Letter from Charlie.

registered · Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 6:51 pm

My wife and I have a friend whos son is in the army as a medic. Here is his most recent letter to us.

Quote:

My son Johnathan came home while I was in China. I came back and was able to see him for one day before he left to go back to Iraq. He wears a safety pin in his boot. If you didn't hear the story, I've included it.

Many of you have asked for his address. Since I can't remember who asked and who hasn't, here it is:

**EDITED OUT**

John's a medic. When he got off the plane here, Fawn and Melissa (John's wife) noticed he had a big safety pin in his boot. While in Sadaam City, he was putting a sling on a troop in the front seat of a truck and the sling needed a safety pin to hold it. John fumbled and dropped the safety pin on the truck's floorboard. When he bent over to retrieve the safety pin, a bullet went through the truck's windshield and zipped through the rear of the truck right where Johnathan had been sitting. He wears a safety pin in his boot now. That's about the third time. His convoy has been hit twice. His ambulance normally travels in the center of the convoy. His truck had a flat tire and the convoy left him behind while he fixed the tire. The convoy was hit, blowing out the middle vehicles. When he arrived, they needed a medic for the injured survivors.

He called his wife Melissa from Iraq recently and said, "Tell all of the people who pray for me thanks. I feel their prayers here in Iraq."

While John was home for two weeks, he and Melissa were given 5 days in Disneyland - a gift offered to servicemen and their families, along with a greatly-reduced airfare. Fawn already had plans to go to Orlando to see Bill, Jennifer and grandson Tayven while I was in China (Jennifer was expecting grandson #2 and Fawn was helping Jen get things ready for a second child.) So, as only a sovereign God could do it, Fawn's plans made over 6 months ago dovetailed the Army's last-minute-two-week-leave-and-come-right-back policy and Disneyland's offer. And Johnathan got a greatly-reduced airfare that allowed him to see his sister Jennifer, Bill and little Tayven. You know how God is....

John's back in Iraq. He said it was hard to go back this time, but he feels he has a greater sense of mission now. Americans on the commercial airlines and in the terminals and in the cities he went through were awesome (his words.) On his way home, they were constantly bumped up to the front of the lines by passengers, security personnel, and airline employees. Passengers gave up their seats and let them go on ahead - "We need to get you home, Soldier." Soldiers were given first places in line everywhere they went. Others bought them lunches and dinners on the way. Well-wishers came out of the woodwork. Flight personnel were very happy to see them (they know why they're in Iraq, even if Peter Jennings doesn't.)

Right now John's prayer request is that he will find some believers to at least fellowship with while in Iraq. There's not much in the way of good teaching or spiritual encouragement where he's at. He does have a DVD player and some teaching DVD's Fawn got him.

This time away from his college medical training has been a huge interruption. You remember the stuff you learned in college? Yeah, well, he forgets it too. And he has to start over with wherever he was when he returns. Please pray that God's will for his career will be CLEAR to him by the time he gets back -- and pray that he actually gets back so that he can have a career.

Thank you for your prayers for my son. He's the only one I've got.

I grew up with Johnathan. I can't imagine the kind of anxiety his parents are feeling right now.

Don't you just love our men in uniform?

Worker Joined: Sep 09, 2003 Posts: 165

And Women too

Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 9:05 pm

Of course.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

Thanks for sharing this.

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 7:21 am

Here is another letter about John. I have had many more but this one really hit me.

Quote:

It's been awhile since I've heard from Johnathan, either by phone or by letter. Today Fawn and I received the first letter in almost a month from him. I am going to type it to you just exactly as I received it, from beginning to end, without editing. Remember that John's a combat medic (that's why his soldier patients call him "Boo Boo," like what you call an injury to a little one.) He's not been hanging out in the "rear area" around the doctors and nurses and rear-area hospitals. He's been out with the convoys, patrols and even the Iraqi police getting shelled, ambushed and shot at, caring for the shot, the blown up, the sick and even the dead.

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Dad: please print this online for those that have prayed for me and sent things to me.

"First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how I constantly remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you." (Romans 1:8-10)

How true this verse is for all of you. Thank you for your constant prayers and words of encouragement. Every time I need to be lifted up, the Spirit, through all of your prayers, comforts me.

As most of you know I am a soldier in Iraq. My battalion has come here not knowing exactly what to expect. That was 1 year, 16 days, 19 hours, 26 minutes ago (not that I'm counting or anything.) We are part of the "involuntary extension" that kept many of the 1st Armored Division soldiers here as well.

Some are heartbroken at not going home, some are angry, some are depressed. At times all of the emotions hit me as well. Then I began to study the life of Paul. I do not know if I would trade lives with him. A determined man with a passion for life and a love of God that knew no bounds. This is my prayer: that I will return to see each one of you and thank you personally for your prayers.

At times fear and pain are all there is to see here. As a medic, I know pain. I understand fear as do the soldiers all around us. I know that God has great things in store for some of these soldiers. A large group of us know that the battles we face here are nothing compared to the spiritual battles for souls going on around us. We know that the battle is not flesh nor blood, but principalities and powers that hold these people hostage to a religion based on violence.

Thank you again for your support. I do not know when I will be returning, but God knows why I have stayed. His will is always perfect.

Love in Christ,

JLB "Boo Boo" Medic

P.S. Pray specifically for a SGT Green that he will realize God loves him and can fix his shattered life.
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