Edwards AFB News

Team Edwards comes together for 2010 National Prayer Breakfast

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman William A. O'Brien
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  More than 180 members of Team Edwards gathered at Club Muroc Feb. 26 for the 2010 National Prayer Breakfast.

The prayer breakfast dates back to 1953 and this year, Edwards theme was "God, bless America."

"The prayer breakfast is a time when we come together to pray for our nation, our president, elected officials, military leaders, and each other," said Chaplain (Capt.) Joshua Stoley, base chaplain. "The prayer breakfast is also a time that symbolizes unity and solidarity; it is a time when we come together as people united by faith, regardless of our particular creed or confession to seek God's blessings and guidance for the year to come. More than this, we come believing that God not only hears our prayers, but He answers our prayers."

Chaplain Stoley said he, along with attendees he spoke with after the event, were pleased with the result and the diversity represented in the crowd.

"In addition to the great turnout, we had an outstanding event," said the chaplain. "The words and prayers offered by Lt. Rosenoff, from our Jewish community, Elmasry, from our Muslim community and Master Sgt. Warner, from our Christian community was all more than fitting and spoke perfectly to our theme. Perfectly complimenting these prayers were the great performances by Staff Sgt. Lopez who shared our National Anthem and Linda Philips-Bell who shared a masterful rendition of the hymn, 'God Bless America.'

To start his speech about the power of prayer, Chaplain (Brig. Gen.) David Cyr, Air Force Chaplain Corps deputy chief, told a story about a church in Texas, which prayed for the demise of a local bar and were sued for having their prayers answered.

"A Bar in the state of Texas was experiencing really good business and the bar owner thought to himself, 'I need to expand, because if I build onto this place I can make like 10 times the money.' But the local church down the street said 'not on our watch.' And so they stormed heaven, they prayed that this bar would not be expanded. And one week before the building was finished; lighting struck the place and burned it to the ground. And the church people were pleased with the results and were thinking, 'hey, we got it going on - until they were sued by the bar owner and then they claimed they had nothing to do with it."

The speech continued with the chaplain explaining the origin of the song God, bless America.

"God bless America goes back all the way to 1938. Irving Berlin, a Russian Immigrant penned the words and Kate Smith sang them on her radio show on Armistice Day 1938 and it was just an immediate success and the rest is history, we now know the song God, bless America to be like our second National Anthem," explained Chaplain Cyr.

Next, Chaplain Cyr explained the purpose of the prayer breakfast and the significance of this year's theme.

"We think about the needs of our nation today as we do come together and we do say that; God, - and you notice, I put a comma in there, so that we might pause and remember that this is a prayer. - God, bless America. So that's what we pray today for several reasons and I'll share a few of them," said the chaplain. "We say that first and perhaps foremost because we realize God is the source of all blessing."

The Chaplin also remembered those who are deployed by discussing scripture verse that some chose to wear on their arm.

"Some other folks this morning realize they need God-- that's our brothers and sisters in harm's way," said the chaplain. "And as they face the uncertainty of the day, as they stand in harm's way while carrying out our nations business; protecting freedom, they realize they have a heavenly father looking down on them as well. Many of them carry, like a second dog tag - maybe you've seen them or carried them as well -- a flag of freedom on one side and on the other, a verse of a scripture from that ancient warrior, Joshua and the words that he said before he walked into the Promised Land. He had some Jericho's he had to face so he said these words and our brothers and sisters use them today to give them strength.

"'I will be strong and courageous,"' he quoted. "'I will not be terrified or discouraged for the lord my God is with me wherever I go.'"

Following his speech, Chaplain Cyr discussed why he believes prayer is important.

"I think we're built as human beings with this capacity to think about a higher power or a higher being and the best way to stay in touch with that holy being is through prayer and as it's been said, 'God is just a prayer away.' We've discovered through studies and surveys and they showed that prayer is extremely important to people. It empowers them to get through some rather difficult times and for that reason prayer is vital to the health of an individual. I believe in prayer I pray every day I know my need for God's divine help and I believe its great encouragement to our warriors; especially today during this time of war and challenge and time away from family and spouse and those who love us, prayer is a great resource of strength and power in one's life."