A DAY TO REMEMBER…

Greetings Lighthouse Inc., Church Family,

As we celebrate Memorial Day this year. Let us remember and honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives in battle.

We know that God is doing many things in this season. He has opened the Heavens over us and we have learned with an open heavens that anything is possible with God.

We pray for families of those who are remembering their loved ones. May God continue to be with them.

In Christ,

Pastor/Evangelist Barbara Lynch

May We Never Forget Freedom Isn’t Free – Memorial Day Tribute

As our nation commemorates Memorial Day this year, we take a moment to pay tribute by way of this special video honoring the fallen, remembering the brave, a…

Why Memorial Day Started…

History tells us that deaths that resulted from the Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history. With these deaths came the need to establish our country’s first national cemeteries.

After this began, people in various towns and cities held springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers where they would decorate their graves with flowers and recited prayers.

Some historical records show that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865.

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, was designated for the purpose of placing flowers, or respectfully decorating the graves of soldiers who died in defense of their country during previous military engagements.

The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there.

After World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict. So it was decided to upgrade Decoration to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For decades, Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30, the date General Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.

A DAY TO HONOR…