RED  SEA  FOG   --   God ’ s progressive handwork.

 At your suggestion, I commence a Family record of God’s gracious,   supernatural work.

 One Lord’s Day Mother served a delightful dinner to a distinguished former army officer.

Right out of the blue, he asked, ‘You were in the Australian convoy through the Red Sea en-route to the Middle East in January 1941?’    ‘Unforgettable’ , was my response.    ‘Did you remember the fog that shrouded the entire convoy?’      ‘It was etched on my mind!’  

‘I was in the Intelligence Force and am now free (after 25 years) to tell the circumstances.

The Queen Mary from your convoy had proceeded to Singapore, where the 20,000 troops were ultimately subjugated under the iron hand of the Japanese.   The other Australian division left Bombay (now Mumbai)  for Port Said.  Our’s was a Dutch ship, Indrapurah.'

‘The Australian troops expected to enjoy the Red Cliffs of the Red Sea.  The Lutwaffe, Hitler’s Air Force and Mussolini’s air arm, schemed to blow up the entire convoy in transit.’   He continued, ‘A remarkable impenetrable fog descended.’   ‘Yes, our men were fuming that they were jilted from basking in this luxury’.    ‘For three days there was only an eerie haze’, I rejoined.    'Our men bitterly grumbled.'

 He continued, ‘ The fog was sent to protect the troops.    For 3 days the Luftwaffe reinforced by Italian planes failed to penetrate the swathe’.    Tobruk and El Alamein were the places where the Allied troops withstood and outmanouvered Rommel, a skilled Nazi land leader, and strangely, a confederate from Cambridge of Field Marshal Montgomery, the man of God shrewdly contesting him in the Western desert.   An eclipsed Rommel never confronted Hitler - his plane was ' lost’ on the return flight.     If the Nazi forces had won, they would have taken our hospital in the Sahara Desert   (we would have become Nazi POW’s), the Arabian Peninsula, India, the sub continent, and South East Asia, Netherland East Indies, and ultimately our own land.   Our history would have been misshapen.   History books do not reveal such significance.

Discussion with this intelligence officer opened my eyes.    The Lord had preserved, not only the convoy of Australian troops, but also subverted plans to occupy other countries where God had alternative plans.   For example,  Singapore  (spiritually and intellectually so progressive), and Indonesia ( 40 million believers) .  

 Then a second evidence of God’s protective overriding.  

My nation was shielded from a brutal invader, even in the Coral Sea Battle, when every Japanese ship (22 ) was sunk ( Japan's first WW11 naval disaster) - and our land preserved,  even though northern Australia had been ceded to the Japanese.    That night in the jungle, God called me to medicine and Netherland East Indies ( Indonesia ).    The most significant redirection since I was prepared for a senior, banking career.   

 The Lord in His foreknowledge shielded our division and me personally over those 3 days in the Red Sea - to enjoy the benediction of  60 years post-war family life and God ’ s overflowing blessing for each of our beloved children, and their own families,   and awakened some concern to take the precious gospel to the ends of the earth.

I have become increasingly aware of His sovereign leadership.   I magnify His worthy Name.

‘Thank you dear Father for the fog in the Red Sea!’   I shan’t complain.