After being blessed by reading the article of Kurt Dering’s experience in the November 2014 Issue of the Reformation Messenger, I would like to relate a similar experience.
Way back in World War II, when I was fifteen years of age, I would have been called up to serve the army, navy, or air force in the cause of the Allied Forces. This I did not desire.
However, I was a member of the civil defense, being a messenger in air raids, but I refused to kill in any way, even though I was not a member of the International Missionary Society at the time. In the church I attended at that time, I was taught the commandment that one “shall not kill.”
So I volunteered for a civilian position in the merchant navy, and was posted on a trade ship taking Canadian soldiers to Holland. The mission was urgent and if not done soon, most of the Dutch people would have died of starvation. While crossing the sea I went below to talk to the Canadians when a great noise came, which I maintain was a sea mine but it did not explode. The Canadians were able to proceed to Holland to liberate the Dutch people.
My next assignment was on a British Hospital ship assigned to the U.S. Navy Base Hospital, making orange juice for the wounded American, Canadian, French and German soldiers. They were afflicted with terrible injuries. I was instructed by the ship’s office to conduct the stretcher bearers to the cabins. These very young men were from about seventeen years of age and onwards. These came to me for direction. This has been on my mind ever since.
Why all this maiming and killing? Many died on the way back to England. This is one reason I count it a privilege to be a member of the IMS, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Reform Movement.
Being young at the time, it has been etched on my mind ever since.
Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself. And no more war, as with Brother Dering. Thou shalt not kill. Amen and Amen.
Ernie Gale
New Zealand