Candidates! Candidates! Calling all candidates!

By: Major Raymond Patrick

When you woke up this morning, what was your first thought? Mine was first to thank God for a new day and then I prayed for additional candidates for our four officer training colleges. This is my regular routine since my Samuel experience with our God.

You don't know the story? I will give you the short version. One night last June after watching two of our territorial commissioning services, I was greatly troubled because the numbers were so low. At about 3 AM, I was imploring God to help us get more cadets into the training colleges. I asked God, "What can be done about this situation?" He answered me. It was not soft nor was it BOOMING. He simply turned the tables on me and said, "What are YOU going to do about it?"

That was the beginning of Praying for 50@50 — Praying that God would call into officership 50 cadets for each of our four training colleges. The second 50 is a little selfish. I have an alarm that goes off at 9:50 AM each day. It's my birthday alarm and reminds me to call those who are in my contact list. It is also my time to pray for more candidates.

Since that time, beginning in July, I have been coming up with ways to challenge people to pray with me for more cadets. To underscore the need, note that this year we will Commission 67 new lieutenants across the entire nation. Next year it dips to 61.

In August, I sent out a call to all retired officers in the South to pray with me. I thought that number of participants could be more, so I called each of the territorial commanders and asked permission to have their retired officer representative send out the articles I put together. With a unanimous YES I started a nationwide "Prayer Request for Candidates" in September 2022.

I then asked each of the territories to share with me the first name and an initial of the candidates they were watching. That produced a list of 172 names of prospective candidates.

In January and February, I created a list of these candidates and cadets and asked officers from all over the nation to pray for the list I sent them. Now I had a list of 300 names that I divided by ten—ten for each day of the month and asked individual officers to pray with me for each name. I called the officer at or about 9:50 and we would together pray for the list of names. In March I asked my session-mates to accept ten names so we could pray for that candidate or cadet. In April I sent out a list of every session since 1940 and asked those sessions to Pray for 50@50.

I am going to do it again. There will be new names, but the idea is to get as many believers as possible to pray for candidates and cadets. This month, I have written a letter of encouragement to each of the cadets being commissioned. I am asking you to do the same.

I am grateful for all the support I have received for my efforts. I am encouraged by all the prayer warriors participating. Our great God has a plan for our Army. We are all in His hands.