Operation Lion Heart

The Connection.org : Operation Lion Heart

Today is a boring day. I’ve spent most of the day entering corrections to a leadership training booklet into a Word document. The original text had a lot of errors, and the corrections are tedious. The fact that it’s in the Ewe language doesn’t make it any easier. I don’t think I could stick with this if it weren’t for the encouragement from my teammates as to the value of these books.

To relieve the boredom, I keep my satellite radio running in the background. This morning I was treated to bluegrass and a special on the group Alabama. This afternoon I’m listening to NPR, and thus the day was redeemed by the special I just listened to called “Operation Lion Heart.”

It’s about a little boy who was severely injured when he picked up an unexploded bomb in Iraq. His father risked his own life by begging for help at U.S. security checkpoint where he was suspected as a suicide bomber. The U.S. forces responded, and the little boy was sent to the U.S. for medical treatment.

Because of the special treatment he received, Iraqi insurgents suspected the father of being an American spy, and the family members remaining in Iraq were forced to flee from their home. Eventually the whole family was reunited in the States, where they now live.

The reporters who followed and reported the whole process have been awarded the Pulitzer prize. Have a look at the moving pictures and the story at the link above.

Some people have assumed that the reporters were trying to make a comment about the war, but they insist that they were simply reporting the story in front of them. Whatever their motives, this story is remarkable in that it reminds us in a powerful way of our shared humanity, even with those whose worldview differs radically from our own. Of course, cultural differences are profound, but the Image of God is even moreso.