another man’s war: The True Story of One Man’s Battle to Save Children in the Sudan, by Sam Childers.
This book follows “Childers’s remarkable transformation from violent thug to a man of faith, and his ongoing battle to save children in one of the world’s most lawless areas. His mission is simple: save the children, no matter the cost.”
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In cleaning up, I kept coming upon a slip of paper for the address of Shekinah Fellowship, where I had sent a contribution once to aid in rescue of the children of Sudan and Uganda. Since I couldn’t seem to get rid of the paper, I looked them up on the internet and found that there was a book about the “gun-toting preacher” who runs the rescue efforts. Once again, the public library had the book, and it was in so I checked it out and read it.
When I had initially seen some film footage some years ago about the orphanage that was started for the rescued children, I was really horrified to see (and not just hear about) the evidence of some of the violence and atrocities they suffered. I was even more troubled when I felt the Lord speaking to me that their healing would only come through forgiveness. How could someone forgive this?
Mark 10:26-28 (Amplified Bible)
26And they were shocked and exceedingly astonished, and said to Him and to one another, Then who can be saved?27Jesus glanced around at them and said, With men [it is] impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.
28Peter started to say to Him, Behold, we have yielded up and abandoned everything [once and for all and joined You as Your disciples, siding with Your party] and accompanied You [walking the same road that You walk].
Then I remembered reading an account of holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom’s encounter with a Nazi guard who had been at one of the concentration camps where she was detained during the World War II. Part of an online account reprinted from a Guideposts magazine article tells the story (http://www.familylifeeducation.org/gilliland/procgroup/CorrieTenBoom.htm):
“ ‘But since that time,’ he went on, ‘I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein,’ again the hand came out—’will you forgive me?’
“And I stood there—I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven—and could not forgive. Betsie had died in that place—could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
“It could not have been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
“For I had to do it—I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. ‘If you do not forgive men their
trespasses,’ Jesus says, ‘neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.’
“I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.
“And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. ‘… Help!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.’
“And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“ ‘I forgive you, brother!’ I cried. ‘With all my heart!’
“For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then.”
The book does talk some of the forgiveness those rescued have experienced – there is even a story where Pastor Sam had met with a man who had hurt many people, intending to kill him but instead “led him to eternal life in heaven….His old life of death and evil was gone, replaced with a new, clean, spotless life in Christ….All sinners are equally damned and everyone, no matter what they’ve done, can be equally forgiven and blessed.”
Hard lessons sometimes, but still…
…and my journey with Him continues…
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