Radical Obedience

. On one occasion, we were required to attend a commanding officer’s conference in Ondangwa. I had the most senior rank and so was required to be convoy commander. I ordered the drivers to cut the engines on our armored vehicles, removed my bush hat and asked all the men in the three vehicles to stand and allow me to pray. With a few grumbles, they did so. As I said amen a corporal came bounding out of the communications tent to say that we did not need to drive and that they were sending small plane to collect me and our commanding officer. We were all relieved. We had a small landing strip adjacent to the camp. No sooner had we disembarked when another signal came through saying the plane was not coming. We mounted the vehicles and as we reached the gate were informed of another possible plane. I knew the airstrip needed the engineers to sweep for landmines. So, we parked the vehicles and I sent the troops to the mess to get some food. Soon I heard a groan coming from the mess and found out that the plane was not coming after all. I asked the engineers to sweep the road instead of the airstrip so as to give us a head start on a safe surface. I distinctly felt that I should tell them to sweep the side of the road which they did, even though they considered it counterintuitive. We finished our brunch, climbed into the vehicles again and once again I had them cut the engines and stand as I prayed. I asked for God’s protection and as I said amen there was a huge blast from about half a mile down the road leading from the camp. Hurried radio exchanges followed and I saw the faces of the radio operators light up with amazement and relief. The engineers had discovered a double landmine planted the night before. One was planted on top of the other and connected with a cortzite fuse. Remarkably, they discovered it on the side of the road. We often drove there to be safe as the obvious place for landmines was on the track in the road where most vehicles would travel. It was too entrenched to safely defuse it and so the engineers had blown it up. It was meant for us and if the events of the morning had not gone the way they did we would certainly have detonated it. Immediately many of the young men declared that they always wanted to ride in my vehicle from that time forward. The care of a loving God was obvious to us all. A young lieutenant approached me one day asking that I support his application for compassionate leave. He had been assured that he could leave after several weeks of service, to attend his brother’s wedding. I went through all the normal welfare channels but to no avail. I was frustrated and he was desperate. It seemed as though no one was willing to help fulfil the assurance he had been given. I negotiated with our company commanding officer and he agreed to allow me to travel with the young man to the headquarters and try to work things out. As we made the long and uncomfortable journey it reminded me of a previous frustration I had with army welfare. A young soldier was beside himself worrying about his pregnant wife. He was certain that the baby should have been born but we had no contact from his home unit. I eventually accompanied him to the HQ and arranged for a reverse charge phone call. We were very remote, and these calls were hard to arrange. The sergeant setting up the call asked for the soldier’s name. When I told him, he began opening printed communiques that had been thrown into the garbage. He never found the document but nonchalantly informed the young soldier that he recalled receiving the message that his wife had given birth. I was incensed and informed the sergeant that he should put the call through at his expense and allow the young soldier to talk to his wife for as long as he wanted. The sergeant complied knowing that if I escalated the issue, he would most likely lose his rank. Now I was on my way again and wondered what new inefficiencies I would find. To my surprise my rank was sufficient, and it was not long before I had arranged a flight back to Pretoria for the young man to attend his brother’s wedding. I made the tedious journey in the armored vehicle back to base, thinking that was the end of the matter. From time to time, I joined the small units of soldiers on foot patrol. It was hot and the terrain was difficult. I had always decided that I would not carry a weapon, but I was prepared to carry extra water and radio equipment. The boys seemed happy to have me along. We never knew if or when we would walk into an ambush and we had lost several good young men in these engagements. On the second day, we found a shady tree and threw an antenna into the branches to gain radio contact with the base. To my surprise the commanding officer was on the radio and asked to speak to me. He was laughing his head off. He told me that I was in serious trouble and was on orders to appear before the sector commander as soon as possible. He was laughing because it was the first time he had ever heard of a chaplain being in this kind of trouble. I had no idea what I had done wrong. Again, I made the two-hour bone rattling journey to HQ and was marched into the colonel’s office. He was fuming. He went to great length to tell me (while sitting in an air-conditioned office) that he was fighting a war and how dare I take one of his officers away from the front and send him back to Pretoria. It took me a while to understand what he was getting at. He threatened me, told me that I had overstepped my rank, and he was considering referring this to higher authorities. I was never really a good military man and did not feel very intimidated by his bluff and bluster. Then I remembered my issue with the young man who was a danger to himself and his fellow soldiers because of the failure of the communications office to inform him of the birth of his child. I informed the colonel that I, too was fighting his war. In fact, I was seeing far more of the war including dead bodies and destructive landmines than he had ever seen. I explained that just the previous night our base had come under attack with several mortars destroying a part of it. I then went on to tell him of how I had to deal with the inefficiencies of his HQ and that it was no wonder that I took some things into my own hands. I remember thinking that I was probably on my way to a court martial! As I spoke the colonel became strangely quiet. When I finished, he reached across the desk, shook my hand and invited me to the officer’s mess for brunch. The matter was closed. My years of service were fruitful. Young lives were impacted by the love of God, families whose sons had been killed were comforted and the sacrifice, though hard and at times painful was worth it in terms of God’s Kingdom.