30 Jan Over There
Read Isaiah 6:1-8
Have you ever stepped onto a military installation just weeks or days before its gates were closed for good? It is an eerie sight. The once-bustling Patrick Henry Village in Heidelberg, Germany was, at its peak, home to 16,000 American military families packed into just a few square miles of four-story apartment buildings. The constant traffic through the front gate, as people from other Kaserne’s crammed onto the base to use its commissary, kept the base at capacity at all times. The last time I was there, just months before it closed, the dark, empty buildings were surrounded by vacant parking lots and the traffic lights were no longer in operation. It looked like a ghost town.
I was there to visit veteran directors, Bishop Willie and Carolyn Courtney. Their nearly three decades in ministry to that military community were legendary. The bases in that area were all but shuttered by that time in late 2012 but the Courtney’s had stayed to ensure that there was ministry available for the few dozen families left to close down the base. They were resolved to stay until the end.
During that visit, I was reminded of a popular WWI patriotic song sung among the troops called, “Over There”. Songwriter, George Cohen, picked up a newspaper and read the headlines announcing that America would be sending troops overseas as part of the United States’ declaration of war against Germany. Cohen began humming a tune that morning as he read the article and later penned part of the lyrics:
“So prepare, say a prayer
Send the word, send the word to beware
We’ll be over there, we’re coming over
And we won’t come back ‘til it’s over, over there.”
Pastor Courtney and his wife, whom he affectionately nicknamed “Rosebud”, were staying in Heidelberg until it was over.
In Isaiah, Chapter 6, the Prophet overheard a conversation between the Triune Godhead in a visitation of Heaven’s throne room. “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
The man of God did not hesitate but blurted out, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah didn’t ask when he would go, how long he’d be gone, where the destination was, whether there was a salary involved, or any of the usual details. He was willing to go under any circumstances and stay as long as he was needed.
There are a few, but not many, who have made a nearly lifelong commitment to this ministry. Some went via orders from the Department of Defense but stayed upon the orders of the Lord. Precious saints like Owen and Kaye Martin in Gaeta, Italy, Willie and Carolyn Courtney in Heidelberg, Germany, among others, have given decades of their lives on the field simply because God called. They came back when the last ship left the port and when the last soldier was transferred off of the base.
There is no doubt that these couples endured countless crises, heartaches, uncertainties, wipe-out troop rotations and God only knows what else. However, they also went through the joys of being a stand-in Grandma and Grandpa to countless families as new babies were welcomed. They were the home away from home for lonely soldiers and sailors. They were fixtures of their communities and spiritual parents to innumerable military personnel and civilians.
We do not highlight their ministries merely to laud their achievements but as a catalyst to cry out to God for another generation of servants who are willing to go, to plant new works, to do whatever needs to be done to reach our nations military wherever they are stationed or deployed. Oh God, raise up people who are willing to say, “Send me!” May these people and this ministry of Freedom Outreach International be the ones who say, “We won’t come back ‘til it’s over, over there.”