ANZAC DAY. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU? Our son, John asked.

Australia and New Zealand Army Corps fought together in Gallipoli in1917. The five letters form ANZAC. Each year christian services, public marches, accompanied by brass bands are held in each capital city and many small towns of these two countries.

Early one morning in 1941, my bible reading from Matthew 25 struck me, ‘ I was hungry, and you gave Me food. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink. I was a stranger and you took Me in. I was naked and you clothed Me. I was in prison, and you visited Me.’ Then came the reply, ‘When did I see You a stranger, or naked, or in prison?’ The King answered, ‘Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren you did it unto Me. ‘ The truth gripped me. I read it. Over and over. That morning the BBC told of the bombing of Coventry, the first civilian city to be smashed. The Lord strongly urged me to join the army , enlisting in the medical forces. And so I did.

I was directly drafted into the second ninth Australian General Hospital, the only one formed in Adelaide,SA, and preparing for overseas duty. God’s timing was perfect.

Within weeks, we boarded the Mauritania, a blue-riband, four-funnel coal-burning ship part of a convoy of troops. A destroyer encircled the four ships, our unseen protection against the U-boats seeking prey. ‘The Lord was our Refuge and Strength.’

We were privileged to visit Sri Lanka, India, and live in Egypt, Israel and Papua New Guinea. The Lord showed us nations, cultures, peoples, vastly different from our’s.

I learned 25 years later how God protected our convoy as He threw a ‘miserable pea-soup fog around our ship’( so described by many complainers ) as the ‘Indrapoera ‘ ploughed through the Red Sea, when enemy planes vainly sought to wipe out our convoy. Truly, He was ‘A wall of fire round about you, and the Glory in the midst. ‘

My heavenly Father brought Norman Fabian to teach Old Testament in Egypt, while Scotty Grant in New Guinea became my Bible teacher. We grasped hours between ward duties. Both are with their Lord. Sixty years on, I treasure their faithful teaching.

Sadly, our chaplain in the Middle East, was not a faithful preacher of the cross.

While our hospital served in Nazareth, we climbed to a Scottish missionary Hospital where Dr Bathgate led the weekly Bible studies. My first view of Christian medical work greatly impacted my life. To reach it, we ascended mount Precipitation, where our Lord escaped angry men, after saying, ‘This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.’

During almost three years away from my loved ones, Gwenda faithfully wrote daily, on her old typewriter. We shared the blessing of God’s Word , and established a oneness based on the love of God. Many of my associates sadly received little mail.

Our troopship, ‘Strathallan’, was diverted from Java, after Singapore and Jakarta had fallen. We returned to Western Australia, and later to Adelaide, reforming for the islands. Later, the ship was sunk. Gwenda marvellously prepared for our wedding only four days after arrival . Blessed months preparing for separation in Papua New Guinea.

I watched the Televised Parade. This year only eight of the original 270 marched. Most had passed on. The Lord held back the tears, thanking Him for many beautiful lives, who had served Christ and their nation nobly. We shall reunite in the Rapture.

In New Guinea, we had 2000 patients under canvas., with gun shot wounds or tropical diseases , such as typhoid, Scrub Typhus with 600 patients, before Chloromycetin was available . I observed Black water fever, and malaria in varied forms, the dysenteries, gun-shot wounds, and psychological conditions. God trained me to love the suffering.

I nursed a South Australian 18 year old boy with Gas gangrene. An exhausted Surgeon examined him, commenting ’too late, too late’ as he threw the blankets back. I gave cool drinks, sips, sponging, comforting, praying until he slipped away into the Saviour’s arms as morning came. No serum was available, while penicillin was being flown across the Pacific. He is with Christ. The Lord showed me to lovingly treat every man, Chinese, Papuan, Indonesian ,Indian, Japanese, (Scotty and I preached Christ Jesus to these patients in our hospital with our Colonel’s warm agreement.) Every man and woman is made in the image of the living God. And needs Jesus‘ great salvation.

God later gave a faithful chaplain, who fearlessly preached the precious gospel. All respected his firm, humorous ‘Close the two-up school ( gambling with coins ): CH will not preach until every man off duty is there. ‘We sang. They came. He preached.

During my stay in Papua New Guinea, Gwenda gave birth to a beautiful daughter, Ruth. Photographs showed the development of this sweet child. Not easy!

I longed for home and dear ones. I rested in the Lord and waited patiently for Him.

The Coral Sea battle, where every Japanese ship was sunk, proved the turning point in the Pacific struggle. Eastern Australia was saved from invasion. Alone in the jungle, I pleaded, ‘ Why did you save my dear wife, baby daughter, mother from the invader? God called me to medicine and Netherlands East Indies ( now Indonesia ). I heard no audible voice, but received a strong compulsion. This call was realized after 12 years of preparation, as our family entered Java, the first Australian medical family post-war.

I was evacuated by hospital ship from Papua New Guinea with heat prostration, following river patrols, and necessitating long convalescence. My dear wife, unable because of war-time travel restraints to visit, supported me in constant prayer .

After the cessation of activities, God answered my boyhood prayer to do medicine. Gwenda cared for our children as I devoted my years to study. One of my deepest longings after the WW11, was fulfilled when rich and poor qualified for study at our Universities or Bible Colleges. Mercifully, our six children were so privileged in study.

When the war ended, bible colleges and theological colleges were filled mostly with ex-service personnel. Many returned as missionaries to Papua New Guinea, Borneo, Africa ( especially Sudan, Ethiopia, and Ghana), India and the Pacific, keeping promises made to the Lord that ‘they would return with the gospel.‘ God gave a missionary awakening.

War-trained pilots returned to Papua New Guinea , forming the Missionary aviation fellowship, or MAF , having seen the immense possibilities of converting several back-breaking days of slogging through mountainous trails into a flight of several minutes. For fifty years single-engined ( later twin) Cessnas penetrated those hidden valleys.

Following the WW11, gifted linguists entered Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya, challenged by the 700 intricate, complex languages, under the direction of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Exceedingly abundantly, God raised up specialists in these areas to give the message of the Saviour to these long-neglected tribes.

These, John, are my thoughts, as I relive the days of WW11, especially each Anzac Day. Great is the Lord. Greatly to be praised. His greatness is beyond understanding,