Fifty-five years ago today....about the same time that I'm typing this....five in the morning.....our company in basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey was gathering around busses...our eight weeks of basic complete. It was chilly as I remember....we were wearing our greens for the very first time....and we were passing around the platoon photos to have each other sign them. It wasn't a pleasant situation....for I probably would never see again any of the men in this group that I grown close to over the past two months. It was a little different for me because a lot of the guys were getting on the same bus to go to wherever their next training would be....and many of them were infantry. I got on a bus alone to go to Fort Devens, Massachusetts....joining a few others on the bus from other companies that also had just finished their basic training. I sat next to a guy named Frank....from the same city that I was born in....Buffalo, New York....and we were barracks mates for the next six months in our training which was in the general military intelligence field and required a top secret clearance which I had only been informed a week previous that it had been granted. There was snow on the ground when we arrived in Massachusetts.
I was a few months short of twenty years old....as today I'm a few months short of 75 years old. I had signed up for a four year enlistment but three years into it....we were offered a one year drop....'get out of the army a year early'....because the war was winding down and there were too many of us. I took the one-year drop.
I have only one anecdote to give here....it was December of 1971....and I was on my second R&R to Sydney, Australia. During the day I would walk the city...and this day I was standing on a pier facing the east side of the Sydney Opera House that was in construction at the time. A man came up to me....oh he was about 35 years old maybe....and he asked if I was an American soldier....which would have been easy to guess. When I said that I was he asked me if I was a weight lifter....which also probably wasn't too hard to figure out. The long and short of it is that he said that he was a Baptist pastor at a church in the city....and the church had just purchased a set of weights....and he asked me if I would come over to the church to give the youth group some basic instruction on lifting weights.... and they would like to meet an American. I had big plans for that night....one of the bars in the King's Cross district of Sydney....so I declined. He politely asked again if I would consider just an hour to help the youth group....and I just as politely again declined.
This episode has bothered me on and off over the past fifty-three years. A few years ago I put in some solid effort in trying to find that pastor in Sydney....even emailing some churches....but all with no results. A few years ago....five or six maybe....probably longer....I had 3.83k views to these posts from Australia. Today I have 3.83k views from Australia. I was banned for some reason. There are over three thousand posts here and all of them are basically the same as what you see in the past week or month. I did some research and I don't think the censors want anything controversial at all coming into their country.....and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is controversial.
I thank God every day of my life for the mercies He has extended upon me. I was a despicable rebel....but the saying has a lot of truth to it....if someone is saved from much sinning....then he....or she....tends to be more thankful than those who were not...or do not perceive themselves to have been....such detestable sinners.
Note: Personal posts such as this I generally only keep up for a few hours or a day and then transfer them back into the pack somewhere. If you have read even a month of these posts you would know how much I emphasize the importance of strong biblical preaching that cuts deep within our conscience....for without such preaching....which has always been be a foundation in the church....and especially in Puritan England....without it we cannot see ourselves in relation to a Holy God....and thus we are not prostrated in humility and repentance....nor can we see what were saved from....nor can we rejoice as we should in such a great salvation!
