In the latter day there shall be …

By: Bill Johnson

In the latter day there shall be …..
2 Timothy 3:1-5

These are the latter days and remembrances pour in upon me as I consider the times.  Permit me to sorrow and share a few lamentations and prayerful thoughts.

One of my former Sunday School students from yester-year is in the U.S. Navy and the leader of a number of young men on a submarine. How I wonder how he’s doing in these day of Hamas bringing death to Israel and Israel rising up to retaliate before they lose their country?  My dear young friend.  Where is he now? Under the ocean?  Or at port?  Father God, protect him, I pray.

I never would have guessed that he would be in such a position at such a time as this.   My mind is racing today – covering a lot of ground.  My mind and heart is so unsettled.

As I think of war and the needless killings and barbarism taking place in Israel:  women, children, the elderly being taken hostage into Gaza; blood needlessly being shed, including beheadings.  I think of the crying out and the grieving that resides in the hearts of loved ones – husbands, wives, little boys and girls, grandmas and grandpas, brothers and sisters, friends.

I remember going to an anti-war rally along the river in Detroit in 1971 as the Vietnam War was peaking.  The controversy surrounding Vietnam: It was controversial to be anti-war; it was controversial to be in favor of war.  Societal angst, sorrows and sometimes differing points-of-view.

I think of my years when I was teaching in Berrien Springs, MI in the ‘70s and watching American civilians and military on rooftops in Saigon being airlifted by helicopters from tall hotel buildings desperately leaving the city as the Vietcong were at their heels.  A former high school girl friend was airlifted safely that day with her Vietnamese husband.

And how about the many times that I have been a part of organizations where I have led National Day of Prayer events first with the American Family Association of Michigan (1987-1999) and in most recent years with American Decency Association (1997-2023).  Praying for our military, our families, marriages, churches, for peace on earth – goodwill toward men.

Lastly, I recall receiving a telephone call in the in early spring of 1972 that my long-time neighbor, playmate, best friend Vern (Skipper) Dornan died in a top-secret mission during the Vietnam war.  Vern was a pilot in the United States Marine Corp.  As youngsters, Vern already had a love affair in a sense for airplanes as he loved to build model planes (while I preferred playing ball in our neighborhood yard).  I remember one time taking our plastic airplane models and “flying” them on a mission in the back forty and breaking through the wintry ice in the adjoining pond.  What memories!  Vern ever focused on passing the next challenging test (at Quantico and elsewhere) to not just fly helicopters (as demanding as that was) but to be a fighter pilot.  Vern, ever committed to his cause, paid the ultimate price for his country at the early age of 27.  Our family loved Vern and his family.  How could it be that that little boy, neighborhood friend, football teammate, would find his ultimate destination to be death in a fighter plane? Yet, knowing Vern, he would have had it no other way.

And, how can I forget the many football games that I would attend with my father, Robert J. Johnson (1923-2008) either at Spartan Stadium East Lansing or the University of Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor as we would stand together for the National Anthem on those often beautiful fall afternoons in September and October as the university bands would majestically play the Star Spangled Banner to packed houses of 100,000 plus audiences (at U of M) and I would see gentle tears rolling down my father’s cheeks. Dad was a World War II veteran having served in Germany.  I wonder what thoughts roiled in his mind while standing and singing so reverently?

Yes.  I am very attentive and troubled, heartsick for what I see happening around the world and particularly in Israel at this hour.  I am concerned for those unnamed people so far away as they didn’t ask to be embroiled in such barbarism.  Some have lost homes, cars, jobs, legs, arms, loved ones; multiple loved ones.  I am concerned.  But, I am concerned for our land as well.  I am concerned that what we are seeing there may be coming our way.

May God help prepare our hearts and our homes for what God has in mind for us.  As I consider my family, friends, church, staff, neighbors, I am a blessed man, but I do not want to be caught unawares.

Then, just as I was preparing to complete my lamentation, I receive this from an individual who writes this:

Knock, knock, knock.

It’s the scariest sound you’ll hear when you live in a communist country.

It’s the last sound my parents heard when their fathers were taken away.

It’s the sound of always living in fear, and it’s my family’s real-life story.

We escaped from Vietnam just days before Saigon fell to the communists, and we were given a new life in the most generous country on Earth.

America saved my life, and I dedicated my life to paying her back.

I graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served for 25 years in Navy Special Operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Pakistan and 40 other countries around the world.

I love this country – but right now, it’s taken a dark turn.

Now, the knocks are coming from Joe Biden’s Department of Justice. Sending two dozen armed agents to arrest a pro-life activist in front of his family. Raiding gun shops and seizing records from law-abiding gun owners. Arresting his challenger in the next election.

And he’s doing it all while real criminals are free to roam our streets.

We are losing our country. You know it. But you also know we can save it.

I’ve been all over the world. Believe me when I tell you, if America fails, there is nowhere else to go.

It’s time to save America while we still have a chance.

This final portion (above) was written by Hung Cao, retired Navy Captain.  He is running for U.S. Senate.   I was impressed with his bio found on the Internet. 

We each can only do what we can but what we can do let us do it with all our might – In Him.

 

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