Email from Iraq

My colleague Aaron Messner writes: "Here’s a special Christmas story. My sister-in-law was visiting for the Christmas holiday and attended the 7:30 Christmas Eve service with us. She thoroughly enjoyed the service and after we got back to the house, she asked if the service would become available online. I told her that the service was webcast live and would be available to download from the Tenth website in another day or so. Upon hearing this she said, “I’ve got to let my brother know about this.” Her brother is currently serving with the U.S. Air Force in Iraq. She immediately sent a text message to her brother, telling him that she had just attended a wonderful Christmas Eve service at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and she encouraged him to try to download the service if he had a chance over the coming days."

"Within minutes she received a surprising text message from her brother. He said that he was awake and on duty (it was the middle of the night in Iraq). He told her that while he was working, a fellow soldier had invited him over to his laptop computer. The soldier said to him 'Hey, I’m downloading the Christmas Eve service from my home church back in Philadelphia, do you want to listen in?' It turns out that the soldier’s home church was none other than Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia! So, my sister-in-law’s brother had already listened to the Tenth service, he had enjoyed the live webcast in the wee hours of Christmas morning somewhere in Iraq."