by revelife crew Austin Hemmings, 44, was leaving work when he heard a woman screaming for help after being attacked. He came to her aid, but the situation with the attacker quickly escalated. Hemmings was stabbed in the chest and died on the scene.
An Auckland, New Zealand father of three, Hemmings was a man of family and faith in Jesus Christ. His funeral, held this Wednesday, was standing-room-only as more than 1000 mourners gathered to honor him. Here are some articles about Mr. Hemmings' death and his family's response.
Stabbing victim named as father-of-three (Stuff.co.nz, 9/26/2008)
Slain good Samaritan's family speak (nzherald.co.nz, 9/27/2008)
A death that sent a message (Stuff.co.nz, 10/2/2008)
What are some remarkable stories of faith that you've heard recently?
Comments (28)
That's not a story of faith, that's a story of heartbreaking tragedy. Devoted follower or no, he sounds like he must have been a wonderful person in almost every way.
The good die young...
Although, one has to wonder what he was thiniking trying to intervene if the attacker was armed.
It does not take faith or the particular of the Christian faith to act morally and compassioantely.
After all, wasn't that the point of the parable?
That's life for ya.
I don't understand how that's a story of faith...
But it's nice that so many people stood for him.
Blessed Be the poor man's soul and family.
Wow....it's nice that he went out of his way and risked his life to help her. It's sad he had to die doing a good thing for someone. I will pray for him and his family.
@HeartOfPandora@xanga - @He_Who_Defied_Fate@xanga - he was thinking he would try to help someone...which is an act of unselfish love...which is an act of faith...now, i would say that you can act morally or compassionately without having faith...but they were just pointing out that he not only talked the talk of his faith (walking in love) but acted on it....
@tialoca_talks@xanga - If he was an atheist it wouldn't have changed anything. He still would have done it. He would have done it if he was pagan or agnostic or Buddhist. It was just his character, it had nothing to do with faith.
@tialoca_talks@xanga - I understand, of course. "living his faith," as in "practice what you preach." And that really is exactly what he was doing. Faithful or no, it speaks to his character.
@HeartOfPandora@xanga - my goodness, you presume to know a lot about this man... as faith believers, faith commands that we walk in love, when we do so, we are acting on faith...you can't understand that believing is what we are and we act because of what we are...i also stated that one can act morally without having faith...but he has faith...his character is defined by it...i understand that it annoys people like you who don't understand how this works...but you don't really care to, now do you? and that is a choice, you are welcome to it....
@He_Who_Defied_Fate@xanga - your character is not defined by what you do...what you do is defined by your character and his is a believer...
This is truly sad, and an extreme example of what usually happens when you try to help someone.
I admire his selfless action of helping another human being.
Just inconvenient that he died during this action.
Can anyone of us say that this is not God's plan?
@HeartOfPandora@xanga -
It is a story of faith because the man responded to help, apparently because of his spiritual convictions, or at least his faith in doing the right thing.
The connection between one's beliefs and "character" is often unclear, but that doesn't mean there is no connection. It may have, or not have, been the same if an atheist or agnostic were in the place of Hemmings. I think that a consistent materialist, nihilist, a social darwinist, or an egoist wouldn't have done the same. But God's grace falls hard on people, atheist, theist, whatever.
@nyclegodesi24@xanga - The point is no one knows if he did it out of faith. He didn't yell "THIS IS FOR YOU, GOD!" or anything religiously based before he did it. Maybe the human being in him saw another human in need, and he felt humanly, naturally compelled to help her. I'm just saying you can't classify it as faith based with no proof to the claim.
Then again, who are any of us to say who he was and who he wasn't. None of us knew him, and it doesn't change the fact that he's dead and not here to tell us any differently.
somehow I don't think this particular blog was intended to start a war of words between people accusing others of attacking a persons character, or belief system, or whether or not a non-believer would do the same thing. What he did was an act of compassion, it could have been driven by his faith, or it could have been done as a man who believes that others should not be attacked. This should be about respecting a man for his actions, not about slandering one another and accusing each other of the various different things that I am reading in the above comments. We are all capable of good and we are all capable of bad. Jesus is the defining factor in how we choose to live our lives, but each one of us can make good decisions even before we choose to follow Him.
What does his faith have to do with anything?
Yea, I can see how much jesus loved this guy. Lucky he was christian, right?
