The first round of incoming fire set a roof ablaze at Camp Nam Dong, an outpost of South Vietnamese forces along with a 12-member U.S. Special Forces detachment near the Laotian border. Within minutes, North Vietnamese fighters were hitting the base hard with mortars, grenades and machine guns.
The commanding officer of Team A-726 was a 30-year-old Special Forces captain, Roger Donlon. He was hurled through a door by a blast just after 2:45 a.m. on July 6, 1964.The base was surrounded. North Vietnamese soldiers and allied guerrillas, known to U.S. forces as Viet Cong or V.C., pressed closer through the jungle.
Donlon, was wounded four times during the battle. On separate occasions, he was wounded in the stomach, left shoulder, leg and face. His left forearm bleeding, and a piece of shrapnel had ripped open a coin-sized wound in his stomach. The captain used strips of his T-shirt and one of his socks as bandages and tourniquets. Wounded, the officer continued to rally and direct the soldiers under his command.
Finally, at daybreak, came the sound of approaching aircraft. Airstrikes blasted the North Vietnam positions. At dawn, when the enemy retreated, two Green Berets, one Australian soldier and 55 South Vietnamese defenders were dead, while the Vietcong had lost 64 men
Captain Roger Donlon was the first Medal of Honor recipient in the Vietnam War. He continued to serve in the army for 33 years, retiring as a colonel.
The battle in which he earned the Medal of Honor loosely inspired the climactic scene in the 1968 John Wayne movie The Green Berets.
Donlon published a memoir titled Beyond Nam Dong. After retirement, he and his wife, Norma, worked with veterans’ groups including Wreaths Across America. In an interview he said, “The casualties of war are not limited to the battlefield.”
Ministry goes beyond the battlefield of the moment, as it extends along the continuum of life, witnessed by the healing ministry that is still upon this day.
During Jesus’ three and a half years of ministry, his healing ministry is recorded in four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. There are 23 different individual healings recorded in the four gospels. Jesus healed everyone from the ten lepers to the boy with a demonic spirit. Everyone who came to Jesus for healing were completely healed.
In the four gospels three words are used to describe the miraculous healing power of Jesus. The Greek word dunamis, meaning “power” or “mighty deed.” Jesus’s miracles were overwhelmingly powerful acts that revealed his omnipotence and authority. The Greek word semeion, interpreted as “signs,” refers to a miracle that figuratively represents something else, such as the kingdom pf God. The miracles of Jesus were signs, authenticating his ministry and revealing him to be the Messiah and Son of God. The words teras, translated as “wonder,” indicates something extraordinary. Christ’s miracles were wonderful, compelling, supernatural acts that caused people to marvel and confirmed his divine nature.
We may not think of ourselves of possessing the healing power of Jesus, though we do. Jesus often healed with a “touch,” as the evangelist Matthew shared with his readers describing the healing the man inflicted with leprosy: “And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” We do not lack the ability to physically touch an induvial. We can hold a hand, offer an embrace.
Also, so very important in the rendition is Jesus’ “willingness” to help an invalid. Often our healing power is stymied because we lack the desire to become involved. We are all aware of the traditional reasons for this, from being too busy to not knowing what to do, yet we know, there is always something that we can do, be it small or great.
Jesus was able to heal with a gentle spoken “word.” We read of the healing of the Canaanite mother’s son with this passage from Matthew: “Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed from that moment.” We have the ability to comfort others with our words of hope and encouragement. Again, we all have used the traditional reasons for not doing so, most significantly “I don’t know what to say.” We don’t need to be schooled to intrinsically knowing words of consolation.
Then there is healing by just being “present.” Luke, the physician, shares this healing story: “She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately her flow of blood stopped. Then Jesus asked, ‘Who touched me?’” We too are able to heal with the gift of befriending a suffering individual. As we all know, there is so much that we can do from sitting by his bedside, watching her children, running family errands.
A secondary lesson from this story, Jesus was aware of his presence among the afflicted. We must be astute in knowing who we must go to as a concerned Christian.
Elmo’s concern for others became a national headline.
On Monday, January 29, 2024, the X account for Elmo, the fuzzy red monster from Sesame Street, posed a softball question to his 457,000 followers: “Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?” On Tuesday, Elmo received more than 9,000 responses. In these thousands of responses, social media users let Elmo know that actually, they were not doing too hot.
“Elmo I’m depressed and broke,” one wrote. Others told Elmo that they had been laid off, that they were anxious about the 2024 election, or that their dog had rolled around in goose feces.
Comedian Skyler Higley responded to Elmo’s question texting, “Things are dark, Elmo. it has become clear that our society is fundamentally predicated upon the exploitation of man and nature to further the violent and pernicious tendrils of imperialism, capitalism and white supremacy. but how are you? Do you still live over on Sesame Street?”
Hanif Abdurraqib, a poet, essayist and contributor to The New York Times, wrote “Elmo each day the abyss we stare into grows a unique horror. One that was previously unfathomable in nature. Our inevitable doom which once accelerated in years, or months, now accelerates in hours, even minutes.” The response continued: “However I did have a good grapefruit earlier, thank you for asking.”
According to X’s metrics, Elmo’s question was seen more than 140 million times. Samantha Maltin, the executive vice president, chief marketing and brand officer of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, said that Elmo might not have been prepared for all the emotional fatigue shared in response. She said, “I don’t think anyone anticipated how deeply this particular question would resonate. But we’re so thrilled that we did ask.”
After the number of responses indicated that mental health issues were being expressed, the grown-ups finally stepped in, thanking Elmo for getting the conversation about “#EmotionalWellbeing” and referred users to materials about mental health. After a day of no interaction from Elmo’s account, he finally broke his silence on becoming the internet’s agony aunt, as he posted: “Wow! Elmo is glad he asked! Elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they are doing. Elmo will check in again soon, friends! Elmo loves you.❤️ #EmotionalWellBeing”
In the name of Jesus, we are to minister to the well-being of others.