Larkin Spivey - Stories of Faith and Courage from World War ll

Battlefields and Blessings Series

Stories of Faith and Courage from World War II

Larkin Spivey

Stories of Faith and Courage from World War II

2009 by Larkin Spivey

www.larkinspivey.com

Published by God and Country Press (an imprint of AMG Publishers)

6815 Shallowford Rd.

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37421

Published in association with the literary agency of Credo Communications, LLC., (www.credocommunications.net).

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in printed reviews, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (printed, written, photocopied, visual electronic, audio, or otherwise) without the prior permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ( KJV ) are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

Quotes from An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson. Copyright 2002 by Rick Atkinson. Reprinted by permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC

Quotes from Battlefield Chaplains: Catholic Priests in World War II, by Donald F. Crosby, published by the University Press of Kansas 1994. www.kansaspress.ku.edu. Used by permission of the publisher.

Excerpts on pages 41, 57, 198, 2067 from Evidence Not Seen: A Womans Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II by Darlene Deibler Rose. Copyright 1988 by Darlene Rose. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Quotes reprinted from Grace Under Fire by Andrew Carroll. Copyright 2007 by Andrew Carroll. Used by permission of WaterBrook Press, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.

Print ISBN: 978-0-89957040-2

ePub ISBN: 978-1-61715-010-4

Mobi ISBN: 978-1-61715-039-5

First printing April 2009

Cover designed by Meyers Design, Houston, Texas

Interior design and typesetting by Reider Publishing Services, West Hollywood, California

Edited and Proofread by Jocelyn Green, Dan Penwell, Rick Steele, and Rich Cairnes

____________________

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BATTLEFIELDS AND BLESSINGS and GOD AND COUNTRY PRESS are registered trademarks of AMG Publishers.

www.battlefieldsandblessings.com

I am grateful to Jocelyn Green for her many contributions to this book. Jocelyn is a respected freelance writer, editor, and author of Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives. In addition to her thoroughly professional editing work, she has written a number of daily devotionals in this book herself, each designated on the last line with her initials: (JG).

I wish to express gratitude to my agent, David Sanford, for his encouragement and for creating the opportunity for me to write this book. I am also thankful to Dan Penwell of AMG Publishers for the genius behind the Battlefields & Blessings series and for his confidence in me to be a part of it.

I especially acknowledge the great contribution of CatherineAlexa Rountree, who has been a faithful research assistant throughout this project and is responsible for much of the material from which its stories are derived. In addition to her many amazing qualities, she is also my loving daughter.

I thank the members of the clergy who have provided their expertise and guidance: the Reverends Robert Sturdy, Aubrey Floyd, and Carol Dickerson.

I appreciate the wisdom and advice given daily by my wife, Lani. Her insights have added immeasurably to the spiritual content of this book. She has been my loving partner in this project, as in every other aspect of our marriage.

Finally, I acknowledge my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whom I came to know late in my life, and who changed my life eternally. My career as a writer and speaker has had one goal: to glorify him. While writing this book I have prayed constantly for his guidance and inspiration. Although I cant positively assert that he has always provided these things, I can assure the reader that I could never have completed three hundred and sixtyfive daily devotionals on my own.

Writing this book has been a privilege and a blessing. I have deep family roots in World War II and have always revered the Greatest Generation who endured and won that great conflict. I grew up building models of ships and airplanes from that era and listening to my own father tell of convoy duty in the Battle of the Atlantic.

My previous books have been about Gods providential hand in Americas past, when the nations survival was at stake. World War II was clearly one of those times. Victory may seem inevitable now, in retrospect, but history reveals dark days for America and her allies, especially during the early years of that war, when the forces of Germany and Japan were advancing triumphantly around the globe. With obsolete equipment and meager numbers, British and U.S. military forces needed many miracles to survive and slowly turn the tide of the war. God did indeed bless these nations during their darkest hours.

I want to assure the reader that I am not suggesting that God causes or even looks favorably on war. I emphasize my belief that this in not the case. Human nature seems to be the completely adequate explanation for conflict between individuals and nations. I believe that God is disappointed when wars occur and does not take sides in such conflicts. I do believe, however, that God has an agenda and can use any human event or condition to further it. I believe that one of his important agendas for mankind has been human freedom, and that this was the basis for his favor of the American and Allied cause during World War II.

As a Christian and one who has fought in war, I condemn it. However, as a wise man said, They are dead who have seen the end of war. I have to believe that there are things worth fighting for, and that there are times when God blesses those who do. I admit that my attitudes are colored by my own career in military service. One of my reference works as a young officer made the following statement that I believe is true today:

One may abhor war fully, despise militarism absolutely, deplore all the impulses in human nature which make armed force necessary, and still agree that for the world as we know it, the main hope is that peace loving nations can be made obviously capable of defeating nations which are willing to wage aggressive war.

These words come not from a warrior, but from the great intellectual and pacifist Bertrand Russell.