Military Chaplain: The Year My Son Was in Iraq

Prayer is the thing that got me through that year, and I think it helped to save Phil's life too.

The first IED that hit him was a 155mm round.  It should have killed the four occupants of the humvee,
but the force of the explosion went upward rather than outward!

Thank you very much for your comments.  I love the Martin Luther King quotation, Deborah.  Again and
again, we need to look to Dr. King as the embodiment of Christian activism.

Miggsathon, the year my son Philip was in Iraq was the longest year of my life.  Because of the internet and
instant messaging Phil and I taked almost every day. I also knew when bad things happened to him or to his
unit within hours. When Christian Bagge, the young amputee who ran with President Bush not long ago, a
friend of Phil's was hit by an IED, Phil emailed me

right away and asked that he be put on our congregation's prayer chain.

Actually, prayer is the thing that got me through that year, and I think it helped to save Phil's life too.
The first IED that hit him was a 155mm round.  It should have killed the four occupants of the humvee,
but the force of the explosion went upward rather than outward!  The second explosive device was four 120mm rounds–enough to destroy an Abrams tank let alone a
humvee.  But only one of the rounds detonated (try putting a lit firecracker next to three unlit ones and
see what happens.).

An army of people around the country were praying for Phil and I think that's part of why he's home today.
One of them, a nun, prayed for him every time she pulled up behind a car with a "support our troops"
sticker on it. How's that for being creative in prayer!
 

Thanks also to Kingdomgal for the reminder that God will help us through these times.  I think it was Saint Augustine who said, "Pray as though everything depends on God and work as though everything dependson you."Prayer, for Christians, remains our most potent
weapon.  Yet like Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us, we've also got to get the wheel out of the drunk'shands.  So let's pray as though everything depends on God and work as though it depends on us!

Read more of Rev. Chrystal at www.ChrystalOnFaith.com

 Photo by lubinski