Magyar Egyház, 1973 (52. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1973-03-01 / 3. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

9

Returnee: “No, not merely helped. I mean it when I say I could not have made it without God pulling me through.”

Chaplain Aronis said the former POW’s told of setting up worship services, organizing choirs and conducting Rible studies — often from memory — at most of the POW camps.

The most frequently used verses of Scripture, he said, were the 23rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd . . . Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me . . .”

Chaplain Aronis said the American prisoners had reconstructed whole sections of , Scripture out of their memories because of the lack of Bibles in many cases.

Other favorite passages, he said, were 1st Corinthians 13 and Romans 12. The latter emphasizes the unity of differing believers, the need for mutual loyalty and says: “Rejoice in your hope, he patient in tribulation . . . Bless those who persecute you.”

The widely known Corinthian passage starts out: “If 1 speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Chaplain Aronis said the “religious experience was so significant and so beneficial for some that two that I know of said they were glad they had the prison experience because of what they learned in terms of life, values and priorities.”

The chaplain added that he was amused by the way one man spoke of God’s presence, saying:

“The moment my feet touched down on North Vietnamese soil, God was standing next to me. He was three buildings tall, and the tip of his shoes came to my forehead and he said to me, ‘I’m going to he with you and I'm going to take care of you.’ ”

Chaplain Aronis added: “The stories just kept coming, not because I was pumping but because they just had to be told. It was the kind of spontaneous sharing of ‘Good News’ that is apparent in the New Testament.”

He said that when the ex-prisoners sat down for their first meal at the Subic Bay station, a Navy dietician observed that she had never seen so many people how their heads to say table grace.

Their prison experience made the men “so thankful to God that the thankfulness expressed itself in a spirit of courtesy, graciousness and thoughtfulness” that developed among them, the chaplain said.

He said their byword in the prison camps was “God bless you,” and that the greeting was used freely even among those who professed to be agnostics or atheists. It was also a phrase that fell repeatedly from the lips of the former prisoners as they reached home. “God bless you aU.”

A BUDDHIST WHO FOUND NEW FAITH

A 40-year-old former Buddhist from Thailand told members of the Goodyear Men for Christ Club how he converted to Christianity.

He said part of the reason was his inability to adjust to Buddhism, a religion held by nine percent of his fellow Thais.

Offering the testimony was Pat Svasti, a cousin of the King of Thailand and descendant of the king after whom the character in “The King and I” was patterned.

Svasti was in Akron visiting Goodyear headquarters and speaking to area church groups and the Christ Club, which meets after working hours.

The public relations manager for Goodyear in Bangkok said Svasti is starting a similar businessmen’s club. He became sold on Christianity — and was “led” to work with Goodyear — thanks to a “Back to the Bible” radio broadcast back home, he said.

“After listening to the program, I realized I was a great sinner. Then I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. I had been trying to find the truth and meaning of life — why we were bom in this world and how you achieve a real happiness.”

A missionary with the “Back to the Bible” program asked Svasti if he would be willing to testify about his experiences with Christianity.

But Svasti said he was unable to, because he was a policeman with the government at that time. “You are expected to be Buddhist when you work for the State. “You dont’t fight these things in the courts..The judge would be Buddhist, so you would get nowhere.

“The missionary prayed for me to find a way — and I got this job with Goodyear,” Svasti said with a smile. In his job with Goodyear Svasti gives news to radio stations and in his spare time produces religious programs for an FM station.

“I work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., then from 6 p.m. to midnight I work for Jesus Christ.

“It’s wonderful the way Christianity is sweeping into my country.”

His acceptance of the new faith stemmed partly from a professed “inability to follow the hundreds of rules required of Buddhists.”

“Even Buddha can’t save you. You have to follow the regulations. And if you can’t follow the paths by observing the regulations, you can’t ‘go back to God’ (reach Nirvana, the Buddhist concept of enlightenment for man),” Svasti said.

“It’s you who have to walk through the desert or storm and come to Nirvana,” he explained. “You have to endure these things. But I find I cannot get there by myself. I find Jesus Christ is the only carrier and savior who can take me to my destination.”