From a testimony of a dear brother in Christ, concerning his time in national service, during square bashing ...
There was one incident at the
end of the six weeks training that I was there for. We had had six very hard
weeks of marching and exercise and doing all those things we had to do to
become a soldier first before we got back to our trade. Towards the end of the
six weeks was over and everybody was so relieved, they were doing silly things,
throwing things about the billet, having pillow fights and spraying people with
a stirrup pump hose as they came in the door. One young fellow, fellow from
London, I can still see him now. He was only a young, quite a small
insignificant lad, he had got the hose, and somebody opened the door and he let
them have it. He sprayed him with water, and it turned out to be the orderly
sergeant!
To say he wasn't pleased was to
put it very mildly. I can see him, he got him by the collar and he said “Lad I
am going to teach you a lesson you will never forget.” He said” I am going to
take you down the gymnasium, we are going to put boxing gloves on, and I am
going to give you a beating you won't forget. The lad was terrified. He literally was frightened, shaking he was.
My friend John, the Christian lad came up, put himself between the sergeant and
the little lad, and he said “ Sergeant , If you want to beat somebody pick
somebody your own size I will come down and stand in his place.” He said I don’t care you are all as bad as each other."
So he took this lad , they went
down the gymnasium. John came back with
black eyes, nose bleeding, tooth missing. All the lads in the billet crowded
round him, and said” why on earth did you do that?”
And it was one of the most
poinent Gospel messages I think I have ever heard. He preached the gospel to
them and said somebody did something far, far more than that for me 2000 years
ago. And he told the billet, all the men and they gathered round him and he
preached that gospel to them and it was wonderful.
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