O Father, Hear Us As We Pray

Above:  The Card Glued Into the Back of My Copy of The Lutheran Hymnary (1935)

Bernhard H. J. Habel (born 1890), was a Norwegian-American Lutheran pastor.  My Internet searches have yielded little information about him.  He organized an English-language congregation (the current American Lutheran Church, Tolna, North Dakota), in 1918.  By 1945 he had become the pastor of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Inwood, Iowa, where he remained through at least 1955.

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1.  O Father, hear us as we pray

For all the boys who are away,

Be near to them wher’er they go,

And keep them safe, we love them so.

2.  Be Thou their strength, their light, their shield

In camp or on the battlefield,

And grant that they may never grow

Away from Thee, who lov’st them so.

3.  All those who sail on sea, in air

Protect, Lord, with Thy tender care;

Keep in their hearts a steady glow

Of faith in Christ, who loved them so.