“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven”.—Jesus, in Matthew 5:13-16

     It’s December 17, 1941.  The citizens of the town of North Platte, Nebraska heard a rumor that a troop train carrying their sons and daughters to war would be stopping at the depot in their town for about ten minutes.  They decided to meet it and load the soldiers up with food, gifts and magazines for the long, lonely train ride to an uncertain future. Likely they realized it would be the last time they ever saw some of their loved ones alive.

     Well, the train arrived, all right, but not with Nebraska soldiers.  They were Kansans! 

     (Cue awkward moment; townspeople standing around quietly with food baskets in hand; soldiers peeking out the windows wondering what’s happening.)  One person must have started forward, because suddenly these Nebraska farmers were greeting the Kansas soldiers like they were their own. 

     Eight days later, on Christmas Day, North Platte started meeting every troop train, every troop train, from 5:00 a.m. ‘til well after midnight, feeding lonely soldiers heading to places like Iwo Jima and Bastogne, Normandy and Wake Island. In an era where everything was rationed, people from all over Nebraska and even parts of Colorado traded in their ration stamps for eggs and sugar and other staples so they could feed these traveling troops for ten minutes each.  They did it without ever missing a train from December 25, 1941 to the last train served on April 1, 1946, serving six million---read that again, SIX MILLION--- soldiers in the process.  Their hospitality carried the name of the North Platte Canteen to every corner of the world, making it probably the most talked-about town in the history of the American soldier. 

     Old soldiers cry when they talk about what those ten minutes meant to them, what it still means to them. 

     Especially in today’s world, life is defined more by ten-minute encounters than ever before.  The customer across the counter, the worker chatting by the water cooler, the vendor stopping in to stock the shelf, the driver in the car that just cut us off on our commute.

     What do people remember when they walk away from these ten-minute encounters with us?  How do we prepare our hearts to touch the lives of people who pass by us so fast that the residue of our meeting only hits them when they’re gone?  What work will we do before they arrive that makes those ten minutes useful, or in rare instances, even memorable? 

     This is the era of ten-minute Christians, where opportunities to serve pass by so quickly we can come to see them as meaningless.  Eye contact, warm words, kind words and going the extra mile aren’t just good business, they’re good witnesses, too.

     To a world trapped on trains to the wrong side of eternity, a stopover with a follower of Jesus Christ might be just the seed the Holy Spirit uses to bring them to the Kingdom.

     Six million soldiers headed away from North Platte with a nugget of home tucked safely in their hearts.  May the people who meet us get a glimpse of the hope we followers of Christ have tucked in our hearts this day.

--Randy Kilgore

***Want to know more about the North Platte Canteen?  Read “Once Upon a Town” by Bob Greene, or do an Internet search for “North Platte Canteen.”  It’s a story well worth hearing…and passing along.