Welcome Home ...

It's been a long three weeks ... but today Scott Collen came home ...
A simple blue van carried him within view of Minnedosa, then with a full police escort, and with a sea of yellow and red and best wishes ... he arrived at the Minnedosa Regional Hospital.

It's easy to call Scott a hero. He is.

But in calling him a Hero we must also remember the men and women still on the ground in Afghanistan, and the men and women who have come home already, and the men and women who have come home in a box ... They are all heroes - each and every one.

Tears welled in my eyes as I watched Scott make his slow and painfilled way out of the van into the wheel chair that carried him into the hospital ... It was good to see him welcomed home by his family and his community ... but all of us know today that he is lucky ... we are lucky. We have him home.

Other families today are not so lucky ... so, as we give thanks for the opportunity to welcome home a friend ... we pray for those places that have been less lucky ...

Our yellow ribbons will still flutter in the wind so long as our men and women in uniform continue to fight on foreign battle fields ... Until they come home - we will remember ... and we WILL pray ...