ a bell across the room.

By the time the Titanic disaster occurred, Marconi was a famous man and was striving to take his dream to greater heights. It’s interesting to think if we went back to his teen years and said ‘Young Marconi, I need you to rescue some 700 people from the mid-Atlantic ocean is just a few years…figure it out”…what would his reaction have been? Would he have changed his inventive idea’s to boats, life rafts? I bet he still didn’t have a grasp of the impact his radio waves would have and I am sure…he never thought of ‘Mary’ or her prodigy.

One mans fullied dream has changed the word. Though I am not sure his plan was the change the world on the scale he did…it’s clear that his passion, his drive, and dedication brought Mary home, whose life today touched the little children of Brazil through her prodigy ‘our missionary.’

Don’t let events keep you from dreaming or ‘reaching’ for your dreams. Like Marconi, you really can’t have a grasp of the lives you will touch, by reaching for your dreams.

Peace to you this week on your Journey.