☛ ... the most recent messages are on top !
De : L PR
Envoyé : mardi 10 juin 2014 08:59
À : Mary Previte
Cc : natasha petersen
Objet : Re: Stephen Metcalf has died
Dear Mary,
This is indeed ... sad news ...
No !
I did not get the message from Topica either !
I just checked “Topica” via the website and I noticed that we have missed quite a lot of messages lately !
I did send a message to Natasha and I guess that she (or her son Erik) tried to fix it but to no avail ! I think that we have the same problem.
I am sending this message to Natasha too ...
... all the best,
Leopold
From: Mary Previte
Sent: Tuesday, June 10
, 2014 1:17 AM
To: Leopold Pander
Subject: Stephen Metcalf has died
Leopold,
I sent this to Weihsien-Topica, but i have not received a copy -- so I have no idea if it was broadcast through ther network;
Did you receive it from Topica?
Mary
Begin forwarded message:
From: Mary Previte
Date: June 9, 2014 6:56:42 PM EDT
To: "weihsien@topica.com"
Stephen Metcalf has died. This sad news comes from a report sent by his son in England.
Date: June 9, 2014 6:56:42 PM EDT
To: "weihsien@topica.com"
Subject: Stephen Metcalf has died
Stephen Metcalf has died. This sad news comes from a report sent by his son in England.
Interned in Weihsien with Chefoo School classmates in 1943, Stephen had his Weihsien experience turned upside down when Eric Liddell challenged the older boys in a Bible study from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: Love your enemies. Pray for them.
Eric Liddell was the Scottish athlete who had won an Olympic gold medal for the 400 meters in the 1924 Paris Olympics. By then he was a missionary and a fellow internee in Weihsien.
Pray for the Japanese? Pray for that guard who stood watch over you in the guard tower with guns?
Crammed into a Japanese internment camp -- with guard dogs, barrier walls topped with electrified wires, prisoner numbers, roll calls, unending hunger -- why or how do you pray for these Japanese?
But Eric Liddell had already become Stephen Metcalf's hero.
With races, and chess, games of rounders, square dances, math and science lessons, Eric had set out to solve the "problem" of penned up, bored teenagers in Weihjsien. He was put in charge of camp sports. We Chefoo School children called him "Uncle Eric." Another Weihsien-er called him "Jesus in running shoes."
When Stephen dashed from behind to win a run that Eric Liddell had organized for teenagers in Weihsien, Eric made Stephen his assistant for Eric's races and games. Together, they mended broken hockey sticks with strips of torn up sheets and stinking, melted Chinese glue.
When we traveled together to the 60th anniversary, "Liberation Day " reunion at Weihsien in 2005, Stephen told us the story.
Stephen began to pray for the Japanese. When life got tough in Weihsien, he promised God, "If You get me out of this place alive, I'll dedicate my life to serving You in Japan."
Not long before Eric Liddell died in Weihsien, he gave to Stephen the treasured running shoes Eric had worn in winning the gold medal in the 1924 Olympics.
After the war, when the China Inland Mission (now Overseas Missionary Fellowship International) asked for young men to go to Japan as missionaries, Stephen answered that call.
You can read Stephen's remarkable story in his book (available from Amazon ) In Japan the Crickets Cry: How Could Steve Metcalf Forgive the Japanese? by Ronald Clement and Stephen Metcalf.
Mary Taylor Previte
