Read Stories of Faith and Courage From World War II for Free Online Page B

how they may have felt, the people of Great Britain found the strength to behave courageously. Their faith sustained them during their darkest hour. In the same way, whenever we feel daunted by circumstances beyond our control, we should call upon God and move forward courageously in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.
    —Psalm 50:15

J ANUARY 30
    Faith of a Child
    Elizabeth Batten was five years old when World War II started and had vivid recollections that she shared with her daughter, Ellen. She saw the sky light up over Liverpool during the bombings and heard the sounds of aerial combat overhead. She spent hours and sometimes all night in a shelter under the stairs. She cried a lot and forever after had an aversion to small spaces. She consoled herself by sticking Bible verses and Sunday school pictures on the walls of the shelter. She took special comfort in a picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and the image of him watching over her and her family.
    In recent years Ellen Batten was leafing through her mother’s Bible and found a picture of her grandfather with an inscription on the back, “To Betty, lots of love, Daddy.” She thought about her mother’s prayers and how they were eventually answered when her father came home from the war. Her mother’s faith had sustained her through many difficult years. Ellen realized that her mother’s faith had also profoundly influenced her own spiritual life:
Today in a world ravaged by war and human rights abuse, many question the existence of God. However, I have come to share my mother’s quiet faith. Faith turned to constructive prayer and action, faith placed in a God of love and compassion surely can give strength in dark times. 43
    The key to Ellen’s faith, modeled after the faith of her mother, was that it was based not on what men do, but on who God is. It is a lesson that would serve all of us well to remember in every trial we face. The character and power of God is unchanging.
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
    —1 Corinthians 2:4–5

J ANUARY 31
    The Few
    The Battle of Britain was raging. Every resource of Fighter Command was engaged in defense against the attacking Luftwaffe. On August 20 Winston Churchill went before the House of Commons once more to inform and reassure his countrymen. In this speech he coined the phrase “the few” to refer to the fighter pilots of the RAF. The phrase would stick.
The great air battle which has been in progress over this Island for the last few weeks has recently attained a high intensity. It is too soon to attempt to assign limits either to its scale or to its duration. We must certainly expect that greater efforts will be made by the enemy than any he has so far put forth.
The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. 44
    We know from the outcome of this great struggle the effectiveness of a few good men. There are other examples of this phenomenon from previous wars. In biblical times, Gideon faced the army of Midian with thirty thousand of his own troops. God told him that he had too many men. Twenty thousand were dismissed, and, still, God told Gideon that he had too many men. Finally, three hundred were selected to battle the powerful Midianites. God did this to ensure that Israel would know that he had saved them, and not their military might. God also knew that a few good men could be more effective than a nervous horde.
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