Where did all the young men go...?

That is what the song asked about all the young men sent to Flander's Fields in the First World War.

From the excellent blog: http://hans-david.blogspot.com/2011/01/thou-shalt-not-kill.html

At the moment I am sitting in my house, waiting for the time to walk over to our church building, to conduct a funeral service for yet another young man.  And as I sat here, the news came in of yet another death. This morning at 04h00 a young man of 36 came back home after a farewell party. Somehow a car has driven over him and his motorcycle.

The memorial service I am conducting in 45 min time is for a young man, who has experienced severe fever two weekends ago. He was taken to hospital, and a bacterial infection was detected in his blood stream. He was healing quite beautifully. But this young man has suffered from epilepsy since youth. He had three extreme (Grand Mal) seizures, each one stopping his heart from beating. The last time it was fatal. He was just 18 years old.

Two weeks ago my son attended a birthday party at a school. While the 16 year olds were enjoying themselves, a young man of 19 also entered the premises. He had a drink to many, and jumped into the swimming pools shallow end, breaking his neck. Nobody noticed immediately, and paralyzed- he drowned in front of them. The children tried to get him out of the water and applied first aid till the ambulance arrived, but it was in vain.

We are living in a relatively small town in South Africa. At the moment the whole country is focusing on a High Court case involving the death of yet another of our young men, murdered by his stepfather, who also hired three Zimbabweans to rape the boys mother- his estranged wife. You can Google the Modimolle Monster to read more.

As a pastor in this community, all this death and hurt of people affects me deeply. It is extremely hard, like this morning, to bring messages of love, hope and peace in times like these. It is difficult living in a dangerous society where more young men are dying unnaturally than would be the case if we were a nation at war.

And yet- this is where the light of the world is needed most. This is where we are called to make a difference.  This is where we must love, where we must give compassion, where we must mourn with those who are mourning. It is just so hard to do sometimes...