--- id: ff20_eberly_lords_prayer_in_prison title: FLYINGFREE - Eberly’s Adapted Lord’s Prayer in Prison category: Biblical Life Counsel predicted_narrative_arc: pow-return-prayer-endurance sentiment: Reverent emotions: - Reverent - Moved - Hopeful keypoints: - First pilot down the freedom stairs was David Eberly - He had become ranking POW in Iraqi prison - Vickie and Dean cried tears of joy watching the return - Book Faith Beyond Belief recounts faith through captivity - Each day ended with his adaptation of the Lord’s Prayer summary: > Dean and Vickie wept as Colonel Eberly left Iraqi captivity; his book shows faith finishing each prison day with an adapted Lord’s Prayer for courage and fair treatment. tags: - flying-free - chapter-20 - david-eberly - lords-prayer - pow - faith-beyond-belief - prayer - dean-rush - book-excerpt sycophancy: 0 truth_score: 9 entropy: 2 sample: false consent: owner_approved agent: flyingfree created: '2010-01-01' updated: '2026-09-09T00:00:00Z' vault_stage: 07_CODEX headwaters: FLYINGFREE prefix: FLYINGFREE enrich_status: ok enrich_blockers: [] enrich_method: manual pipeline_filename: FLYINGFREE_20_eberly-lords-prayer-in-prison.md source_kind: book_excerpt proposed_topic: FlyingFree lane: FlyingFree voice: desk active_voice: desk voices: - desk routing_source: carbon corpus_topic: FlyingFree content_status: active date: '2010-01-01' share_url: https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md source_url: https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md site_category: Flying Free book_title: Flying Free book_chapter: 20 book_chapter_title: A Moment to Act – Use Faith source_file: flyingfree/flying-free-20-a-moment-to-act.md description: > Chapter 20 — POW return; Faith Beyond Belief; adapted Lord’s Prayer. --- # Eberly’s Adapted Lord’s Prayer in Prison **Author:** Dean Rush **Book:** *Flying Free* · **Chapter 20:** A Moment to Act – Use Faith **Full book:** [deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md](https://deanrush.net/downloads/flyingfreebook.md) ## Context for the Reader Chapter 20’s most moving testimony continues: freedom stairs, ranking POW, and the daily prayer that finished each day of captivity. This lesson holds return joy and the prayer text Dean quotes. > Voice note: Everything under **Dean's excerpt** is Dean's original prose (lightly cleaned only). Sections marked **Biblical foundations**, **Scholar sidebar**, **Takeaways**, and **First-time learner** are enrichment for Asker / first readers — not Dean speaking. --- ## Biblical foundations (preface) The Lord’s Prayer teaches dependence on the Father for daily bread, kingdom will, and deliverance — patterns Eberly adapted under torture’s shadow. | Dean's claim | Scriptural undercarriage | | --- | --- | | Tears of joy at a brother’s freedom | Weep with those who weep; rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15) | | Faith sustained days, weeks, months | Call upon me in the day of trouble (Psalm 50:15) | | Adapted Lord’s Prayer each day | Pray then like this: Our Father… (Matthew 6:9–13) | | Ask for courage and strength for the moment | God did not give a spirit of fear but of power (2 Timothy 1:7) | | Thy kingdom; real power and glory | Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory (Matthew 6:13) | --- ## Dean's excerpt ### Stairs of freedom and a daily amen Much to my surprise, when the war ended and I saw the folks who had been POWs in Iraq coming down the stairs of the former presidential aircraft that flew them to freedom, the first pilot down the stairs was our David Eberly. Years had passed and he had become a colonel and had been the ranking POW in the Iraqi prison. As Vickie and I watched that scene unfold on television, we both cried tears of joy. We were so proud of David and his family. They endured the pain of the separation, the unknown outcome, and the torture that David was subjected to for all of America. I later learned in David’s fantastic book about his experience, *Faith Beyond Belief: A Journey to Freedom*, that he had used his amazing faith in God to get through the days, weeks, and months that he was held captive. His example of faith is summed up in his interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer that he said he used to finish each day of his term in the Iraqi prison. *As always, I finished my day with my own adaptation of the Lord’s Prayer:* “Our Father who is here with us. Thank you for this day and for the food. Give us the mental courage and physical strength to get through the moment and please give them the courage to treat us fairly. Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done. For you are the real power and the glory forever. Amen.” > **Scholar sidebar — Prayer as daily finish line** > Keep Eberly’s wording intact — it is the lesson’s spine. Matthew 6:9–13 remains the root pattern: Father present, daily provision, kingdom will, true glory. 2 Timothy 1:7 matches his ask for courage and strength “for the moment.” Family endurance and torture are named by Dean; do not sensationalize beyond his sentence. --- ## Takeaways 1. **First down the stairs.** David Eberly led the POW return Dean watched. 2. **Ranking POW.** Colonel; years from second lieutenant. 3. **Tears of joy.** Dean and Vickie wept in pride and relief. 4. **Faith Beyond Belief.** Book traces faith through captivity. 5. **Daily adapted Lord’s Prayer.** Courage, strength, fair treatment, kingdom, glory. --- ## First-time learner ### What is Dean saying in one sentence? Watching David Eberly leave Iraqi captivity, Dean and Vickie wept; Eberly’s book shows he finished each prison day with an adapted Lord’s Prayer for courage, strength, fairness, and God’s kingdom and glory. ### What did the prayer ask? Mental courage, physical strength for the moment, captors’ courage to treat them fairly, and God’s kingdom, will, power, and glory. ### Key verses to read with this lesson - **Matthew 6:9–13** — Lord’s Prayer. - **Psalm 50:15** — Call in trouble. - **2 Timothy 1:7** — Power, not fear. - **Romans 12:15** — Rejoice with those who rejoice. - **Psalm 23:4** — With me in the valley. ### A simple practice End today with Eberly’s structure: thank God for this day; ask courage for one hard moment; yield “thy will be done.” ### How this feeds Ask Dean Seed material for: *What prayer did David Eberly use as a POW? How did Dean react to the freedom stairs?*