Biography of Dwight L. Moody

Here is the first biography from LIFE Camp that I will post. May you all be inspired!

Dwight L. Moody

• He was born in Massachusetts in 1837
• At the age of four his father died leaving a wife, seven kids and twins in the womb.
• The children had to work on farms to earn their living and support their large family. They worked Monday to Saturday weekly.
• Moody worked for his uncle in Boston.
• His uncle's requirement was that Moody went to church with him. Eventually Moody became willing and often read his Bible.
• He accepted Christ through a Mr. Gemble who (I think) was a Sunday school teacher.
• From then on Moody fervently spread the gospel.
• Then he moved to Chicago.
• His two life goals were to make $100,000 (which was back then A LOT of money) and to preach.
• In Chicago, he reached out to the street children. He rented a pew in his church and brought random street kids.
• Eventually he was paying for four pews a Sunday.
• He reached out to 12 year old girls and brought them to Christ.
• Moody gave up his goal of making $100,000.
• At the age of 23 he left his job in 1860.
• He worked for YMCA (while it was actually Young Men's Christian Association and lived up to its name) and became a missionary.
• Traveled to England.
• His home was a victim of the Chicago fire in addition to his church.
• He built another church, but yet another fire destroyed it too.
• At the age of 54 Moody developed a terrible cough.
• He had been preaching three times a day but four times on Sunday.
• The doctor said that he needed to slow down or he'd die.
• On the way back from a trip to England, his ship began to sink with both Moody and his son aboard in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. At this point Moody had been considering what the doctor had said and thinking about minimizing his preachings.
• While aboard the sinking ship, Moody realized that God did not want him to slow down. So Moody trusted God to get him through his sinking ship and simply went to bed. Some time later his son awoke him to say that they had been rescued by another passing ship.
• Moody continued to work hard trusting in the Lord for seven more years. Then at the age of 63 Moody died.
• During his lifetime he had brought hundreds of people to Christ, started numerous Bible schools, etc.
• Most of all, Moody is a great example of trusting in God even in very hard times when your life is at stake.

I hope that you all were inspired by the brief explanation of Dwight L. Moody's life. I would love to hear your thoughts!