Scott has had the opportunity to go for 3 years now to the Vision Weekend of Military Ministries. This is the first year I was able to accompany him. It was totally amazing! I'm not going to try to blog it in one post--it would be way too long and it wouldn't do justice to the experience, so I will give each day it's own post. There were lots of big names and top brass at the conference and it was great to see how humble and down-to-earth each of them are. It was neat to see how the many ministries can work together for the common goal of reaching our world through the armed forces.

We arrived in Norfolk, VA in the afternoon and were shuttled to the hotel, which is where the conference was held. For the ride, we were accompanied by the president of The American Bible Society, Gene Habacker. We had a great discussion while we waited in traffic.

That evening, we sat at dinner with some other Michigan people (Kon and Marilyn from Zeeland), along with some of the staff of Military Ministries--there were LOTS of people from Michigan there! We were treated to keynote speaker, Col. David William Eberly, author of Faith Beyond Belief".

Col. Eberly retold his experiences from 1991 when his F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down during Gulf War I. He was captured near the Syrian border and held captive as a POW for 43 days. Col. Eberly told us that during one particular interrogation, he was treated with respect and dignity (unlike some of the other times). He sensed that the man interrogating him might be a man of faith. He later found out that his interrogation officer was Air Marshall (General) George Sada, the right-hand man to Saddam Hussein.

General Sada was ordered by Saddam's officers to execute Col. Eberly. He refused to go against the Geneva Convention, which Saddam Hussein personally signed. He was imprisoned for this action.

General Sada was our speaker for Friday night...