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RENDEZVOUS

Of Carpet Pool & Sherman Tanks

Jim Carlson, Lone Rock Bible Church

In his riveting book Citizen Soldiers, Stephen Ambrose offers convincing evidence that "Yankee ingenuity" made a critical difference in our victory over Hitler’s forces in World War II. He noted that, while the Germans tended to abandon damaged armored vehicles, American GIs hove to in ‘round-the-clock shifts to recover and repair disabled US equipment. "Nearly all this work was done as if the crews were back in the States, rebuilding damaged cars and trucks—that is, the men on the shop floor made their own decisions, got our their tools, and got after the job."

Ambrose quotes one officer’s impression: "I began to realize something about the American Army I had never thought possible before. Although it is highly regimented and bureaucratic under garrison conditions, when the Army gets in the field, it relaxes and the individual initiative comes forward and does what has to be done. This type of flexibility was one of the great strengths of the American Army in World War II." This quality was exemplified by one Sergeant Curtis Culin, a cab driver from Chicago, who was responsible for fabricating a plow-ram device which, when fitted to the front of a Sherman tank, enabled the tank to break through the enemy’s tough hedgerow defenses on the plains of Belgium.

The capacity to be creative, however, was not born from the necessities of the battlefield. The Bible teaches that, in all creation, only people bear the image of God in our souls. Genesis 1:26-27 emphasizes this distinction and, while theologians for centuries have pondered all the implications of being created in God’s image, our capacity to create in order to overcome is surely evidence of that special endowment. Scripture reveals that the uniqueness of mankind was bestowed by our Creator, not developed by happenstance.

So, I think it’s exciting to report what the Head of the Church is doing through the soldiers He’s placed on this front. From the God-given ingenuity of mechanics and carpenters and their inventions, to the recreational creativity that brought us carpet pool and human foosball, to the cross-culturally effective Pathwalkers program, the Lord has surely prepared this Mission "for such a time as this" (Esther 4:14).

Steve Fawcett rightly observed that the Lord long ago put the perfect soil composition on the Utmost ground in the wake of Noah’s flood, anticipating the camp ministry. True also, with the people He’s provided. May their tribe increase!