Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Shivering cold in Austin is warmed by our spirits!

Our rally in Austin took place pretty late in the day, 5:00 actually. That doesn’t normally seem like a late time for a rally but being that it’s winter time now we run short of daylight around that time. But, lucky for us, we were holding this rally at a Wal-Mart and we were graciously allowed to park between the two entrances and have the lights shining down upon us.

We had a great turnout from Austin Republican Women and the Austin chapter of Soldier’s Angels. One thing I always love about Republican Women’s Clubs…they always love things like T-Shirts, CDs, and of course, Candy Diplomacy Tins!


Also it was really nice just to be back in Austin again. I missed it quite a bit actually, since I moved away from here in 2006 after I graduated from school, I have not really been back since. MAF has driven through Austin several times on tours, but we have never made a stop in the city that I still hold close to my heart. I forgot how cold it got though! In fact we were all freezing our butts off while Debbie Lee talked about Marc’s story and while Diana was singing her beautiful songs.


Since we are doing some Wal-Mart stops this tour, one of the factors that we don’t normally get when we do these rallies are the “passerby factor”. Interestingly, we have met SO MANY interesting supporters who have never heard of MAF but were just coming to Wal-Mart to get some groceries or an Xbox 360 and just happened to stumble upon a MAF pro-troop rally.


Hermania Price was coming to get a new ring. Her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Mark D. Price is in Iraq serving in the Army today. They married just over two years ago and Hermania has moved them into a new house so when Mark comes back home from Iraq, he will be coming home to a new house full of home projects and things to fix!


Hermania had Debbie Lee and the whole crowd huddled around her in the cold as she told us why she happened to be coming in to this Wal-Mart and why she thought it had to be God’s will. She actually got a call from Mark in Iraq who was hysterical and upset because he had been standing up on a pile of rubble in Iraq when his ring just fell off and became completely lost in the pile. He was so upset he wanted her to run out and buy a new ring and get it out in the mail and back to him immediately!

So Hermania being such a good wife rushed out to Wal-Mart and there was MAF! It is interesting how she attributed this meeting to God’s divine providence because her husband is not religious while she herself is Catholic, but since he had been deployed to Katrina last year, Mark has been reconsidering his beliefs. Well we wish the best for Mark in Iraq and of course his loving wife Hermania here in Austin. We pray for God to watch over Mark and all of our brave troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.