Today is Thursday, March 18th, 2010; Karen's Korner #1779

 
Several weeks ago in Sunday School, class members were sharing some of their 'God experiences', when 90-year-old Herb Billman mentioned a couple of 'Holy Spirit thoughts' from World War II.
 
Last Sunday we asked him for more details.
 
Billman spent three years in Europe with the 34th Division of the Army. It was on January 26, 1944 in Mount Casino, Italy when he was hit with an artillery shell which lodged in his right shoulder.
 
"Every time my heart pumped, blood would shoot out," he said. "I had this voice inside my head say, 'Pressure point. Press harder under your arm.' I would press there until I would pass out. Each time I pressed down hard, the blood flow would stop. When I would wake back up, that voice would remind me to do the same thing again."
 
Billman said he had no idea that was what he was supposed to do when he had such an injury. He kept doing that until troops arrived to rescue him and take him off the battlefield. "It was the Holy Spirit telling me what to do that helped to save my life," he said.
 
His injuries were extensive. Billman kept getting moved farther and farther away from enemy lines. First, to be stablized and then to recover. Eventually, he was returned to the United States where he had many surgeries and 'off-and-on' hospital stays for the next three years.
 
Today his hand is somewhat 'crippled up' but it certainly has not 'handicapped' Billman's life nor his thinking. He has had a successful life, family, and career. "I always bowled with my left hand," he said. "I used to write with my left hand (he is right-handed). One day the Holy Spirit told me, 'Write with your right hand. Write with your right hand.' I didn't think I could do it. I tried to write the normal way and it didn't work (holding the pencil between thumb, index and third finger). Then I found if I'd hold it between my third and fourth finger, I could write. Been writing that way ever since. Using my right hand."
 
Billman praises God for his spared life then, and a return to good health several years ago after some health issues, by worshipping Him each Sunday and reading His Word each day.
 
"My life has been good," he said.

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