A funny thing happened on the way to Philadelphia.

My husband and I pray together everyday. We always ask God to protect our troops. We don't know anyone who is actually fighting in the war. I thought our prayers would be more meaningful for us and more effective if we did; so I asked God to make it real for us and introduce us to a real live fighting man or woman. When my prayer wasn't answered in a week or so, I was disappointed and eventually forgot about my request. (Oh ye of little faith)

Last October I was flying home from visiting my parents in Minnesota. My flight went from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Philadelphia and from Philadelphia to Albany. I had a window seat and was hoping the empty seat next to me would remain vacant. A very large, tall man with a camouflage backpack was walking down the isle with his eyes fixed on the seat next to me. His hair was very short and my first thoughts were, 'Oh, no, Lord, what are you doing? Do I have to sit next to a skin head? Am I supposed to witness to him? He's so big, I'm going to be squished.' I decided this Neo Nazi was not going to take up all the space so I put my arm on the armrest.

The man struggled to get his knapsack in the overhead bin. When it wouldn't fit, he put it on the seat and started shaking it. While he was shaking up his bag, a thought occurred to me. "Are you in the service?" I asked. To my relief he said, "yes". The rattled bag fit in the overhead bin and the man sat down. Although I took my arm off the armrest, he never used it during the flight nor did I.

After take off we began talking. He was a Staff Sergeant going to Fort Dix to train new recruits. They would be shipping out Thanksgiving Day to Iraq. The U.S. is fast tracking new recruits. Fast Tracking means squeezing three months of training into a 30 day marathon. The first thing he teaches the new recruits is to drink water -- lots of it. He said this was his third tour of duty in Iraq; he had fought in Operation Desert Storm and in Afghanistan. He was a professional soldier. He had enlisted when he was seventeen to get out of the inner-city of Baltimore. He and his wife and two children live in Minnesota. They had just bought a camp on a lake. He told me all about building the camp, the lake, and renovating his real house. I asked him if I could pray for him, he said I could. Right there in the plane I had the privilege of praying for a real soldier. I could hardly believe it. The time just flew and before I knew it, the flight was over and he was gone. I told him my husband and I would pray for him daily by name and thanked him for serving our country. I am happy to report that we have kept my promise. It is much easier to pray knowing 'David' is out there fighting for our country.

That was the first flight since 911 on which I felt totally safe. With a strapping seasoned soldier in the seat next to me, all apprehension was gone.

I hope you are praying for our troops and for their families. Intercessors for America has pages with prayers for our troops and for the Middle East and the war. To find them on our website, click on prayer, click on Intercessors for America, click on Middle East Prayer. There are daily topics to pray about. Intercessors for America is a wonderful site. Please check it out and use it. For your convenience you can click right here: http://www.ifapray.org/

Blessings to all.