Pleiku, Vietnam...Reaching across Conflicts

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As I read the Bible portion of the devotional today, I immediately think of my time in Pleiku, Vietnam, at the Leprosy Center.  In John 13:14, Jesus has just washed the feet of His disciples before the last supper and He says, "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet".  I think of the Leprosy Center because it was there that I watched day after day one leprosy patient who was a trained worker, wash and clean out ulcers of the feet of patients in the center.  And as I watched them, there was no disgust nor aversion in the work but they would talk and laugh together as they preformed this task.  As I have stated before, this foot wash room was foul smelling many times but this didn't seem to bother the workers.  The sweet attitudes of these workers would raise the spirit of the patients that were too ill to remain at home and needed to come to the center for treatment. 

One day around lunch time I was alone with the staff and patients at the Leprosy Center.  Remember, this center was outside of town.....quite a distance.  The South Vietnamese army had built anti tank trenches around the city of Pleiku to keep the North Vietnamese army from riding across the open fields to the town.  They could use the roads but nevertheless, there was a huge project to dig this trench to protect the city and our leprosy center was outside of the trench.  Now this did not make us feel any less secure...and only for a short time this one day did I feel any anxiety at being there with no vehicle and no way to get back to town.  But this particular day, the Vietnamese pharmacist came to me very afraid and said I must hide.  He said that there were North Vietnamese soldiers outside the center and he did not want anything to happen to me.  I went to a room and sat on the floor.  After some time when no one came into any of the rooms looking for me, I snuck to the window and looked out and saw 3 young men, clothing in tatters, and they were so thin.....like they were starving.  I saw the workers giving them rice and fish and water and then the soldiers left after about half an hour.  Everyone came in to where I was and explained that these soldiers were lost from their unit and had not eaten in several days.  That is why they had come to the center......they were so hungry and  needed someone to reach out to them....even though they were the enemy at this time.  

Oswald Chambers writes, "Ministering in everyday opportunities that surround us does not mean that we select our own surroundings— it means being God’s very special choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings which He has engineered for us. The very character we exhibit in our present surroundings is an indication of what we will be like in other surroundings......Jesus said, “I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you”."  The workers were kind and loving to these men who came for food.  They did not differentiate between sides in a conflict...they only saw people in need and extended kindness to them as Jesus did......their only fear was what would happen if I was found to be there......and this, thank God, was no real issue at all.