@tialoca_talks@xanga - You don't need to believe in Jesus or any religion to want to do kind things for people. I don't see how faith changes anything.
Good people will do what good people will do. Faith, religion, culture, sex, creed, none change anything.
@nyclegodesi24@xanga - I don't see where it descriptively says he helped someone because of his spiritual convictions. I don't need spiritual convictions to want to prevent someone from certain death.
wow this is so sad....=(
@haloed@xanga - show me where i said you had to believe in Jesus to want to do kind things for people...but really, what is it to you if believers ascribe their kind acts of love to faith? why does that seem to bother you? i don't give a rip that you don't believe in faith, pity you let things bother you so much...
@tialoca_talks@xanga - I don't. What bothers me so much are people assuming that good in non-religious people doesn't exist. Or that it can't exist without Jesus. Or blah blah blah.
Get it?
No where does it say BECAUSE HE WAS CHRISTIAN HE SAVED THIS WOMAN'S LIFE.
No, it doesn't take a Christian, Muslim, Islam, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, or any other religious person to do good things.
It just takes a good person.
My point is that this blog is heavily linking (and as other people above me have posted as well) his spiritual convictions with the kind act he did. And all I'm saying is that it doesn't take someone with the same faith to do that. It doesn't even take someone with faith to do that. It just takes a good person.
By the way, it would be more coming of you not to be condescending, saying things like "pity"
@haloed@xanga - it is related to his faith, just because your good deeds are not doesn't mean his are not...and actually, i don't care if you think i'm condescending or not, i was not trying to be, but you can take it any way you please...i have no control over your perceptions...you, my dear, are not reading what people write...you are spoiling for an arguement...now go away and let the adults visit (oh, and THAT is how to be condescending...)
This sad story reminds me of an incident that happened a hile back here in California. A man was on his way to bible study and was shot on the freeway. He died. I think it was gang members just randomly shooting people. I heard this on the news;I didn't witness it.
The intent of this blog was to in the comment find other events of people helping another. Christians are to be known for their love of others including to pray and love their enemies. That can be difficult at times as we do make mistakes in this. We forget we are to be known for our love toward others/neighbors.
Mark 12: 30-31
30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Sometimes, we get so use to reaching out to others in life that we almost can do that on auto pilot and forget to ask God to help us as we start to do it on God's strength instead of ours. I was not there where this man was as he helped this lady. Yet, I know I started out once in a situation on my own strength but things became more interesting. Before it became deadly, I cried out to God to help me and I lived through it. I had peace as it was happening and knew it would be okay. I still had consquences afterwards yet able to have faith for God to heal me and learn so much more through it. Yet, I'm getting to do what I was told I probably would not do again.
I started out in my own strength yet realized I needed God to help me a I realized I was doing it alone. I cried out to God for His help and which turned it into for God's glory.
I'm sadden for this man and his family. In our little human mind as we only see what a little of what is out there, God sees the bigger picture. We all have a choice God gives us to accept Him or refuse Him. We then live with consquences of our choices. God's wisdom is like foolishness to the world.
I still have so much to learn as I seek. Yet, God promises as we seek Him, we will find Him. What is faith? Something that can not be seen but we trust it. It is a choice we get to make which affects us for all eternity.
I praise God for Heaven when we die as we have faith and walk in love toward others as we encourage others in so many various ways!!! God is there for that family. It is not easy but God promises not to give us anything more than we can handle as we turn it over to God. Sometimes, I can be so selfish I tend to take it back from Him so I can worry about it more and do more damage to myself. I do thank God for fellow believers that encourage me to give it back to God to take care of and help me through instead of doing it alone.
How many incidents around this world that others lay down their life for another that never make the news or the truth never known? Praise the Lord for being in control and knowing our hearts. When I don't understand why things happen, I must then have faith that much more. Knowing all the answers would not require faith!!!
@HeartOfPandora@xanga -
The idea that he did it out of spiritual convictions that he's believed in and that his family attested to as being values that drove his life forward (values like Love thy neighbor) makes the idea inherently plausible, and probable. This is not an exclusive sort of thing, intended to say that an atheist cannot love thy neighbor. But the values that drove his work, as said by his family, were religious ones, and apparently were at work here. Atheists may not get love thy neighbor from Jesus, but he did, and that's what he was doing. It probably requires a greater burden of proof to say that the values he acted on were secular things that he would've done whether or not he was religious, a claim I've read on this comment section made without any evidence at all.