Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton was...
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Rear Admiral Jeremiah Denton was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. For many
months he was confined in a harsh prison where inmates were forbidden all
communication with each other. It was in that bleak and dreadful place that Denton
learned the power of the cross and also how far-reaching is the shadow it casts.
In solitary confinement, the prisoners were forbidden to practice their religious faith in any way. Denton had a small bamboo cross, made for him by a fellow prisoner, that meant a lot to him. He kept it hidden inside a communist propaganda pamphlet, along with a list of his fellow prisoners. Each night, he would hold the cross in his hand as he prayed.
One day, he was ordered out of his cell while a guard searched it. Denton soon realized, from the guard's grunt of triumph, that he had found the bamboo cross. Emerging from the cell, the guard glared at him, while tearing the cross into small pieces and casting them into an open sewer.
Meanwhile, a North Vietnamese construction crew was ordered into Denton's cell to do some work. A half-hour later, he was allowed back in. Denton continues the story in his own words: "Immediately I reached under the pallet and found the pamphlet. The list of prisoners was gone. Still angry, I began tearing the pamphlet apart. Then I felt a bulge among the pages. There was a cross. A new one, carefully and beautifully woven from the straw strands of a broom. Obviously, the work crew had made it. I shuddered at the thought of the punishment they would have suffered had they been caught." Denton realized, then, that he had Christian brothers, even in that frightening place. As he prayed with the new cross in his hands, it gave him even greater spiritual strength.
In solitary confinement, the prisoners were forbidden to practice their religious faith in any way. Denton had a small bamboo cross, made for him by a fellow prisoner, that meant a lot to him. He kept it hidden inside a communist propaganda pamphlet, along with a list of his fellow prisoners. Each night, he would hold the cross in his hand as he prayed.
One day, he was ordered out of his cell while a guard searched it. Denton soon realized, from the guard's grunt of triumph, that he had found the bamboo cross. Emerging from the cell, the guard glared at him, while tearing the cross into small pieces and casting them into an open sewer.
Meanwhile, a North Vietnamese construction crew was ordered into Denton's cell to do some work. A half-hour later, he was allowed back in. Denton continues the story in his own words: "Immediately I reached under the pallet and found the pamphlet. The list of prisoners was gone. Still angry, I began tearing the pamphlet apart. Then I felt a bulge among the pages. There was a cross. A new one, carefully and beautifully woven from the straw strands of a broom. Obviously, the work crew had made it. I shuddered at the thought of the punishment they would have suffered had they been caught." Denton realized, then, that he had Christian brothers, even in that frightening place. As he prayed with the new cross in his hands, it gave him even greater spiritual strength.
