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A day for all who served: Veterans honored around Lake City

Hundreds turned out, many more than once. Some came to honor, others to be honored at Veterans Day events in Lake City on Monday, Nov. 11.

Two local schools held public programs with music and speakers. The Bluffs of Lake City also hosted a program (see related story).

At Lincoln High School, student speaker Sarah Ziebarth encouraged her fellow students to ask about the stories of the veterans in their family or who they know.

“Everyone is connected some way, some how to a veteran or soldier,” she said.

Her own investigation led to the discovery that she had more service members in her family than she realized.

Sgt. Nubia Davis, Lincoln High School’s guest speaker, explained the difference between the three holidays that honor American service members.

Armed Forces Day, in May, honors people currently serving in the military.

Memorial Day, also in May, honors “those who perished while serving the nation,” she said.

Veterans Day is a recognition of all who served, she said.At St. John’s Lutheran School, children sang the songs of the armed forces and performed other patriotic music.

The guest speaker at the event was an Army veteran with a deep connection to St. John’s.

Nathan Pike’s parents were married there. He was baptized there himself in the 1970s, he said, though he went to school elsewhere.

“I’m a product of the Lutheran school system,” he said. “We’re going to talk about prayer.”

Pike told the story of waking up in the middle of the night in Afghanistan in 2005 to the sounds of enemy fire. His position was under attack.

He organized the group of Afghan soldiers he was commanding to respond.

“At the pitched crescendo of the battle,” with the enemy fire coming in, he said he tried his best to fit his entire body inside his helmet and flak jacket.

“I remembered one thing at that moment,” he said. “I thought: ‘What in the world?’ and then I started to pray. I kept saying the Lord’s prayer over and over and over again.”

Eventually the attack was repelled.

Sometime later someone told him something and he realized it was true: angels were there protecting him that day.

“The take-away children is pray. Pray often. Remember your memory work. Retain it,” he said. “Someday you are going to need it and you are not going to have” a Bible nearby.

 

 

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