Thank you, veterans and military servicemen and women for fighting for our freedom! You have sacrificed your time, energy, holidays with your families, comfort, health, and even your lives in order to preserve America as we enjoy it today. Although Veterans Day is November 11th, we celebrated it today at church at our annual Veterans Sunday.

I had the privilege of compiling pictures and information about all our church’s military servicemen and women. It was so neat to see all of the old pictures of the veterans in their uniforms–some from WW2, some from Korea, some from Vietnam, and some currently in the military. All in all, we had over 35 veterans! During the morning service we asked all the veterans to join in our “Parade of Veterans.” We played a medley of theme songs from each of the 5 military branches. During each theme song, veterans from that branch would march up the center aisle to stand at the front of the auditorium. Among them, we honored a medic who fought in France in WW2 and who was awarded the Bronze Star. We honored a 96 year old veteran who worked in Graves Registration in the Philippines during WW2, and we honored a church member currently serving in the Army Reserves. The parade brought tears to my eyes.

Next, we showed a video made by the son of one of our members. He is a lieutenant in the Army and is in Afghanistan. Then, our junior church kids sang “The Price of Freedom.” The junior church also had some members of the local National Guard come to speak to them today and to show them a humvee.

In tonight’s service, we heard testimonies from 3 of our vets. One man had a 22 year career in the Air Force while another fought in Vietnam, and the third was saved while in the Army. What a day! History has always been important in my family, so I loved helping to honor the veterans.