My sister's son, Mitchell, had his Washington National Guard unit activated yesterday and leaves tomorrow for Mississippi for three months. He has been told he'll be in Iraq in three months.
Your article reminds us of the skill these men have and the sacrifice and risk they take. Mitch is a medic and he is still a teenager.
God bless these men and women.
O God, I beseech You, watch over those exposed to the horror of war, and the spiritual dangers of a soldier’s or sailor’s life.
Give them such a strong faith that no human respect may ever lead them to deny it, nor fear ever to practice it. By Your grace, O God, fortify them against the contagion of bad example, that being preserved from vice, and serving You faithfully, they may be ready to meet you face to face when they are so called: through Christ our Lord.
Amen
Prayer For Absent Family Members
O God, whose fatherly care reaches to the uttermost parts of the earth: We humbly beseech you graciously to behold and bless those whom we love, now absent from us. Defend them from all dangers of soul and body, and grant that both they and we, drawing nearer to you, may be bound together by your love in the communion of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.