The Lamp On The Battlefield : a short story for kids by Alfred

 Once upon a time in a world unlike our own, a war broke out between two nations: the nation of Toma and the nation of Chu.

The war was in its second year. It was a war that had claimed millions. A war which looked like it had no end, not unless one nation completely wipes out the other.

The impact of the war was greatly felt by the non – military citizens of both sides. They had both lost loved ones on the battlefield and the economic situation of both nations was getting worse. The longer the fighting continued the worse the economy got.

Among the non-military citizen of Toma was one Miss. Rebecca Andrews. She was a beautiful independent prominent female doctor with blonde shoulder – length hair, deep blue eyes, a tomboyish nature, a large heart, an open but intelligent mind and she was also a devout follower of Christ.

Rebecca had always had a reputation as a woman with a big heart long before the war began. She had fed the hungry, given to the needy and visited prisons to give inmates free bibles and preach the gospel of Jesus to them - all with her own money. She wasn’t head of a ministry or working for a ministry when she did these things. She just did them because her heart won’t let her do anything else.

She ended up working as the head military doctor on the battlefield. She was in charge of bringing in patients from the battle field and also directing of affairs at the military medical camp for the soldiers of Toma who got injured on the battlefield.

Rebecca got information on where was safe to go and pick up wounded Toma soldiers from a military correspondence who was the link from Toma’s Secretary of Defense to the Toman military medical camp on the battle field which Rebecca was in charge of. The Secretary of Defense was up to date on everything on the battlefield and he was in charge of creating the strategies the soldiers of Toma would use throughout the war.

One evening the correspondent called Rebecca and told her the area of the battlefield was safe for her and her team to go pick up wounded Toma soldiers.

Minutes later, as Rebecca walked around that area of the battlefield while her team members carried stretchers of wounded Toman soldiers off the battlefield. Just then a half dead Chu soldier called out to her. She had seen him before but mistaken him for dead. Now, Rebecca was too important to be lost in the war so the Toman military correspondence never told her to go anywhere he taught even one Chu soldier could be found alive. Whoever checked out that area of the battlefield for safety must have slipped and ended up passing on inaccurate information to the correspondence who in turn passed it to her.

“Don’t move or I will shoot”, Rebecca shouted trying to ignore her fears as the pistol she just drew rattled in her trembling hands.

Her medial crew gathered around, they were astonished and unpleasantly confused.

Rebecca looked into the dying man’s eyes.

“Please help me”, the half dead Chu soldier said.

Rebecca didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to do but it was clear that if this man is dangerous he wasn’t dangerous right now. He didn’t have enough life in him to even imagine himself standing up much less let them find out if it was dangerous or not. It was clear however that the longer she stood there contemplating whether to help him or not, the shorter the chances of her being able to help him grow. It was also clear that the longer she stood there, the longer she delayed the conveyance of her own people – the wounded Toman soldiers from the battlefield to the medical camp.

Rebecca hated being confused, especially when a deadline seemed to be closing in - pressing her closely together. Just then it hit her. Eureka! That’s it, why didn’t she think of that earlier. Anytime Rebecca had a difficult choice to make she simply asked herself one question “What would God want me to do?”

The answer to that question was what she did no matter how impractical no matter how silly it may seem, even if she didn’t understand it that is what she did.

God loves everybody. He sent his own son to die on the cross just so he can save everybody in the world. No matter their race, gender, creed or situation; God loves everybody and the death of Jesus on the cross didn’t exempt anyone from the privilege of obtaining salvation.

That settled it then. She was going to help that man – she was going to help an enemy solider. Rebecca’s team hesitated but Rebecca was their boss besides something in them made them want to help the man. They tentatively put him on a stretcher and carried him into one of the medical vans they had brought. That day marked the beginning of something new inside Rebecca’s heart.

Rebecca and her team began to help everybody irrespective of nationality: enemy soldier or fellow countrymen soldiers.

The soldiers from her own nation (Toma) were not happy they were begin treated (of wounds, fractures and all other things that makes a solider from the battlefield seek medical assistance), under the same roof with the people who put them on their death bed. There were a few isolated cases of somewhat violent rebellions to protest against the enemy being treated under Toma roof on Toma war funds. At that time there was now about 20 enemy soldiers receiving treatment in the camp.

Word got to the secretary of defense and for the 1st time he contacted Rebecca himself. He called her on her cell phone. The conversation was terse, raw ... short. Matter of fact it wasn’t even a conversation. In a conversation the parties involved have to hear each other out but in this case it was just making an order. Like a customer in a restaurant orders for a particular food to be brought to him, the secretary of defense ordered Rebecca to stop compromising the war plans. She should stop treating the enemy in a Toman medical camp. He told her that she was being a traitor by helping the enemy. She was undoing what soldiers from her country where doing. She might as well be raising the enemy soldiers from the dead, given them guns, and then saying to them, ‘Continue where you left off’. She was basically fighting for the enemy in his eyes.

