Okinawa Christian School - Citadel Yearbook (Okinawa, Japan)

Page 9 text:

Lord, we are students who sometimes grope for answers to questions that only You can solve. How can it be, for instance, that so many actually killed each other for this hill where our school stands today? We ' ve been told about it by our history teachers, our parents, survivors, but it se ems to distant, too awful to believe. Here we are, loving and learning together in a place where men once bombed and burned each other. Surely, Lord, it must be a sign of Your Power - a Power far greater than bombs - that Okinawa Christian School stands today on a former battlefield. Hacksaw Ridge, an ugly name for a once ugly place. Children at play still find rusted, thirty-year- old cartridges that may have pierced a man ' s heart. Lord, we are thankful that You are able to pierce our hearts with your love and bring us together in your Spirit . . . Courtesy of U . S . Army

Page 8 text:

WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members of one another. - Romans 12:5

Page 10 text:

Today, those who come to Hacksaw Ridge are bombarded not with deadly shells blasted from American and Japanese-made guns, but with lots of grinning faces, some with dark Oriental eyes and hair, some with pale Occidental complexions, and some with both. The names that go with the faces are just as varied: Hitoshi, Susie, Hyun Hee, Hajime, Henry, King Huen. Our parents and our grandparents remember a time when they were taught to hate each other; today we share our books, lockers, pens - in fact, our lives. Lord, thank you for loving us all and helping us to be one in You. We dedicate this yearbook, our CITADEL, to You, Lord. In doing so, we ask that you arm us not with the implements of war and hatred, but with the power of Your love.