You are listening to the Passion City Church, D.C. podcast.

To learn more about Passion City Church, including our gathering times in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., visit us online at passioncitychurch.com.

Today's talk comes from Pastor Ben Stewart.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7th, 1941, a shipyard worker named Desmond

Dawes was among the many young Americans who took it personal and wanted to do something

about it.

His only problem was he was the Seventh-day Adventist,

and it sworn to never take a human life.

So he enlisted as a medic,

and he headed into battle, resolved to carry no weapon whatsoever,

not even a combat knife.

But as his battalion ended the Pacific Theater,

they were charged with the nearly impossible

task of scaling a 400-foot-high cliff on the island of Okinawa and taking the summit from a deeply

embedded Japanese force.

And upon reaching the top, the men engaged in a fierce firefight that lasted several days.

And on May 5th, the enemy pounded

U.S. troops with artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire that engaged in an all-out assault

that wounded 75 American soldiers and drove the rest of them all the way back down to the base

of the cliff. And so when that evening arrived, the only soldiers remaining on top

were the wounded, Japanese forces, and little Desmond Dawes. And as the U.S. troops regrouped

on the ground below, they saw suddenly above them a wounded soldier appear over the face of the cliff.

...