Uncle Alan is a great storyteller! One evening he was telling us about his time in the Navy. There were about fifty men in the platoon that had landed on the island of Panay in the Philippines near the town of Ilollo. They had orders to set up equipment for the transfer of troops and supplies between the ships and the shore.
While the men waited for the equipment they needed to start their work, they collected in small groups, trying to keep a little cool under whatever shade they could find. Alan was chatting with another Christian when they saw someone in the distance passing something out to all the sailors.
“I wonder what he’s doing,” Alan said to his friend.
Soon the young Filipino approached the two men. As he handed each of them a piece of printed paper, he looked up toward heaven with a happy smile and said, “Jesus is the only Saviour!”
On the paper was printed a hymn Alan had often sung in Sunday school at home in the United States, six thousand miles away:
Nothing, either great or small —
Nothing, sinner, no;
Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago.
REFRAIN:
“It is finished!” yes, indeed,
Finished every jot;
Sinner, this is all you need:
Tell me, is it not?
When He, from His lofty throne,
Stooped to do and die,
Everything was fully done:
Hearken to His cry —
Weary, working, burdened one,
Wherefore toil you so?
Cease your doing; all was done
Long, long ago.
Till to Jesus’ work you cling,
By a simple faith,
“Doing” is a deadly thing —
“Doing” ends in death.
Cast your deadly “doing” down —
Down at Jesus’ feet;
Stand “in Him,” “in Him” alone,
Gloriously complete.
Alan was really impressed with the sincerity of sixteen-year-old Camillo and with his heartfelt concern for the American sailors who had come to his land. He didn’t want any of them to go away without knowing the precious Saviour who had brought him from death to eternal life.
I wonder if you know Jesus as your Saviour and Friend. And I also wonder if those of us who do know Jesus as our Saviour and Friend are as eager as Camillo was to tell others of His saving grace and power.
Alan was so thankful to have received such a happy reminder of His loving Saviour in that faraway land, where many of the people were living on the edge of starvation. He asked Camillo, “Is there anything we can do for you?”
“Oh, if only I could have Bible,” Camillo answered.
“I’m afraid the only Bibles we have are in English,” Alan told him.
“That okay . . . I read English little bit,” said Camillo.
The following day when Alan and the others returned to the island from the ship, they were able to take about a dozen Bibles with them. Camillo was overjoyed.
ML-10/07/2007