To all who pray for me & many who don’t think of it, but still care-

I’m making some adjustments in routine as Kim is now retired. Of course she is

making adjustments too. We plan to take a short trip this July, but nothing so

extensive as last summer.

M & M still come for Bible study. One of the M’s came to visit an outdoor

baptism at Stadium Village Church 2 weeks ago- another hopeful sign of a

conversation with God going on, and on, and we pray for a real (recognizably costly)

commitment.

One of the college women who live downstairs from us invited me to hear her

testimony at another occasion. I’ve attached hers and one of the other testimonies

from the SVC event. These testimonies are so encouraging to me and I hope to you as

well.

At Emmanuel Mennonite we’re involved in building evaluation, soon will be

involved in pastor search, and looking at our relationship (or possibly lack thereof)

with the neighborhood where we meet. What my role will turn out to be in all of this

still evolving.

Late June I took a personal retreat for a couple of days at Shalom Hills Farm (a

Lutheran retreat center) near Windom, MN just to think and get at some of my writing

that takes so long come together. Some of those results are at galileanfellows.org and

on facebook.com/galileanfellows, and I’ll attach that work as well for those of you

who like to read it.

I do find my energy levels to be less than in previous years, but all that I do have

is the Lord’s, and is offered to him.

Next week we'll begin a short "Canadian" vacation ending up in Philly and

Lancaster County to see relatives. We'll get a couple of days in Quebec City, which is

a place I've always wanted to visit and stay with a French/Canadian family we

contacted via someone in Montreal who is on the "Mennonite Your Way" list; so this

should prove to be something of a real adventure.

In Christ,

Philip Friesen

PS

In case you haven't recently seen my blog on facebook.com/galileanfellows or at

galileanfellows.org, below are my last couple of entries.

GETTING IT RIGHT: OBEDIENCE IN THE REAL WORLD

My last blog was on “Getting It Wrong” when reading a parable. This time I

write on“Getting It Right.” Sometimes we learn best by example, and here are two.

Conscientious Objector Wins Congressional Medal of Honor

Mennonites like me have traditionally refused to participate in war as a matter

of conscience, and this tradition was profoundly challenged during my college years

at a Christian school where I grew in my faith under the tutelage of a number of godly

veterans. Recently I learned a story that I believe will challenge every believer

regardless of one’s convictions on this issue.

On Saturday, May 5, 1945 the entire 77th Infantry Division of the United States

Army stood still at attention for 15 minutes while a young G.I. named Desmond Doss

quietly prayed. The final do or die assault on Hacksaw Ridge, a 400 foot precipice

crossing the island of Okinawa, was about to begin. The 77th army had come to relieve

the 96th Army that had been decimated by the defending Japanese army. On the march

the week previous they had seen truck after truck of dead bodies being returned home

while the accompanying naval fleet could be seen off shore being hit by waves of

kamikaze aircraft.

As of this date, May 5, the 77th army had already been thrown back three times

with heavy losses, and orders had come to take the ridge today at any cost, as the

entire army’s progress was being held up by the resistance at the top of Hacksaw

Ridge. In a quiet place Private Doss prayed. Doss was a conscientious objector who

served as the medic for his unit. As a Seventh Day Adventist, Doss had refused to

train or fight on any Saturday in addition to his refusal to carry a weapon. During

training he had been universally despised and abused, and virtually none of the

officers wanted him in their unit. According to a liter-bearer named Ralph Baker, “I

don’t think he had a friend.”

But Doss refused to accept a discharge, and in the end a call to his

Congressman from his own father assured his place in the army. After hostilities

began his comrades saw a different man than they had imagined Doss to be. His

courage and conviction that had enabled him to withstand ridicule and rejection from

his own side was now tested with live ammunition from the enemy, and the

infantrymen who had previously despised Desmond began to put their faith in this

man who, while refusing to carry a weapon, yet persistently went beyond the call of

duty in terms of acceptable risk in order to rescue anyone lying wounded on the

battlefield.

On this particular Saturday, Commander Jack Glover came to request Doss’

participation. Could Desmond compromise this one time to work on a Sabbath?

“Just give me 15 minutes to pray,’ was the response, and the request went quickly all

the way to division headquarters.

“Doss wants 15 minutes to pray.”

And immediately the response- “Request granted.”

So the world stood still and the entire army waited for Private Doss to pray.

Later Desmond reported it suddenly occurred to him that since Jesus healed on the

Sabbath, he, Desmond Doss could save lives on the Sabbath too, and so he agreed to

go to work. During this battle Desmond carried his wounded Commander, Jack

Glover, off the battlefield along with an estimated 75 others, all in one day’s work.

