The stock market rises and falls…unemployment claims point to an uncertain future…and a pastor from the Titanic shares life even as he loses his own.

Watching the stock market this week could easily give you economic whiplash. The week began with an announcement of progress toward a COVID-19 vaccine in clinical trials that sent the market soaring to a new record for a single day of trading – up 452 points by noon on Monday. By Wednesday, however, the tide had turned. A sell-off late Wednesday sent stocks tumbling by 345 points in the last hour of trading which is never a good sign. The week ended with jobless numbers climbing to 742,000 for the week – a bit ahead of the 710,000 estimated by Dow Jones economists. Week over week – this was an acceleration from the previous week’s total of 709,000 revealing the job market overall is still struggling.

Workers who were already receiving unemployment benefits and continued to file for an additional week took a substantial drop this week falling by 429,000 applications to 6.37 million. This was a new low since the pandemic began. The nation’s total unemployment rate fell to 4.3%.

Keep in mind, unemployment benefits continue for 26 weeks from the regular unemployment compensation program active in each state. During the COVID crisis, extended benefits have been established in 37 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Yet, many workers have already exhausted funds available to them in this program and have moved over to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. Claims for this program increased by 23,863 to 320,237, while yet another pandemic emergency assistance program increased by 233,458 to 4.38 million.

Add all these programs together, and the total number of Americans receiving financial assistance from the government this week stands 20.32 million. One year ago this week, a total of 1.48 million Americans were receiving unemployment assistance. This shows just how bad the pandemic has affected the US work force.

A letter written by a passenger on the RMS Titanic sold this week in England for 42 thousand pounds – about $55,000 US dollars. The letter was penned aboard the ship on April 11, 1912 - three days before it would sink in the icy waters of the Atlantic.

John Harper - a 39-year-old Baptist pastor from Scotland wrote a thank you note on the ship’s stationary to a “Brother Young” who had recently helped him and showed kindness to his daughter and sister. He mailed it just before the ship departed for America. Harper was widely known across the world as a brilliant speaker with an uncanny ability to make the Bible come alive in his sermons. John’s wife had died some years earlier, and he was headed to the United States so that could preach at the famous Moody Church in Chicago.

Soon after the Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, John placed his daughter and sister into a lifeboat knowing that he would never see them again in this life. He hugged and kissed them both, and as the lifeboat was lowered into the sea, he was last seen waving goodbye to them.

As the boat moved away from the sinking vessel, Pastor Harper began assisting other passengers to the lifeboats. He clung as long as possible to portions of the ship that remained above the surface, but soon he could no longer hold on. Survivors remembered hearing him pray aloud, and one young man was so frightened of death that he trembled and cried in horror. With the last remaining strength of his body, Harper looked at the young man and quoted Acts 16:31 to him - “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”