May 1, 2007

From Inside the Pentagon

What a privilege to be inside the Pentagon yesterday, face to face with so many men and women who are actively serving our country in the Armed Forces of the United States. Working alongside the Pentagon Chaplain and various volunteers, I spent the day distributing books to whomever wanted them, men and women of various ranks from across all branches of the Armed Forces. Some of the Banner books which they took included, "Coming to Faith in Christ," "Valley of Vision," "The Christian Life," several others in Spanish. But the greatest demand was for "The Promise" by Alec Taylor. People actually came looking for it, based on friends who had already been given a copy, I guess. Are you familiar with it? It's unique among Banner books in that it introduces the Christian faith, either to a new believer or one who just isn't familiar with the teachings of Scripture. It does this in 31 carefully selected readings from the Bible that begin in Genesis and go all the way through to Revelation. It's great ... good to always have on hand, in a briefcase, etc., to give out whenever the opportunity exists. Anyway, continue praying for those who received this book, as well as the others. I felt as if my day was spent casting seed to the wind, watching and wondering where it might land and what fruit God might produce!

Before leaving the Pentagon, I also visited the Chaplain's office and the new Chapel and Memorial built in the section of the building hit by the plane on September 11, 2001. The stained glass window in that chapel has more symbolism in it than I'm sure I could remember, the building, the eagle, the direction it's facing, the small red squares equal to the number of lives lost on that day, in that very location. It was an unusual feeling to stand in that place and look out from those windows on the inside of that building ... and to remember. It was especially good to spend a few moments praying there with the chaplain, also.
Thank you for including me in your prayers yesterday, but also thank you to the many people who donate money to the Banner of Truth Book Fund which makes such book distributions possible. Because of these donations, we are able to send solid Christian literature to prisoners, missionaries, chaplains, students ... and hear in return what God has done to change lives through the ministry of His Word as preached in a written sermon, or shared in a published letter, or evidenced in the biography of a man or woman of God. So ... seriously ... thanks!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, what an experience, Steve! But I have one question: Why not outfit our military with some "Complete Armor" (Gurnall)? :-) Blessings, Tony

Steve Burlew said...

No argument from me; that would be a great read for them, as well. We pretty much provided what the Chaplain's office suggested this time. I guess the complication of Gurnall's work is that it's either a pretty large and heavy hardback book (compared to what people were easily picking up there) that I don't know if the average "book table visitor at the Pentagon" would work through, OR it's 3-volumes in the paperback.

MondoBeyondo said...

Thanks for sharing the awesome pictures of the pentagon.