Devotion for Week of January 26, 2015 – FEEDING THE 5,000 AT THE FRONT

FEEDING THE 5,000 AT THE FRONT
 
Psalm 119:9-16, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.  10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.  11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.  13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.  14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.  15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.  16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”
 
It’s not surprising that Pvt. Wilf Kreibich’s tattered, khaki New Testament which he had with him during the whole of WWI falls open at Matthew 14: the feeding of the 5,000.
 
For Pvt. Kreibich, a clerk from Manchester, was involved in his very own version of the biblical miracle.
 
Wilf joined the Armed Service Corps at the age of 23, in 1914.  By 1918, he and his colleagues were responsible for feeding some 3 million men and 500,000 horses.
 
Every month they dealt with 67,500,000lbs of meat and some 90,000,000lbs of bread.
 
While at the Armed Service Corps station in Rouen, Wilf with more than 100 comrades were in charge of feeding the sick and wounded as well as sending supplies, reinforcements and fresh horses to the front.
 
His New Testament is daubed with spots of wax from where he read the Scriptures by candlelight at night.
 
An ‘easy-going, affable’ man, Wilf had a great sense of humor.  Though he was at Ypres and Arras, he barely spoke of the war later in life.  But he did refer to shooting dead three Germans who attacked his unit, and taking part in a Christmas Day football match between England and Germany.
 
Nonetheless, according to his son Gerry (80), Wilf leaned on his faith during those four tough years.
 
“He was a person who took things in his stride,” Gerry said.  “But it must have meant a lot to him to have his Bible with him.  It must have been a comfort to him.  I like to think of him being bolstered by this when he was in the trenches and behind the lines.”
 
Wilf was the eldest of five children and had a lifelong love of children.  On his return from the war he became Sunday School superintendent at St Mary’s church in Cadishead in Manchester.
 
But his wartime Bible speaks of his compassion for children, as he underlined Mark 10.14, where Jesus says, ‘Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these’.
 
His wartime diary also reveals this care.  In an entry entitled “an afternoon off” Wilf describes playing ball with the local French children.
 
“Those playing ball consider that their cup of happiness is full to the brim if they can get a Tommy to play with,” he wrote.  He continued, “Several French people have told me that they are very much amused at the way the English soldiers take to the kiddies.”
 
Only one other section of scripture is underlined in Wilf’s much-used New Testament.  And it was a section that he clung to: Ephesians 6:10-11, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
 
The day before Wilf set off for France in 1914, he wrote to his future wife Gladys to say “goodbye” and that he hoped “to be home by Christmas”.  It was four more Christmases before Wilf was safely home and he carried his New Testament with him every day of those four years separated from the people he loved but not from the God that loved him!

 

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