The army had estimated 100 rescues, but Desmond didn’t agree with that number; so

the report came in at 75.

On October 12, 1945 President Harry Truman awarded Desmond Doss the

Congressional Medal of Honor for bringing those 75 wounded soldiers off the

battlefield under heavy mortar and rifle fire during a 24 hour battle when Hacksaw

Ridge was taken. Nothing but the miraculous intervention of Almighty God can

possibly explain Desmond’s survival. While the Medal of Honor arrogantly ignored

the participation of Almighty God in the outcome, Doss did not. Desmond reported

that after each wounded man was let down by rope over the 400 foot ledge he had

prayed, “Lord, help me rescue one more man,” a prayer he repeated each of 75 times.

Later one Japanese soldier reported having had Doss in his rifle sights, but the weapon

had refused to fire. According to Captain Jack Glover, “From the beginning of his first

combat mission until the last one, he absolutely was fearless in regard to what was

going to happen to him. You can go back over medal of honor winners, and it’s

because of one absolute, instant decision, and Doss was a constant doing of something

that was so outstanding, not only once, but every time, and time, and time again.”

Desmond’s story for me crystallizes what it means to be in the world but not of

it, and the price required for doing this well. Desmond himself was hit a few days later

and spent the rest of his life as a disabled veteran. Clearly the One who controls all of

human destiny had called him to Hacksaw Ridge and revealed his glory, but what was

revealed was neither acknowledged nor even seen by the “powers that be.” Instead

they only knew to immortalize the man, and did not even acknowledge the Immortal

One whose Holy Spirit lived in Desmond Doss.

A documentary on Desmond Doss is available on DVD at Amazon.com called

The Conscientious Objector, and a web search for Desmond Doss will provide

multiple sites for learning his story.

On Eating and Drinking

In the June issue of Christianity Today, a friend from my church published an

article called “The Case for an Alcohol Free Life.” In this article she describes how

that while many Evangelicals today do not share the aversion to alcohol that a

previous generation experienced, she has become a total abstainer for the sake of her

ministry to a community where alcoholism is rampant and demonic. What I find so

fascinating is the fact that a generation ago, I made the opposite decision, but for

almost identically the same reason, when my witness was among a different group of

people.

In 1966 while on a flight to South America with a musical group from Wheaton

College, I drank only water when the other forty-nine of my fellow tee totaling

Wheaton students requested cokes with their dinner. The reason I chose water was the

panic I noticed on the faces of the people serving us as they ran out of cokes. All of us

had signed “the pledge” to not drink alcohol while enrolled at the school, and wine

normally came with the in flight dinner. I wondered whether the people who served us

would remember us to be an attractive Christian group or as just a strange nuisance.

Later in 1969 while on a short term teaching assignment I began performing

French horn and trumpet with the Nairobi Orchestra in Kenya (There were only two

of us on high brass in the city). At the first rehearsal a lanky bassoonist from England

walked up to me with hand outstretched and said, “I have made a vow that the first

French hornist who comes to Nairobi will enjoy champagne and dinner with me and

my wife at my house.” It wasn’t long before I had concluded that in this place with

these people, I not only needed to “eat what was set before me (1 Co. 10:27)” but also

to share a drink to avoid creating a social barrier to my witness.

My friend and I, each in a different situation, made an ethical choice

completely opposite from each other, but both for the same reason. Both sought to

build relationships in the most effective way for the maximum result in advancing the

work of God’s kingdom.

Effectively being the world, but not of it requires both knowledge of scripture

and reliance on the Holy Spirit. Still often we come up short. Sometimes trial and

error is the only way to learn the proper ethical response. Anabaptist tradition

includes congregational discernment. The assumption is that after all members have

prayerfully grappled with an issue and participated in the discussion, and then after a

reasonable consensus has emerged, only then can we claim, and still often tentatively,

to know the mind of Christ on an issue. I’ll have more on this next time.

“Then never let anyone criticize you for what you eat or drink, or about observance of annual festivals, New Moon or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what was coming: the reality is the body of Christ. Do not be cheated of your prize by anyone who chooses to grovel to angels and worship them, pinning every hope on visions received, vainly puffed up by a human way of thinking; such a person has no connection to the Head, by which the whole body, given all that it needs and held together by its joints and sinews, grows with the growth given by God.

If you have really died with Christ to the principles of this world, why do you still let rules dictate to you, as though you were still living in the world?—Do not pick up this, do not eat that, do not touch the other, and all about things which perish even while they are being used…” (Colossians 2:18-22 New Jerusalem Bible).