"We need to pray more than ever before," Chaplain (Brig. Gen.) David Cyr, the Air Force Deputy Chief of Chaplains, said during this year's National Prayer Breakfast at Hill Air Force Base. "If you think about the needs of our nation, our globe -- we as individuals, we need God's divine intervention in our lives."
As approximately 200 people gathered in Club Hill's ballroom on Feb. 24, Chaplain Cyr reminded them of all the challenges the U.S. faces today in terms of politics, religion, and even freedom.
"I think freedom is at risk like never before in our land," Cyr stated.
He noted that America has always been ready to fight when freedom was at risk, saying that wherever freedom is challenged, Americans fight. "There are few things worth dying for. Freedom is one of them," he added.
Cyr continued on to explain why the responsibility of protecting freedom -- even when at risk in another country -- falls on the shoulders of Americans.
"We've been called a world superpower ... but why is it we have risen to this position in the world?" he asked. "Have you thought about that? Why are we here?"
He explained his answer in part by saying prayer has kept the country strong throughout the years. He pointed out that prayer was an important instrument in the birth of America as a nation and that the founding fathers relied on prayer to draft the documents that formed this nation - again during a time when freedom was threatened.
Chaplain Cyr quoted a part of the speech that President John F. Kennedy was scheduled to have given on Nov. 22, 1963, the day after he died:
"We in this country, in this generation, are - by destiny rather than choice - the watchmen on the walls of world freedom."
Chaplain Cyr said, "It's our turn on the watch . . . and so we pray . . . bless those Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers, wherever they might be today defending freedom -- bless them, protect them, bring them home safely to us."
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