Around the World in 88 Years -E Book - Arthur Burt

Their only training was just to get them used to shedding blood.The army would take enlisted boys of 14, 15 and 16. And they’dpin to the ground an enemy captive, one of the guerillas. They’dcapture these men, pin them to the ground and see how manytimes these boys could stab them without killing them – that theymight get used to shedding blood. That was all the military trainingthey got.They put them in uniform to fill their egos. And the war was onlyat night-time. I watched the trucks go out at night filled withthese young boys. They come back in the morning – legs blownoff, arms burned, blasted, booby-trapped, perhaps blinded. Andthese kids were taken to hospital.I visited the hospital. And through an interpreter, I talked to theselads who were lying there. All they had would be a bandagearound an amputated leg. They had no crutches, they had noartificial limbs. They’d just lay there, lads of 15, 16. I said to them,“Well, look at life now. There’s half your body blown off.” AndI talked to them about Jesus.When reality invades your doorstep and death looms near, all ofa sudden, the desire for liberty becomes intense and life becomesvery, very precious. This is the world we live in. So desperatelydo we need the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!PersecutionI felt there was a good response, in the military academy and theother places in El Salvador. People were hungry, hungry for God.Wherever you’ve persecution, it quickens people.Mind you, it wasn’t any better in Cuba when I have visited. Thepastor had taps that didn’t work, toilets that didn’t flush. I had towash in a bucket of water. And they seemed to have got reconciledto that kind of life.I eased off in Cuba because I realized that the man who wasresponsible for my being there is there all the time. And they’dthreaten to kill him. It’s okay for me to go for two or three daysand shout my head off. But then I’d leave him to clean up themess and maybe get shot in the process.210