Monday, June 13, 2005
NEVER TOO LATE
From: Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks by Wayne Rice
On June 8, 1972, a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl, her clothes flaming from gasoline bombs,fled the American-led assault on her village of Trang Bang. With her eyes screwed shut and her mouth spread wide in a scream of pain, she was captured on film in America's most remembered Vietnam wartime photo.
In Officer John Plummer's nightmares, this picture flashed huge, in black and white, to a sound track of children screaming. His order had directed bombers to shower Kim Phuc's village with the chemical explosives. For years, guilt over destroying and maiming the villagers haunted the officer. Women and alcohol were his escape of choice.
Twenty years after the destruction of the village, Officer Plummer asked Christ to take control of his life , unleashing God's ultimate power to end guilt. Although free from guilt, he carried inside himself scars somehow linked to the thick white scars on the neck, arm, and back of the now-grown Vietnamese girl. Six years later, Plummer knew he needed to find her. In an effort to meet her face to face, he tracked her down while she was visiting America.
Unlike the June 1972 event, no photographer captured the moment when Plummer explained to Kim Phuc who he was. But in the middle of a busy sidewalk, the soldier, now 49 years old, and the child, now 33 years old, embraced. "She just opened her arms to me," Plummer later said. "I fell into her arms sobbing. All I could say is, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"It's all right," she replied as she patted Plummer's back, "I forgive, I forgive."
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It is our Christian responsibility to seek forgiveness for the wrong we have done to God and to people we've hurt. With God, repenting of our sins and asking pardon for them is never too late. "If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we say, 'We have not sinned,'...His Word is not in us" (1 John 1: 9-10). For Jesus' sake let us ask forgiveness from our family and friends for the wrong we have done and pardon those who have asked forgiveness from us. Nothing you've ever done is too bad to ask forgiveness for. Saying sorry to those we have hurt and asking for forgiveness is never too late. - Shared by JoeGat
On June 8, 1972, a nine-year-old Vietnamese girl, her clothes flaming from gasoline bombs,fled the American-led assault on her village of Trang Bang. With her eyes screwed shut and her mouth spread wide in a scream of pain, she was captured on film in America's most remembered Vietnam wartime photo.
In Officer John Plummer's nightmares, this picture flashed huge, in black and white, to a sound track of children screaming. His order had directed bombers to shower Kim Phuc's village with the chemical explosives. For years, guilt over destroying and maiming the villagers haunted the officer. Women and alcohol were his escape of choice.
Twenty years after the destruction of the village, Officer Plummer asked Christ to take control of his life , unleashing God's ultimate power to end guilt. Although free from guilt, he carried inside himself scars somehow linked to the thick white scars on the neck, arm, and back of the now-grown Vietnamese girl. Six years later, Plummer knew he needed to find her. In an effort to meet her face to face, he tracked her down while she was visiting America.
Unlike the June 1972 event, no photographer captured the moment when Plummer explained to Kim Phuc who he was. But in the middle of a busy sidewalk, the soldier, now 49 years old, and the child, now 33 years old, embraced. "She just opened her arms to me," Plummer later said. "I fell into her arms sobbing. All I could say is, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"It's all right," she replied as she patted Plummer's back, "I forgive, I forgive."
-------
It is our Christian responsibility to seek forgiveness for the wrong we have done to God and to people we've hurt. With God, repenting of our sins and asking pardon for them is never too late. "If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing. If we say, 'We have not sinned,'...His Word is not in us" (1 John 1: 9-10). For Jesus' sake let us ask forgiveness from our family and friends for the wrong we have done and pardon those who have asked forgiveness from us. Nothing you've ever done is too bad to ask forgiveness for. Saying sorry to those we have hurt and asking for forgiveness is never too late. - Shared by JoeGat
# posted by F O O D F O R T H O U G H T @ 4:04 PM 
