My husband was twice part of an international peacekeeping force as a member of the Uruguayan military. On one mission, he spent more than a year in the Sinai Peninsula, a desert region in northeast Egypt bordering Israel and Gaza. Another time he stayed eight months in Cambodia, where he was part of a United Nations contingent. On both assignments he was living in areas of high conflict and exposed to dangers of many kinds, from tropical diseases to the land mines that littered the landscape.

There were many times when he was in an urgent situation and had only enough time to resort to the simple prayer, “God, help me, because I do not know how to face this situation.” He had grown up attending a Christian Science Sunday School and always relied on what he learned about God’s guidance and protection from studying the weekly Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly. 

At one point, a small group of men under his command was detained by the inhabitants of a village. Their weapons were taken away, and they were confined. My husband contacted his superior to inform him of the situation and was ordered to organize a force to free them. An armed conflict did not seem the best solution in a country where they had gone to ensure peace, so he prayed, asking God to help him know what to do. It did not take long to receive an answer, which came in the form of a communication from his commanding officer rescinding the order to prepare a rescue. The detained men were released and returned safely to their unit. A situation that had threatened to result in disaster was resolved peacefully.