TROOP PRAYERS CAN COME FROM PAY IT FORWARD

If you've never seen the movie, "Pay It Forward" you ought to because it's a MUST see.  It has some very inspirational challenges within its two-hour body of work.  One of the main characters is a young child by the name of Trevor (Haley Joel Osment)  who comes up with a grand idea for an elementary school class project.  Trevor's plan is a charitable pyramid scheme based on good deeds rather than profit. He calls his plan "Pay it Forward", which means the recipient of a favor does a favor for a third party rather than paying the favor back. Trevor does a favor for three people, asking each of those people to do a favor for three others and so on....

I blogged about Play It Forward several months ago, using the paragraph above and then relating it to another topic.  I watched the movie again tonight and felt prompted in using the ending to bring some visuals to the prayer vigils for our deployed soldiers I've been talking about for the last week.

Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey were simply magnificent in the movie.  There were a ton of motivational lines delivered, perhaps none more impactful than the line from Trevor which provides alot of insight to us as human beings.  He says, "I guess it's hard for people who are so used to things the way they are......even if they're bad....to CHANGE.  'Cause they kind of give up.  And when they do, everybody kind of loses."

The movie trailer begins with a fight between Trevor and some school bullies that he stands up to and then jumps back to a televison interview he did minutes before.....  Stay with the entire seven minutes, you'll be glad you did in the end.

This past week, I've experienced some of the attitudes Trevor spoke of in arranging a prayer vigil and prayer sign up sheet for MFV's blog.  I've seen people willing to help, others that have offered to pray and others that have convinced themselves of being "too busy" to help.  And I've seen those that are scared of change, as Trevor put it.  It doesn't have to be that way.  One young man (Trevor) with a purpose proves....
 
“There are two ways to live your life.  One as though nothing is a miracle, the other as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

Here might be a good place to say it's been a miracle we haven't had more soldiers wounded or killed since the Iowa National Guard soldiers deployed to Afghanistan in October.  A report from Fox News late Saturday details the reason for the concern for our troops. 

KABUL-"Taliban announced the beginning of their spring military offensive against the U.S.-led coalition Saturday, a day after a new Pentagon report claimed that the militants' fighting spirit was low after sustaining heavy losses on the battlefield.  In a two-page statement, the Taliban said that beginning Sunday they would launch attacks on military bases, convoys and Afghan officials, including members of the government's peace council, who are working to reconcile with top insurgent leaders."

Based on that news, wouldn't it be an even bigger miracle for us to see no one else suffering battle wounds or the loss of life?   That would be awesome to experience.  But what's that likelihood if we don't act now and get on to some serious prayer? 

Here are a couple of immediate needs we have:

1.  A person with a  good computer programmer background that can take a template and design a sign up sheet for hourly prayer blocks for the next 60 days.

2.  A group or company with access to a Public Address/Sound System for use at the prayer vigil.

3.  A person or persons with a marketing background that can work with the media and family readiness groups around the state.

Okay...we've laid out a portion of the plan.  Now it's time for anyone reading to PLAY IT FORWARD to 3 people who can in turn relay it to 3 more and so on......

YGG,

John