Frank Tracy

He woke up sweating. It was early in the morning, about 5:00. But what he had just experienced through the night was too urgent to wait until later.

So he called the pastor and begged him to immediately make his way to his home. When the pastor arrived, there was a very solemn and distressed man waiting.

“Come on in pastor.” Once in, the pastor enquired about the reason for the urgent visit. “During World War II,” he began, “we were ordered to take a Japanese stronghold on a hill.

The problem was that the hillside was made of gravel. When the first wave tried, they were cut down.

Finally, we were the last to go. I made it halfway up the hill, but there was nowhere to go.

I was an open target. Next to me was my first sergeant. All of a sudden there came a grenade. It missed me, but wounded the sergeant.

I picked up my wounded sergeant and held him in my arms. Then once more, another grenade was thrown.

This time it hit the sergeant in the head and killed him. There I stood with him in my arms and nowhere to hide. I knew it was it for me. I expected a shot to ring out.

“Instead from nowhere, a soldier came, grabbed me and rushed me out of harm’s way. I did not know where he came from, and I never ever saw him again. Why was I spared?” This brought him to talk about the immediate episode that prompted the urgent visit.

“I don’t know what it was, but it was so real that I woke up sweating.” Then he shared that he found himself in a single-file line with people in front of him and behind him.

He was not able to identify anyone. Way in the front, he could see that people arrived at a gate. There they met someone. There seemed to be a brief interview.

They went through the gate, and then gradually disappeared into an abyss. He wanted to get out of the line, but there was nowhere to go.

It seemed as if all were locked into the line. As he was approaching the gate, he was gripped with an unknown dread. Then all of a sudden, a bright light shown above his head.

As he looked up, there was a retinue of people, joyful and holy, flying upward through the air. Among the crowd of happy people were his Christian girlfriend and her son. They were oblivious to him. It was then that he realized he was eternally lost.

When he approached the gate, the attendant looked inside a book. Then the gate was opened, and he was compelled to enter.

No matter what effort he made, he could neither turn to the left nor the right. Down the plank he descended into the darkness below. He was so terrified that he awakened drenched in sweat.