The secretary of defense did not want to relive Rebecca of her duties because both the Toman soldiers and the medical personnel where already attached to her. As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for her feeding and treating the enemy thing, she was a sure bet for an award.

The stress and pressure from the secretary of defense made Rebecca want to reconsider but she heard the voice of God telling her to specifically stay on course and continue what she was doing but she was now to enforce mandatory Bible studies, everyday in the camp. Bible studies which everyone in her camp would attend: Tomas and Chus together.

Initially she had kept Chu soldiers in separate tents from Toman soldiers. To avoid patients stabbing their roommates to death at night but now God was suggesting something different. Even though what God was suggesting seemed crazy, Rebecca knew it was the best thing to do, and with time the soldiers from both nations started getting along really well. It turned out that when a soldier got to know a soldier from another nation, he actually got to see they had a lot in common.

As you could imagine, this created problems on the battlefield because Toman soldiers who had recovered thanks to Rebecca’s medical camp felt awkward when being told to shoot and kill Chu soldiers on the battlefield when they had close friends that were Chu soldiers at the Rebecca’s medical camp.

This seriously confused the soldiers.

One greatly major thing that happened in that camp concerned a Chu soldier who was treated and catered for for 3 weeks on Rebecca’s camp before he ran away to rejoin his Chu soldiers. The big thing was, that man was the chief commander of the Chu army. This angered the Toman secretary of state greatly. What point is there is fighting a war if when you finally knock down a high ranking commander of legendary status, you end up nursing his wounds. I mean what was the point of the war in the 1st place, wasn’t it to kill him and those like him. The Toman secretary of defense started making moves to pull Rebecca out of the battlefield.

The Chu commander that escaped was practically in charge to the war. He was the highest Chu military personnel on the battlefield and hero to his people thanks to his success in past wars.

The Chu commander knew he now owed his life to Rebecca – he knew he owed his life to a Toman. How then could he see Toman’s as the enemy?

Although he didn’t stop his soldiers from fighting which would have resulted in being canned by the President of Chu, he however started treating the prisoners of war like human beings. Surprisingly, the Chu soldiers seemed to like it. If he didn’t know any better he would think that they loved the Toman soldiers. Geez, who was he kidding, this war was turning into something else and no matter what anyone thinks he knew it was because of Rebecca.

Now something else really started to take a toll on things and it was in letters – the letters soldiers sent home to their family. It resulted in wives of Chu soldiers sending thank you letters to Rebecca’s camp for saving their husbands lives. Rebecca soon became the most popular topic of discussion in both warring nations. She was the only one both nations liked and she got nick-named “The Lamp in the Battlefield”, by the wife of the Chu President in a public speech.

The Toman secretary of state was furious. He ordered Rebecca be executed on the camp for treason. Word of it spread and on the day of her execution, civilians and soldiers from both nations journeyed to the camp to protest against her execution – they all journeyed to the lamp in the battlefield. Among those who came was the wife of the Chu president. She came against her husband’s wishes.

With millions of people gathered against Rebecca’s execution who were sure to resort to violence if anyone dreamt of touching as much as a strand of hair on Rebecca, it became clear that its best they never ever dream of executing her.

The event did accomplish one thing: Tomans and Chus were gathered together in one place and standing for one course with nobody fighting. All those who were supposed to be shooting someone else at that moment in the name of war was there to protest with guns in hand against Rebecca’s execution including the Chu commander whose live she had saved.

This was a divine set up. The crowd wanted Rebecca to give a speech, and after an improvised stage was set up and a P.A system was set up, the Holy Ghost’s presence was made manifest in her and she could feel the anointing burning strong with her.

Rebecca spoke with wisdom and power. She asked them how many of them liked a least someone from another nation? She asked if war even had the potential of solving any problem? She asked if they liked the blood of someone else being on their hands and call it patriotism – fighting for their country? She asked if they couldn’t resolve their problems through a peaceful means -negotiating across a table like civilized human beings perhaps? She asked if any man born of a woman truly had the right to take away somebody else’s life? She asked them if when they look at the faces beside them, they don’t see themselves – people just like them. They may be of different nations but aren’t they still like them – sharing their feelings, fears, wants and more? Lastly, she asked if they would all like to receive Jesus Christ into their hearts.

That speech went down in history as the greatest speech ever made. It was a speech at the end of which every soldier dropped their guns then started crying and hugging each other.

This was the 1st time in history a war ended not because of some politicians politicking or one side winning the war, but by soldiers standing up and plainly refusing to fight out of common sense. It was the common sense that war has never made sense and never will.

A peace treaty had to be signed; issues were resolved across a table and not on a battlefield. The people of both nations now had the platform to live happily ever after. Thanks be to Jesus.

THE END