Thursday, December 11, 2008

Please Pray For This Man And His Family

The link below is to a church website in San Diego. It is a web page dedicated to Mr. Dong Yun Yoon and his family. The man lost his wife, his 1 month old daughter, I believe his niece, and his mother in an F-18 fighter jet crash this past Monday in San Diego.

In Loving Memory of the Yoon Family

Because a military jet was involved I wanted to offer up a few words to both the family of the crash survivors and military families that have lost a loved one in defense of our freedom. Track with me for a minute.


I was watching Saving Private Ryan the other night. There is a scene where WWII, Chief of Staff, General Marshall learns that the mother of one Private James Ryan would soon be receiving 3 telegrams from the war department informing her that 3 of her sons, Ryan's brothers, were killed in action. Immediately General Marshall gave orders to his subordinates to find capable men who's mission it would be to bring the only surviving brother, Private Ryan, back home to Iowa. To explain his reasoning for such a bold and seemingly foolhardy mission he read the following out loud to his men:

"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom. –Abraham Lincoln."

Those words, written over a hundred years ago, still ring true today. We should give all the families positively contributing to society, helping one another, and serving our country's citizens, whether in the military or not, all of our appreciation, our respect, and our heartfelt prayers for the all the sacrifices they make. May God bless, keep, and protect you always. In Jesus name, Amen.

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