Welcome to UMTV’s Web Brief; I’m Reed Galin.

A lot of us, all over the country, felt an uplifting sense of relief when those Pennsylvania miners were pulled to safety. The last of the men pulled out of that hole in the ground was Mark Popernack. Mark and his wife, with support from their United Methodist church family, felt the strength of their faith in those dark hours and now say they've gained more perspective on the power of prayer in their lives.

Locator: Somerset Co., PA

MARK POPERNACK ACHED FOR A SIMPLE MOMENT SUCH AS THIS, AS HE PONDERED HIS FATE 240 FEET UNDERGROUND.

Mark Popernack / Rescued Miner: “That’s when we all got a piece of cardboard and wrote our last words on it. We were all ready to die.”

MARK AND THE OTHER MINERS WAITED FOR THE SEEMINGLY INEVITABLE END, SURE THEY HAD LOST THEIR STRUGGLE AGAINST THE RISING WATER AND THE DARKNESS.

Mark Popernack: "All we had left at this time when that water reached us … all we had left was God and hope.”

THAT SEEMED ALL THEIR FAMILIES HAD AS WELL.

Sandy Popernack / Mark’s Wife: “I think there’s hope in prayer. I think that’s the bottom line.”

BUT EVEN AN UNSHAKABLE FAITH CAN BE MOVED IN SUCH DIRE STRAITS.

Sandy Popernack: “The first day, I thought, ‘He’s coming out alive.’ Then I thought, ‘There’s no way he can come out of there alive.’”

LOCAL MINISTERS COUNSELED THE WAITING FAMILIES. THE “WHAT IF’S” WERE UNAVOIDABLE.

Rev. Barry Ritenour / Bethany and St. John’s United Methodist Churches: “What if I’m telling these people the wrong things? What if what I say to them, and this goes sour, am I going to destroy their faith?”

BUT AMID THE DOUBTS AND FEARS WERE INDICATIONS THAT ALL WAS NOT YET LOST.

Rev. Barry Ritenour: “The fact that they were on an uphill slope, you know, there was a possibility of them climbing higher and getting out of there. The fact that they got pumps in here very quickly and started pumping water, which lowered the water in the mine - there were too many positives not to be hopeful.”

MARK’S VIEW OF THE WORLD IS DIFFERENT NOW. PERHAPS BECAUSE HE KNOWS FIRST HAND THAT NOTHING IS BEYOND THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY.

Mark Popernack: “The whole world never gave up hope and I think what happened is proof.”

Mark says there were actually ten men in the mine … he, the other miners, and, he says, God. Among a thousand men and women involved in the rescue effort above the ground was

United Methodist Richard Beam. He worked with the team sending cameras down to locate the trapped men. He says it was difficult, dangerous…and a privilege.

Beating the Odds Commentary:

Myself and the colleagues that were with me were part of the team that lowered the cable into the eight-inch bore hole when they first made contact with the miners, so I was probably one of the first individuals to learn that all nine of them were alive and they were in relatively good health.

One of the Federal Mine Safety Health Administration personnel had a headset on and was able to communicate with the miners, but as soon as he put nine fingers up, and I knew that those guys were alive, and the first thought that went through my mind is this is truly a miracle to live through the ordeal that they dealt with for 77 hours.

This is the clearest example, perhaps for our entire country, to recognize that God had a hand in this. And He was the one that determined when and how those miners would be rescued. And I certainly hope that people will open their minds and open their hearts and just evaluate for themselves what happened here and look at the sequence of events and look at the difficulties that were overcome.

The life of a pastor typically doesn’t leave much time to sit still. Consider this group of ministers near Charlotte, North Carolina. That’s NASCAR country, and these clergy men and women are involved in a different kind of winner’s circle.

ON THE OUTSIDE, NO ONE WOULD EVER KNOW THESE WERE MINISTERS PREPARING TO SHARE A MESSAGE. AND ON THE INSIDE, YOU’D NEVER KNOW THIS WAS THE EAGER CONGREGATION.

Rev. Randy Foster / Bethpage United Methodist Church / Kannapolis, N.C.: “Just because the culture that we live in now, we feel like we have to bring the gospel to the culture, not to change the gospel but to bring it to where the people are.”

FOR THIS EVENING SERVICE, THE PEOPLE ARE AT LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY NEAR CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Woman praying: “We ask, O God, that you keep us mindful ...”

THE “FASTER PASTOR” RACE IS AN OUTREACH MINISTRY OF UNITED METHODIST MOTORSPORTS. IT PITS AREA PASTORS AGAINST ONE ANOTHER IN A DIFFERENT KIND OF PULPIT.

Rev. Buddy Compton / Pine Grove United Methodist Church / Albemarle, N.C.: “I get the opportunity to come to a racetrack and share the Word of God and not do it in a threatening way.”

Dr. Arnetta E. Beverly / Superintendent, NE District of Western North Carolina Annual Conference: “Everybody you see smiling is not happy, and all these people you see yelling here at the track, many have problems. I’m just glad we have this many clergypersons out to be available to them.”

AFTER A ROUND OF QUALIFYING AND SOUL-SEARCHING …

Rev. Jeff Maynard / Little River Baptist Church / Brevard, N.C.: “As Paul would say, it doesn’t matter if you don’t finish the race. So I guess I need to just finish the race.”

IT WAS TIME TO TAKE OFF THE ROBES AND GET DOWN TO BUSINESS.

Rev. Buddy Compton: “Ready to rock and roll!”

Rev. Buddy Compton: “People are not flocking in to the pews, so we’ve got to go where they are. We’re reaching people that, I mean it’s just a blessing. And we receive a blessing.”

The faster pastor of that race was the Rev. Buddy Compton. The two women in the group didn’t race, they worked the flag stand, guiding their colleagues around the track.

On the next UMTV Web Brief …

Health care for the aging … are you ever too old to heal?