To End All Wars: A True Story about the Will to Survive and the Courage to Forgive by Ernest Gordon

Author:Ernest Gordon [Gordon, Ernest]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2013-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

What shall I think when I am called to die?

Shall I not find too soon my life has ended?

The years, too quickly, have hastened by

With so little done of all that I’d intended.

There were so many things I’d meant to try,

So many contests I had hoped to win;

And, lo, the end approaches just as I

Was thinking of preparing to begin.

It was experiences such as these that made our discussions meaningful. We were developing a keener insight into life and its complexities. We were learning what it means to be alive – to be human. As we became more aware of our responsibility to God the Father, we realized that we were put into this world not to be served but to serve. This truth touched and influenced many of us to some degree – even some of those who shunned any religious quest. Men began to smile – even to laugh – and to sing.

I was hobbling back to my shack after a rather late discussion session. Passing one of the huts I stopped. There was a sound of men singing. As I listened, I recognized ‘Jerusalem the Golden’. Someone was beating time on a piece of tin with a stick. The words of the old hymn seemed symbolic to me as they rose in the still night. Maybe Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God, is here after all, ‘with milk and honey blest’. Maybe man shall ‘not live by bread alone’. Maybe there is the milk and honey of the spirit that puts hope into a man’s eyes and a song on his lips.

They went on as I stood there, singing the hymn once more. The song made the darkness seem almost friendly. In the difference between this joyful sound and the joyless stillness of months past was the difference between life and death. This hymn had the sound of victory. To me it said, ‘Man need never be so defeated that he cannot do anything. Weak, sick, broken in body, far from home, and alone in a strange land, he can sing! He can worship!’

The resurgence of life increased. It grew and leavened much of the camp, expressing itself in men’s increased concern for their neighbours.

For instance, the most forlorn and dispirited among the bedridden were the amputees. The loss of legs was common amongst us – the end result of tropical ulcers and the many diseases stemming from malnutrition. Amputation – performed often with the crudest of instruments and without anaesthetic – was often a last resort to stop gangrene and save lives.

Through our work on the massage teams we were taking some preventive measures. But those who were beyond this form of help could only lie on their sleeping platforms, unable to move about.

In one of the huts a friendship developed between a cobbler and an engineer. The engineer had an inventive mind; the cobbler was adept with his hands. They took long walks together, animatedly discussing some project. Presently they were seen working with odd scraps of material.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.