ESCAPE TO FREEDOM - Just a Minute 12-26-08

            Good Boxing Day everyone… otherwise known as the day the “toys are all scattered and broken I fear – and St. Nicholas won’t come again for a year.”

 

            [In reality, I understand the term comes from the British practice of some time back to prepare boxes of food and perhaps presents to present to the less fortunate in the villages and towns of the U.K.”  Perhaps someone who’s lived there can give me a more up to date definition or explanation.]

 

            But it’s *great* to have the family around. And we’re thankful to those who are on duty in far away places – away from their families – to whom we owe so much. Thank you dear friends! Thanks for your sacrifice that we may be free and out of harm’s way. May you enjoy the Lord’s blessings this day and all others.

 

            Today’s Just A Minute is a brief version of a Russian father – long since dead – who risked his life as well as those of his 16 comrades, in seeking freedom from Communist – Bolshevik soldiers who would have executed him and his colleagues before letting them ‘escape’ from “White Russia” where they had been isolated after the Bolshevik Revolution. A more expansive and detailed account is found in the editorial pages of the December 25^th Edition of the Wall Street Journal, and in it’s ONLINE (electronic) JOURNAL.

 

            In this account we see the privations and indeed the miracles that probably have been repeated many times in many places where those suffering oppression have escaped to freedom. It reminds us of how precious our freedoms are and how glorious are our liberties in America. Quite frankly, it’s stories like these that give us (at least me) a metric by which we should value our blessings in America. It challenges my ability to understand those who disrespect our President – whomever he or she may be – and our country. My patience grows thin – but then I just remind myself, everyone did not have the blessings of home and family that my brother and I enjoyed. It helps me regain perspective. I pray there’s a solution like that for you and your family.

 

            Enjoy and rejoice in our freedoms – and recall the sacrifices made by those who have secured themfor us. In the words of Tiny Tim: “May God bless us – every one!”

 

            Cordially, IN HIM

 

            Jack and Barbara Buttram

 

http://www.jebcovoice.net/audio/jama12-26-08.mp3

 

http://www.jebcovoice.net/scripts/jamt12-26-08.doc

 

If these links don’t work just cut and paste to your browser.

 

 

“JUST A MINUTE”

ESCAPE TO FREEDOM

Just A Minute – This is a true story of Hans von Spakovsky – former Federal Election Commissioner, and Heritage Foundation scholar whose late father fled the Communist-occupied homeland 89 years ago.

            His father had been a Russian Army officer who fought the Bolsheviks and in 1919 found himself along with one woman and 16 other men stranded in the far north of Russia with dwindling supplies and no other way to escape execution at the hands of the invaders.

            Deep in the snow-laden woods of Russia, reduced to eating beeswax candles, they skied toward Finland desperately avoiding Bolshevik patrols. On Christmas Eve they decorated a small fir tree, with blue ribbons cut from a blouse the woman carried, lit some candles, and sang hymns celebrating Christ’s birth. 

            Resuming their journey two weeks later they miraculously arrived in Finland, having skied hundreds of kilometers through the wilderness in the dead of winter.

            Mr. von Spakovsky’s family yearly celebrates his father’s determination to arrive where they could grow up in freedom and enjoy the liberty that is now their American birthright.       

<> I’m Jack Buttram

( (END)

Jebco Editorial Service

www.justaminuteradio.blogspot.com

e-mail n4zhk@arrl.net