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Key Bible Verse: You faithfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds, O God our Savior (Psalm 65:5). Bonus Reading: Matthew 21:18-22

In 1943 Dad was drafted fresh out of high school, but allowed to choose his service branch. He chose the army, requesting the Air Corps (mechanically inclined, he reasoned he could work on plane engines). He was assigned to the infantry. Training with thousands at Camp Swift, Texas, he felt lost. After lights-out one evening he slipped onto the empty parade ground and poured out his heart, asking God to move him to the Air Corps, and pledging to honor Him.

To the ridicule of the other GIs, he applied for a transfer. This involved a physical and a written exam. At age 12, Dad had punctured an eardrum. He "passed" his physical by not fully covering his good ear while they tested his bad one. Then Dad, who'd been a C student, discovered that the exam was for aviation cadets—to learn to fly planes. Remembering his pact with God, he plugged through this "hopeless" exercise.

A couple of weeks later, while out on the firing range, a lieutenant called out to him, "Hey, Kemp, you lucky dog, your transfer came through!" Dad, the only one to be transferred from his battalion of 500, commanded a B-24 bomber over the South Pacific, leading 15 successful missions and never losing a man.

—Kenny Kemp in Dad Was a Carpenter

My Response: What "impossible" dream dare I ask God for?

Thought to Apply: Watch it when you make a bargain with the Lord. Sometimes He goes and fixes it up.—O.C. Kemp (Kenny's dad)

Adapted from Dad Was a Carpenter (Harper-SanFrancisco) by permission.

Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

You urged us, Lord, to ask for the desires You've planted in our hearts. Thanks for the invitation.

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