Remembering Our Loved Ones

Today we are pausing all across Canada to remember the men and women that have served in the world wars in many areas of the earth. It is our day to remember the people that served, either giving their life in battle or suffering from the battles they fought in.

This is Remembrance Day – November 11, 2008 – where are 11:00 AM we will pause in all that we do and offer complete silence in honor of the dead and wounded that fought for Canada in the World Wars.

Two things and Two people spark this Blog today. One is my new friend “Rabin”, who is a lawyer in Nepal. The other is “Aisel Lee”, who was a young man from southern Saskatchewan that died over seas in World War 2.

First to Southeast Asia…
I met David Morse in Hong Kong at a Men’s Breakfast. He had arrived in Hong Kong to buy a computer. He had no idea where to do this but was told by God to go to a certain restaurant and that there would be a group of men having breakfast there… one of them would help him…

He was new to our group and was sitting directly across the table from me. When he told me how he came to the Breakfast and why he had come to Hong Kong and that he was to meet someone that knew about computers… who would help him… I was almost speechless… IT WAS ME! I was completely aware of the computer world and knew exactly where to go to purchase what he needed.

Think for a minute about the number of people living in Hong Kong, the number of restaurants, and the possibilities that one man sitting across the table from you was to be your contact. It was a God Moment for sure.

David’s grandfather had entered China many years ago to work with a mission station. His own father was born in China. Then when the Second World War erupted they left southwest China for Burma where their work with Lisu people continued. Lisu people exist in China, Burma and India.

David Morse was born in the jungles of Burma(now Myanmar). His only formal education was a correspondence course in “Watch Making and Repair”. As he sat across from me asking the computer questions – there wasn’t anything that he didn’t know about computers.

The Morse Family story is wonderful one to read. (“Exodus to a Hidden Valley”).

David watched his parents quickly move in the jungle area where downed aircraft were laying after being shot down – then rescue the airmen before the Japanese would find them.

Burma was a horrible battle field where thousands lost their lives trying to oust the Japanese and retake control of Burma. Burma represented rubber and oil supplies for the Allie Forces. It was a prize British Colony.

My interaction at the Breakfast table that day with David began my new awareness of Burma and Thailand – and wonderful things to come.

My friend Rabin lives in some of the same mountain ranges where Nepal and Burma butt up to. Today as I “spoke with” Rabin via the Internet… I was reminded of David Morse, the Morse Family and the thousands upon thousands of Allie Troops that died in that horrible battle so far from home.

War touched everyone… everywhere.

To Southern Saskatchewan… in the 1940s…
I didn’t know Aisel Lee. His photo is found in the “Arrowheads to Wheatfields” book about the Avonlea District of Saskatchewan.

Yesterday my mom brought the book out for me to look at. There are about 160 photos of young men and women that left their rural farm to fight a War somewhere they would have never even dreamed existed.

Aisel Lee was a handsome young fellow that grins from the page. There is a twinkle in his eyes that is notable. I can only imagine what he must have been like.

Aisel Lee was wounded in Holland. He died in Britain and is buried in the Brookwood Military Cemetary, Woking, Surrey, England. Do you know how far from home and far from people that loved him is. I had looked at these photos a few times over the years – looking for people that I knew or was possibly related to… but never at Aisel Lee.

You will see in the photo that there is a circle around his name and an asterisk. Mom marked this photo...

Then it happened… the War came close to home. My 87 year old mother was pointing her finger to Aisel Lee and she said with a halting voice… “This is Aisel Lee, I loved him. He was my boyfriend and oh did I ever love him… He died in the War never coming home again….”

In a very small moment the War came into our home again. My mom was deeply wounded by one man’s death. A first love that never returned home again had changed her life.

When my dad came into the picture – mom was still grieving the loss of boyfriend that never returned home again. My dad was the love of my mother’s life… but at that moment she revealed something that perhaps had been hidden for at least 70 years… deep within her heart. No wonder she was quiet and far away in her thoughts.

In Canada, once a year, all of us stop to remember what happened long ago. But within our community, there are people that remember for a very different reason the loved ones that they lost.

For a long time last night I though about Aisel Lee. Would my name possibly have been Murray Lee – if Aisel would have come home? I stop today and think long and hard about all the people that went on before. Wow!

~ Murray Lincoln ~

Sources:
http://www.mgtrust.org/burma.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Exodus-to-a-Hidden-Valley/dp/0529053934
http://books.google.ca/books?id=-3UtqrX56rgC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=The+Missionary+Family+-+the+Morse+Family+in+Burma&source=web&ots=HgQRnvaGCe&sig=NQ3cxmaBqwunYS89_QFoHvjTzps&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA38,M1