By Dennis Edwards:
Chapter 3: The Miracle and Prayer Answered!
A few days past and I still did not know what I would do about the draft. I knew my time was short and the FBI would soon find me in Marietta, as I was making no efforts to hide. At the end, I had decided to resist the draft and go to prison if need be. This is a stance which every young American youth could take; white, black, educated, uneducated, rich or poor. Therefore, I thought it was the most honest position, as it was open to every man and not just to the middle or upper class white boys who could find a deferment or escape to Canada or Sweden.
Two weeks after my mother´s call, I went for two days to Columbus, Ohio to attend a teacher´s convention. It was on the return to Marietta that I picked up the hitch hiking young couple on their way to Ellenville, New York. He was an American and she was from Mexican decent. They asked me what I believed. We soon got into a conversation with me sharing my philosophy of life developed from my four years at college and my search for the truth. Slowly, they began to talk to me about Jesus. At first, I remember thinking “Oh, no, I´ve got two Jehovah Witnesses.” But they were different. After a time talking, we stopped at a restaurant where I bowed my head and asked Jesus, if he really was the son of God, to come into my heart and life and show me.
Later as he drove further, Chris talked with me about the importance of the Holy Spirit. So, while driving my brother´s Volkswagen bug down the motor way, I prayed to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Only a few more miles up the road was where I needed to drop them off to start on my decent back to Marietta, about 100 miles south of Columbus, if memory holds. Chris talked with me further. He encouraged me that it was no coincidence that I had met them. Now, he questioned, was God calling me to discipleship? I was already used to doing things on the spur of the moment, so I decided to take them to Ellenville and see this community for myself. Could there really be young Christian disciples living for God?
What impressed me the most about Chris and his partner was that they were just as much against the war as I was. This was the first time I had met “Christians” against the war. I had spoken with Christian youth on the college campus. Those dedicated to Christ were usually always very pro American and therefore willing to support the war effort in some way. I even had a very close friend who had been a conscientious objector and had served as an army medic in Vietnam. But as much as he had tried, he could not convince me that CO was the most righteous or moral stand.
During my search for conscientious objector, I had also gone and spoken to both Catholic Priests and Protestant Ministers. They had always told me it was my Christian duty to obey the government and done the army uniform and perform my duty for God and country. I had already come to the decision from reading Tolstoy and others, including Mark Twain´s famous War Prayer[1] and the New Testament, that this pro war stance was a compromise and not in accordance with the words of Jesus. I had finally met some Christians who believed as I did about the war and now was going to see what made them tick.
Next Chapter 4: Ellenville Christian Community College
[1] http://www.ntua.gr/lurk/making/warprayer.html
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