Page 6 - Sojourner Newsletter-SUMMER 2021

6 THE SOJOURNER
National Chaplain’s Message

Lord, teach us to pray!
9 Then Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of
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the Lord. She, greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. She made a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if You will
indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidser-
vant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall never come on his head.”
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Now it came about, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli was watching her mouth. As for Hannah, she was speak-
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ing in her heart, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. So, Eli thought she was drunk. Then Eli said to her, “How
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long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you.” But Hannah replied, “No, my lord, I am a woman oppressed
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in spirit; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maidser-
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vant as a worthless woman, for I have spoken until now out of my great concern and provocation.” Then Eli answered and said,
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“Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him.” She said, “Let your maidservant find
favor in your sight.” So, the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. (1 Samuel 1:9-18, New American Stand-
ard Bible)
By the afternoon of September 11, 2001, I was back in uniform. That morning I had watched the flurry of activity on television. I
received orders on 18 December to report on 2 January 2002. I was back in the Army after a 12-year hiatus. As the first anniversary
of 9/11 approached the commander and I were doing our planning. By then the commander had learned I knew my way around a
good prayer. One afternoon somewhere around 8 Sept he called me into office with my prayer in hand, I was instructed to pray my
prayer. “Okay. Is that the way you are going to pray it? At that speed? Yes, sir. Okay, that was about 90 seconds, that is too long.
You will be praying longer than I will be commenting, so cut it down to no more than 60 seconds. Okay?”
This commander may have been one of my better commanders. He allowed me to do my job without too many distractions, tan-
gents, and detours. He and I were a team for about 2 years, he moved on and then I went to the desert for 4.5 years.
This year I attended the Annual National Convention in Milwaukee. My navy brothers would put it one way but I am in polite com-
pany so I will simply say it was, “laughs and giggles.” I am a people watcher and then I cannot help but analyze what is happening.
As a Masonic entity we must start or should start every gathering with prayer for guidance and direction. As the National Chaplain it
is interesting to see what form that takes. We have “set” prayers that open and close the conventions. We also have a heavily en-
forced rule that everything is to be memorized. My memory was shot many years ago and you add 20 rounds of chemo, and I might
remember my name.
I have noticed a whole lot of speed praying going on. Our world is driven by speed, how fast can you get the job done? I daresay
we have a gathering of friends. What would happen if we all show up at said gathering and we have only an allotted, a short amount
of time. We would question the validity of the gathering. Did we accomplish what we set out to do?
This year we were to ponder 24 resolutions. The convention's seemingly sole purpose was to consider those resolutions and yea or
nay them. Well, it did not happen as planned. I saw problems with many of them. The JAG shot them down in a lump. We only con-
sidered three and as I looked at those three in the light of the other 21, I had a good laugh. I seriously doubt that anyone had really
looked and deliberated on what was brought forward.
When we come before a group how much time do we put into what we are going to say? How much consideration do we put into
what we expect from others who are part of the program? Good pray-ers put a great deal of time into what they will be discussing
with their Heavenly Father. We do not appreciate drive by’s, “oh by the way chaplain, you don’t have one prayer tonight, I have you
down for three prayers. Surely you can be prepared in the next 5 minutes!”
As we look at Hannah’s time at the altar, what do we see? Eli sees a woman at the altar, tears streaming down her cheeks, her
mouth is moving, but no sound is coming out. She must be under the influence. Correct assumption in part, under the influence of the
Holy Spirit.
When we enter into a conversation with our Heavenly Father, we need to be deliberate. If we are tasking someone else to pray, we
need to afford them the opportunity to be deliberate in that task. Prayer is a conversation we have with our Heavenly Father; it should
take however long to speak to what is on our minds and turn an attentive ear to what He has to say.
Shalom and peace to my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

National Chief of Staff—Heroes of ‘76 Centennial Celebration
Heroes ’76, Camp Followers, Brothers and Sisters all
I am delighted to write to you today as your new National Heroes ’76 Chief of Staff. I intend to serve in this position with dedica-
tion and enthusiasm, to support our National Commander, Brother Paul Pennybacker, and the members of the Heroes ’76 Camps
world-wide.
I want to release some extremely exciting news to you so you can prepare and act accordingly. As many know, June 2022 will mark
the beginning of the celebration for the Heroes ’76 Centennial. That is right; we will have been in operation for 100 years and we
intend to enjoy a year-long celebration complete with awards, challenge coins, pins, streamers and so much more. This celebration
will mirror the highly successful Sojourner Centennial Celebration we held a few years ago. Our Centennial Committee has been
hard at work making plans for this celebration and we will be releasing a “Tool Kit” to guide you through the celebration process so
you may plan your activities at the individual Hero, Hero Camp, Chapter, Region and Area levels. We will be providing a complete
Centennial Briefing and Tool Kit during the upcoming Mid-Winter Meeting (MWM) in Baton Rouge, LA in January 2022. I HIGH-
LY Encourage everyone to come to that MWM to get all this information firsthand and to be able to ask and get your questions an-
swered. This Heroes ’76 Centennial promises to be historical, and you will want to be part of it from the beginning in June 2022 in
Atlanta, GA to the final Bennington Banquet in Harrisburg, PA June 2023.
EIAR

Randy Geck