Who: Jessica McClure, born March 26, 1986

Where:  Midland, Texas

When: October 14, 1987 — Jessica was 18 months old.  Ronald Reagan was President.  George Bush Was vice-president.

What:  Jessica fell into a well in her aunt’s backyard.

• The well-casing was 8 inches in diameter
• Jessica fell approximately 22 feet below grade.
• Her one foot was lodged above her head, and her other leg was extended downward.
• She lived and was rescued after 56 hours.
• The workers could hear her crying and singing “Winnie The Pooh.”
• Jessica’s one toe had to be amputated.

“Workers had dug a vertical shat parallel to the well, then chipped through tough rock over to a bell-shaped spot in the shaft where Jessica was trapped. When they reached her, rescuers were beneath the little girl.

Workers lowered a bucket of bandages and paper towels to waiting paramedic Robert O’Donnell. Soon after, the baby seat was handed down.

O’Donnell squirted petroleum jelly around the hole between the rescue shaft and the well to help Jessica slide out, then began pulling on her leg, which was stuck. She cried, tried to retract her leg and said, “No!”

After 20 or 30 minutes, however, O’Donnell was able to pull her out of the well and into the rescue shaft.”

“Sgt. Andy Glasscock, who shared the duty of monitoring Jessica’s sounds using a microphone lowered into the well shaft, said the toddler was growing irritable. He said he thought she was especially irritated at him.

“I made her mad,” said the burly policeman, who was covered with dust. “I’ve been telling her for the last 20 hours that we were coming down to get her out. I don’t think she believes me.”

“During the day, as the hours dragged on, concern mounted that the prolonged rescue efforts diminished the child’s chance of survival. As workers continued to drill, one who offered to help was Ron Short, a muscular man who was born with no collarbone and could squeeze his shoulders until they touched. He arrived at the rescue site and offered to go down the shaft, saying he might have a chance to slip into the well shaft and maneuver the baby out of her cramped prison.

His offer of help was accepted, although never used.

“Hey, if we can use him, we will use him,” said police spokesman Jeff Haile.”

My Life 30 Years Later:  “I had God on my side that day,” Jessica says in the upcoming issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday. “My life is a miracle.”  Think about what he did.   We can not only think, but we can think about what we think about.  It is this analytical level that gives us the ability to “replicate” the approach.

Key Biblical Concepts:

• fears
• life and death
• accidents
• compassion (of a nation)
• identifying / empathy
• crisis
• emergency
• hope
• trials
• dangers
• a happy ending
• Mothers / Mother’s Day
• Saved alive
• singing

Key Phrases:

• “the prolonged rescue efforts diminished the child’s chance of survival.”
• “a muscular man who was born with no collarbone and could squeeze his shoulders until they touched” volunteered to use his disability
• “hit harder rock than they had anticipated . . . nobody visualized the rick being that hard . . . harder than granite.”
• “a surge of optimism . . . feeling a lot better today than they did last night.  I think they feel optimistic.”
• “we don’t know what broke the fall”
• “giving her words of encouragement . . . We’re going to get you out.  I love you.”
• “we keep thinking we are getting close”

If you would like to listen to a creative way to use an illustration, and this account, here is the link – or the Easter Video 04/12/2020!  Steven Smith is one of the most effective preachers I listen to on a regular basis.

The story not the details of the story are not part of his sermon.
He is using the story to set up his approach!

It is not the story or any of our keywords or key phrases that become part of the sermon, but Pastor Smith sets up the need to know the back-story if you are going to understand the ending.  Pastor Smith is setting up his approach!  He is laying out why he going to do what he is going to do, why he is going to begin in Genesis — to understand the conclusion of what has happened — the divine rescue through the resurrection — you have to go back to the beginning of the story.

Notice how he keeps connecting the parts and pieces as he moves through the story.  He has included parts and pieces that will be connected to what he is going to say later on about the plan.

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Other Information & Links:

Make it your own illustration and read some of the linked materials.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/18-month-old-girl-saved-1987-article-1.2386153

https://www.biography.com/personality/baby-jessica

https://people.com/human-interest/baby-jessica-30-years-later-my-life-is-a-miracle/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Jessica_McClure

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-10-17-mn-3702-story.html

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“During the day, as the hours dragged on, concern mounted that the prolonged rescue efforts diminished the child’s chance of survival. As workers continued to drill, one who offered to help was Ron Short, a muscular man who was born with no collarbone* and could squeeze his shoulders until they touched. He arrived at the rescue site and offered to go down the shaft, saying he might have a chance to slip into the well shaft and maneuver the baby out of her cramped prison.

His offer of help was accepted, although never used.

“Hey, if we can use him, we will use him,” said police spokesman Jeff Haile.”

* “The rescue last year of 18-month-old Jessica McClure from a Texas well was highlighted by many acts of heroism, including that of Ron Short, a Midland roofing contractor born without clavicles who volunteered to squeeze into the tiny space to free Jessica’s trapped right leg.’ For most of the world following the story, the reference to Mr. Short was the first time they had heard of cleidocranial dysplasia, one of the rarest pathological phenomena affecting man. The purposes of this article are to describe aspects of this disorder pertinent to physical therapists, to review the literature, and to suggest that more research into the biomechanics of modified shoulder function be conducted when subjects are available, and that physical therapists, as musculoskeletal evaluators, are in the best position to screen patients for the presence of the condition and assume primary responsibility for carrying out the needed research.”  –file:///Users/tedmartens/Downloads/20080912_November1988LRScott.pdf