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Themes: Value of a Soul A.H. The war was almost over- April, 1975. The enemy were coming down into Saigon. The Americans were being airlifted from the roof of the embassy in Saigon city. It was only a matter of time before the communist Viet Cong entered the city.
The soldiers knew that for them, there could be no mercy. They had fought their enemy for years in bitter combat and now they were about to be captured. Some tried to escape ; others tried to hide. All knew that the most precious thing they had was at stake - their lives.
A South Vietnamese soldier, Major Bung Lee, knew that he had to act in a hurry. Time was very short. It was now or never.
Let me stop here and ask you if you have ever shown as much concern about your eternal welfare as this man showed for his physical safety? Do you know that "Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of Salvation"
Bung Lee, his wife and five children crowded into a single seat Cesna 0-1 Bird Dog plane. It usually only held one person. Today there were seven. Lee didn't know where he was flying. He had to get away. As he lifted his plane, he flew through dense Viet Cong gun fire. Soon he was flying into dense fog. He headed his plane out to the South China Sea. His fuel was low but he had no other hope.
As he cleared the coast, he began searching for help. The fog broke and there below in the South China Sea was the USS Midway. Its flight deck was covered with copters which had been used to evacuate Saigon. Major Lee had no radio.
Lee wrote a note and tied it to a knife. He then circled over the carrier and dropped it, hoping to see it land on the deck. It missed and fell into the ocean. Another note was tied to a shoe and dropped. He missed again. A third note was dropped, tied to a key chain. Still no success.
He had only one thing left - his pistol. His only hope of safety. He gave it up when he tied it to the fourth note. This time the note found its target. "Can you move those helicopters aside so I can land. Please rescue me!"
The commander of the carrier, Lawrence Chambers, had to make a split second decision. There was no time to get the helicopters up into the air. He decided to throw them overboard to make room for the plane to land.
In only a few minutes, 10 million dollars in helicopters went overboard to make room for one plane with seven people. The skipper decided that a life was worth more than a helicopter.
God's love for us as sinners made Him give His very best, His Son, for us. John 3:16. If you were to gain everything and have everything in life, would it be worth it if you lost your soul? The skipper in our story thought that a human life was worth 10 million dollars. David the king would have traded the throne to have Absalom alive.
"What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? " Mark 8:36
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