It was a terrible fall, and it sickened those who saw it. John Pounds, a tall, muscular teen working at the docks of Portsmouth, England, slipped and plunged from the top of a ship's mast, pitching headfirst into the bowels of the vessel.

When fellow workers reached him, he was nothing but amass of broken bones. For two years he lay in bed as his bones healed crookedly. His pain never ceased. Out of boredom, he began to read the Bible.

At length, John crawled from bed hoping to find something he could do with his life. A shoemaker hired him, and day after day, John sat at his cobbler's bench, a Bible open on his lap. Soon he was born again.

John ultimately gathered enough money to purchase his own little shoe shop and one day he developed a pair of surgical boots for his crippled nephew Johnny, whom he had taken in. Soon John was making corrective shoes for other children, and his little cobbler's shop became a miniature children's hospital.

As John's burden for children grew, he began receiving homeless ones, feeding them, teaching them to read, and telling them about the Lord. His shop became known as "The Ragged School," and John would limp around the waterfront, food in his pockets, looking for more children to tend.

During his lifetime, John Pounds rescued five hundred children from despair and led every one of them to Christ. Moreover, his work became so famous that a "Ragged School Movement" swept England, and a series of laws were passed to establish schools for poor children in John's honor. Boy's homes, girl's homes, day schools, and evening schools were started, along with Bible classes in which thousands hear the Gospel.

When John collapsed and died on New Year's Day 1839, while tending to a boy's ulcerated foot, he was buried in a churchyard on High Street. All England mourned, and a monument was erected over his grave, reading: "Thou shalt be blessed, for they could not recompense thee."

When you end your pilgrimage on earth, what good deed will you be remembered for? Jesus Christ lived for 33 years on earth, He is forever remembered as the Savior of the world. John Pound linked up with Jesus Christ, he was remembered for the good deeds you read above.

Surrender your life to Jesus Christ, and discover the purpose for your existence.

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