Prayer Bombs

I promised to dive into the rest of the Haiti story, but my heart led me to write this first.  I was waning in my drive to write sooner because I can’t write if my heart isn’t inspired to do so.  Instead, I’m going to return a bit to my main theme.  I want to share with you my latest prayer ministry.  Being a rather slow writer, whose most significant accomplishment before this blog, was torturing my high school teachers with book reports; and cleverly worded “pay or die” letters for our family-owned site development company. Upcoming topics will include the rest of the Haiti story Farm days with a message growing up in a generation that added so much but is sadly largely forgotten.

So today, we’re talking about prayer bombs.  I got this analogy from a WWII story about an unsung American hero named Gail Halverson.  He started an offshoot of the post-WWII “Operation Vittles.”  In Operation Vittles, US cargo planes flew food and supplies into West Berlin. The Soviets blocked allied access over land in an attempt to “starve” the population into giving up their freedom under allies.   One pilot, after meeting some of the starving children at the nearby airbase, soliciting for any food they could get became what was known as the “candy bomber.” Click on the links for more details.  It is a story of redemption and forgiveness that started with the heart of what America stood for.  While many of these pilots were, probably just a few years before, bombing Berlin into submission, they were now engaged in the heart of God’s grace with many orphaned children getting something they haven’t had in years, compassion, and something sweet.   Gail was also known as Uncle Wiggly Wings. Flying over a crowd of children, he would wiggle the wings on his plane.  This way, the kids knew the chocolate bars and goodies were to soon fall out of the bomber.  Oh, how these bombs were so different than ones falling just three years earlier, killing their parents and siblings.

 After some tears of my own, I decided that maybe there are some struggling souls (many close friends of mine) who battle depression and physical health challenges that make mine pale in comparison.  A few months ago, I hopped into my prayer plane jalopy (also known as texting).  I decided that in addition to my daily personal prayers, I would “drop little prayer bombs “every now and then, to give some compassion and hope and maybe a little sweet encouragement to those who need it.  My hope is that I can relate and convey hope. Those German kids needed just that, and the candy bars were a bonus.  No one suffered like those little kids in my, and maybe your darkest weakest hour; we’ll be lifted as well.