Soon to be Gone

I think today's post is such a lovely tribute to our veterans. I can say that because I didn't write it. :-)

Men and women from WWII are dying at a rapid rate. Korean and Vietnam vets are passing too. Those brave men and women who fought or assisted our troops, such as medical personnel, are seldom recognized as heroes, but they are. Without their sacrifices, we would not be the nation we have been. Yet, many of them are like my father was, silent on the subject of personal war experiences. There are many great stories that are lost daily. They need to be recorded before they are lost forever. Have you taken the time to sit down with a relative, neighbor or someone in a nursing home to listen to the personal experiences of that individual? Or to tell your own story for posterity? It's a great gift for your family.

This story is appropriately called "Soon to be Gone." It is written by by CPT. Stephen R. Ellison, M.D.

"I am a doctor specializing in the Emergency Departments of the only two military Level One-Trauma Centers, both in San Antonio, TX and they care for civilian Emergencies as well as military personnel. San Antonio has the largest military retiree population in the world living here. As a military doctor, I work long hours and the pay is less than glamorous. One tends to become jaded by the long hours, lack of sleep, food, family contact and the endless parade of human suffering passing before you. The arrival of another ambulance does not mean more pay, only more work. Most often, it is a victim from a motor vehicle crash.

"Often it is a person of dubious character who has been shot or stabbed. With our large military retiree population, it is often a nursing home patient. Even with my enlisted service and minimal combat experience in Panama, I have caught myself groaning when the ambulance brought in yet another sick, elderly person from one of the local retirement centers that cater to military retirees. I had not stopped to think of what citizens of this age group represented.

"I saw 'Saving Private Ryan.' I was touched deeply. Not so much by the carnage, but by the sacrifices of so many. I was touched most by the scene of the elderly survivor at the graveside, asking his wife if he'd been a good man. I realized that I had seen these same men and women coming through my Emergency Dept. and had not realized what magnificent sacrifices they had made. The things they did for me and everyone else that has lived on this planet since the end of that conflict are priceless.

"Situation permitting, I now try to ask my patients about their experiences. They would never bring up the subject without the inquiry. I have been privileged to an amazing array of experiences, recounted in the brief minutes allowed in an Emergency Dept. encounter. These experiences have revealed the incredible individuals I have had the honor of serving in a medical capacity, many on their last admission to the hospital."

To read the rest of the story and view the photos, click here. It's a good story.

The Auschwitz Album

I looked at a photograph album the other day with great sadness for all the innocent victims of the Holocaust. It is the only surviving photo album from the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. These are the last photos taken of many Jews who were "exterminated" upon their arrival. This horrific time in history is now denied by many to have ever happened. Mankind does not learn from history, thus he tends to repeat it. This atrocity should not be allowed to disappear from history books. It is not a fabrication.

THE AUSCHWITZ ALBUM

This Album memorializes the arrival of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz in May of 1944.

It is the only one of its kind, and it is solely due to this album that we have a visual history of what occurred in the Auschwitz-Birchenau death camp.

The album was discovered after the war by an Auschwitz survivor, Lily Jacob, who donated it to Yad Vashem in 1980.

Now, with the aid of the Internet, it can be viewed by millions of people, anywhere in the world.

Click here to view the Auschwitz Album

If you would like more information on Auschwitz, click here.

Adopted for Life

Albert Mohler wrote a beautiful story on his blog about the adoption of a young Haitian boy. The story will both bring you to tears and make you smile, as he uses it to illustrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Adopted for Life .... and in Death

Where Were You

Job has never been one of my favorite Bible books. I always found it very hard reading and Job's friends speeches incomprehensible. (Sorry, just being honest here.) But the last few chapters have always intrigued me. The ones where God asks Job, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

The next four chapters extol some of God's awesome power and majesty to a chastened Job. I have always found these chapters awesome, but never as much as when I read it today -- very slowly -- in the New American Standard Bible.

God's wisdom and power make my, or rather our puny problems appear inconsequential. Whatever the difficulty that needs to be resolved, God is able to handle it. He is omniscient and omnipotent and he does deliver His children.

We are fortunate to have the words of Job to encourage us to seek to know God as He actually is and not as we tend to want to embrace Him.

When God finished speaking, Job, thoroughly humbled, said, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You." What a blessing!

If you would like to read any or all of Job in the New American Standard Bible, click here.

Hammering A Toe

Now, that might sound like a strange title but it's very apropos for this post. Those of you who are still subscribed to this blog (which I call MAP) undoubtedly know it has been a long time since I posted regularly here. I have been busy with life and trying to build up another blog, Jan's Funny Farm, in order to find a means to survive financially. Plus, I've had a lot of excess stress since my mother died three years ago and I haven't felt prepared to post on this blog.

It stays on my mind that I want to continue it. But in what capacity? For some time I thought of posting a Bible verse a day, but I was so overwhelmed with things that have to be done I never got around to it. Then I made a decision to post something, anything until I could figure it out. So at 10:53 am on Friday, January 15th, I dived in and just posted an entire chapter, Matthew 1. I didn't think MAP had any readers left, so it didn't matter. It was a beginning.

Now, at this time I had a recovering cat and a sore toe, but both were improving. I fed the dogs about 6:30 pm, Buddy on one side and Sam & Merci on the other. Buddy (about 40 pounds) finished his food and suddenly leaped at Sam's dish. One foot landed squarely on my sore toe so hard I thought he'd broken it. I screamed! Still, they had to go for their after dinner walk. It was a short one! When we turned toward home, Sam (about 65 - 75 pounds) started barking at something across the street. I stopped to peer into the darkness. Sam, highly excited, leaped into the air while swinging his body around. When he does that, it just about knocks me down. This time he landed squarely on the painful toe. I screamed.

There were two more incidents at bedtime. There was a lot of screaming that night. And during the next week because the mishaps kept occurring and the infection set in around the toenail. My recovering cat took a sudden turn for the worse. By Wednesday, pain, exhaustion and a couple of other health issues crowded out all thoughts of MAP posts. (Imagine hitting your thumb nail with a hammer. And then again and again and ..... Pain would cloud your mind.)

In the early hours of Sunday, January 24, my cat died. Before I could get dressed and bury him, I knocked a large spray bottle off a table directly onto my toe. It burst the sac of infection. I screamed and cried. Yet the nightmare wasn't finished. There was another blow to the toe to come at bedtime. Were there more after that? I can't and don't want to remember!

Although MAP posts fell by the wayside through this, my faith in God has not. When I can't sleep for the pain, I try to remember the good things God has done for me -- for us -- and praise/thank Him for it. Going through a painful trial does not mean He has abandoned us or is any less deserving of praise. In fact, our praise/thanksgiving is more precious at such times. It's easy to be thankful when things are going well.

The last few days, Ephesians 6 has been running through my mind. So today as I was reading it, I decided to share it with you. Ephesians 6 is the "Armor of God" chapter. I've heard a few jokes recently about needing steel toed boots, but what I really need is the armor of God to protect me in my struggle "against principalities, against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

You can pooh-pooh this connection if you want or call it coincidence, but consider that I spent several days limping on a sore toe without incident and my cat was doing well. However, within a few hours of posting the first Bible chapter, things changed, and posting was soon neglected. Again.

I don't promise to post here daily, but I do intend to post more frequently. Even if only a Bible verse. Sometimes a Bible verse is all it takes to turn a cloudy day into a sunny one.

I know God does help us through the emotional pain of losing someone close to us, as well as through the pain of losing a beloved pet. And he also helps us through the physical pains of life, even when they seem overwhelming and God is silent. My toe is still painful and ugly but I am hopeful it will heal soon.