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Let's Wear Red

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Rev. R.E. Snidow

Published: April 18, 2007

The First Presbyterian ARP Church of Sebring is planning to join the "Red Friday" campaign. The members are asked to either wear a red ribbon each Friday or wear a piece of red clothing to indicate that each member supports our troops in their endeavor to protect our freedom.

This campaign was instituted because of an event that occurred at an airport. While awaiting the departure of his flight, the narrator explained that a group of soldiers in their camouflage uniform were also awaiting their flight.

Courtney, a girl of 9 years, ran up to a young soldier and gave him a hug with all the strength that she could muster. Her mother explained that Courtney's dad was a Marine serving in Iraq and had not been home for fourteen months. She missed her father greatly.

As the young mother explained, the young soldier began to tear up. When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the soldiers pulled out a military looking walkie-talkie and started talking back and forth on it. After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said to her, "I spoke to your Daddy and he told me to give this to you." He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying, "Your Daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home soon." The young mother at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom.

The narrator said that he was standing no more than six feet away from this event as it unfolded. As the soldiers began to leave, heading toward their gate, people began to applaud. "As I stood there applauding and looking around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own." "That young soldier in one last act of selflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek. We need to remember all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American."

The church invites everyone in the community to wear a red ribbon and show our support for our troops.

The troops were to fly on Southwest Airlines and Southwest Airlines is leading the campaign of "Red Friday."

Rev. R.E. Snidow
Sebring

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