I was at this visit by Ravi to Quantico that KJ writes about here:
reflection on Ravi from RZIM staff member and TEDS alumnus KJ Johnson Ravi Zacharias is, in large part, the reason I found myself in a TEDS classroom on Aug. 22, 2012. I'd just retired after twenty years of active duty service as an officer in the Marine Corps, and most of the class was […]
www.tiu.edu
I didn't realize he had read this and wrote this to some friends earlier today about Ravi:
I'm not much of a person who keeps up with all the Evangelical celebs. About 11 years ago, Ravi was in the DC area and some local Marines at Quantico managed to get him to divert for two hours and come down toe Little Hall in Quantico and speak to Marines and others present.
I was enthralled by his stories and his presentation.
I remember him telling the story of one of his interpreters when Ravi served as an Evangelist with soldiers during Vietname. After Saigon fell, the translator was imprisoned by the Viet Cong. Day in and day out he was told that his Christian faith was a lie and he was subjected to torture. After one particularly bad day he told God: "That's it. Today is the last day I'm going to pray for you."
He was assigned that day to latrine duty and in the process of cleaning, he found a piece of paper amid the dung. He hadn't seen paper for some time so he quickly cleaned it as best he could and stuffed it in his pocket.
He later returned to his cell and opened up the paper he had stuffed in his pocket. It was a page from the Bible. On it were the words of Paul from Romans 8: "...God works out all things for the good for those who love Him, for the called according to His purpose..."
He began to weep. God had not even let the night fall before that man broke his promise that he would no longer pray to Him.
The young man volunteered for latrine duty every day thereafter. Turns out the Camp Commander was using the New Testament as toilet paper and this Christian was able to recover many pages of the New Testament to keep him company.
Those are the kinds of stories I loved from Ravi. I listened to his podcast from that day on. He could be a bit repetitive but he was a kind and intelligent defender of the Christian faith I believe his test of a worldview based on Origin, Meaning, Morality, and Destiny to be a great paradigm for helping organize an apologetic witness.
