Act in Haste!
March 2021
Seventy-eight years ago, four chaplains aboard a U.S. Army transport ship had to act in haste…not to save their own lives, but to sacrifice themselves for the saving of others. The SS Dorchester was a 368-foot coastal passenger steamship which had been requisitioned for shipping supplies during WWII. On February 3, 1943, she was sailing off the coast of Greenland along with two other supply ships when one of five torpedoes launched from a German U-Boat struck her broadside. She was sinking fast—and there were not enough lifejackets for every soul. Some would die that day in the ice-cold midnight waters of the Labrador Sea. The chaplains knew this, and thus guided men below deck to the lifeboats and handed out life jackets. When the supply ran out, they willingly gave away their own to four men who had none. They then linked arms, prayed, and sang hymns as the ship went down.
“I could hear men crying, pleading, praying, and swearing. I could also hear the chaplains preaching courage to the men. Their voices were probably the only things that kept me sane,” survivor William Bednar said in a 1997 interview with The Baltimore Sun.
My dear friends, the church has been struck by the ravaging rage of that Ancient Adversarial being bent on destruction (1 Pt.5:8). His heart is to disrupt all efforts of supplying Gospel-carrying missionaries to the unreached and untouched regions of this spiritually war-torn world (Rev.12:4). The “Great Apostasy” of the church in the final days has begun (2 Thes 2:3). She is sinking fast. Yet, in her falling away, there are yet many courageous, prayerful, hopeful soldiers committed to saving some and emboldening others (Rev.3:4). We must “guide men to the Lifeboat”—the Living Word—and herald 0000forth the message of Life—the Spoken word! We can preach courage to our missionary troops in the uttermost while we pray continually in the inner-close, but we must act in haste—for the saving of others.
Thank you for your courage! Thank you for your prayers!
Asking of Him (Ps. 2:8)
Rodney Myers
GFF General Director