Barb Wire- no Problem

We were in Kentucky for Christmas 2017.

A young man whom we had known from before was at the church service on Christmas. It was the first that anyone had seen him since his enlistment on October 19 in the Army and his deployment for basic training at Fort Leonard Woods in MO. He shared quite a lot about his experience there. It was intriguing to hear of the hardships that these guys are put through to turn them into educated, competent warriors. He is a bit older than his peers, being 22 and having been out of school and in a job for several years. His wisdom and maturity level allowed him to do really well during his training, receiving numerous citations for his leadership and competence. He was especially thrilled with the ending to a rather sad story of one of his co-trainees. This man had a brother who had died during the training. The military was extremely caring for this guy, providing him with transportation and time-off to attend the funeral. And David’s squad came together and raised over $2000 to give to this man as a gift. This act of comradery and kindness earned special recognition from the commander himself. His platoon of 60 trainees emerged as one of the best that this commander had ever trained.

However, there was one particular time during his training that this soldier felt like the spiritual winds were blowing against him. For several days he had just been unable to excel. He remembered that it was one month after he had left for training. He asked the leaders of the church if something had happened at the church during that time that might have caused the heaviness. During those heavy days he was undergoing weapons testing. He had a terrific headache and then needed to go the bathroom intensely. He just could not get his weapons training score high enough. He was only able to hit 22 of the 40 targets rather than the minimum 23. If he could not pass this, he was going to have to go through the whole training cycle again! It turns out that this short hiatus in excelling happened on November 19. Unbeknownst to him at the time, this was the exact date that his friend at the church had died of an accidental gunshot wound. The church members were reeling from the tragedy and many had expressed their wish that this man could have been there to lend his support. He was only learning about this from the conversation that night. It was almost eerie to see how his spirit must have been connected with that tragic deed across the intervening miles. God’s Spirit truly works in marvelous ways. Apparently, it is not restricted by the barb wire and perimeter fences surrounding a military camp!