Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Veteran's Day..and Thanksgiving


On Sunday, November 20th we will have a late celebration of Veteran's Day, an intetional oversight. We are combining it with a special Thanksgiving service.

Our focus will be on Mike oram and Steve Hauser, two young men from our church family, who returned safely froma tour of duty in Iraq. We sent them off with our prayerful blessing, wrote to them while they were overseas and, now, we are celebrating their return to us.

We can do that without politicizing an unpopular war. Personally, I am grieved by the 2,000 plus men and women who have lost their lives there. I am saddened at the slow pace of political reform and anxious for the escalating costs of "running a war".

On the other hand, I am grateful that we still have young men and women who consider it a privilege to "fight" for their country and who place their lives at great personal risk in the line of battle. Historically, this has achieved for us a country with unparalleled freedoms and blessings enjoyed nowhere else in the world.

On the Sunday before Thanksgiving it will be a joy to honor these two soldiers--and to remember the countless others in our congregations and others--who served their country well.

For me, Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving go together.

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