Prayers carry 'a lot of weight'

Before he left for the Middle East, Ben Hilliard called home to ask for prayers.

Hilliard and his family are members of St. Mark Lutheran Church, Glastonbury, Conn. He is a Marine with the Fox 2/5 company that shipped out Jan. 31. Reporter Mike Cerre is covering his unit for ABC-TV.

When Hilliard left for Kuwait, his mother, Jane Maulucci, said, “Among the essentials in his pack were his metal-covered Bible and an American flag. When he called home to say goodbye, he asked for prayers because they are light but carry a lot of weight.”

In The Luthern Link, a New England Synod publication, Maulucci wrote: “I pray for his safety and the safety of all the troops, and I pray for the wisdom of his superiors—from the field to the White House. I pray that we all remember that the ‘troops’ are actually our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, wives and husbands. I pray for peace."