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In January 1925, a diphtheria epidemic emerged in Nome, Alaska. At that time, Nome was a remote town in the Alaskan interior. It was hard enough to get to Nome in the warmer months but during the dead of winter was considered impossible for many except the hardy men known as dog-mushers.
Often fatal, the disease was spreading rapidly. Dr. Curtis Welch, the town’s only physician, feared a widespread outbreak. There was a cure for this disease but there was not a drop in Nome. Dr Welch sent out telegraphs and some found that there was plenty of the cure in a hospital in Anchorage over 600 miles away. Which seemed like a million miles to the physician but not to the hardy outdoorsmen of Alaska.
Despite a white-out blizzard, the serum was delivered to Nome by a relay of 20 mushers who covered the 674-mile distance in 5 and a half days. The serum reached those afflicted and many lives were saved.
Today, the Iditarod Sled Dog Race in Alaska commemorates this event that occurred a century ago.
An epidemic unlike any other has infected the peoples of the earth. The disease is sin. And without the cure made from the blood of Jesus, all will suffer eternal, horrible pain. Jesus “bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Spread the word. A cure has been found.
Larry Fitzgerald
Woodlawn Church of Christ
Abilene, TX