Comments for Word from the front.

Word from the front.

2007-02-21T12:16:14Z

From an email:

I read your blog regularly. My son is on his second tour of duty in Baghdad this time with the 1st Cav. He wrote me the following tonight that I thought you might like to see. Thanks for your support of the troops and their families.

I asked if I could publish it.

Sure. Did not think it would fit your blog but I would be honored. To be more exact, as I know you have exacting readers, our son Captain Jon Brooks serves currently as the battle captain for 2-12 1st Cav 4th Brigade out of Fort Bliss , Tx . They have been in country since late October. Jon’s first tour of duty was from 2003 to 2004 with 1-37 1st Armored out of Freiberg, Germany . During that tour he was wounded once by an IED. So news like this makes us thankful for prayers for our troops and grateful for the advanced equipment the men of women of America make in places like Dayton , Ohio and others plants across this nation. We believe in the power and protection of prayer and a good M1A1 tank!

So, here is the note from Jon. Perhaps we'll get lucky and hear more from him.

I know there are many people praying for me and for all the troops over here daily. It's been months now, and seems like a lot longer, that I've been here in the command post and in the loop on everything that goes on. The more I've seen of what happens I'm convinced that I'm seeing the concrete results of those prayers every day.

It struck me first on a day when RPG rounds kept hitting our vehicles and not detonating. Maybe it was multiple RPG rounds over a few days but it sort of all blurs together. There are the IEDs that continue to detonate on our patrols with no casualties, small arms fire that continues to miss. In the nuance and chance of war that I oversee I have seen the hand of God protecting our soldiers. Now, there is no event where, in air quotes, all have stood in awe and gawked as the laws of physics were broken by rays of heavenly sunlight, end air quotes. Nothing that would ever get on CNN as a miracle worked by God. But, then that wouldn't be in keeping with the idea of Faith. And, yes, people get hurt. And, yes, my battalion lost a soldier last week. But for the amount of enemy contact we see, the number of events and all the attempts to kill American soldiers made every day a grain of faith is all that is needed to see the hand of God.

What was at first just a feeling I had that all this was because of prayers for us over here I think now is God telling me that this "luck" IS because of prayers for us over here. That every day as righteous people pray for American soldiers in Iraq God IS answering those prayers. This happens all the time. The Lord is providing amazing protection in a bullet just off the mark, an RPG that doesn't detonate, an IED that goes off a moment too late or too soon to do damage, protection that will never be seen by the world as miraculous, but that faith shows to be the Lords protection. Anyway, whoever you know that prays for us over here tell them Thank You. And, oh yeah, please keep it up!

I think I remember now writing you about the same thing the last time I was over here. Not sure, it does all blur together a bit. Anyway, I felt lead to share this with you. Pass it on to a few people if you want to. I think the people who are praying for the troops need to know that their prayers are being answered every single day in amazing ways, miraculous ways, inexplicable ways, mysterious ways, ways I'll never know but don't need to because it's working. The hand of God is protecting American troops. They'll never see it on the news. The news doesn't show things that take faith to see.

Love,

Jon

Mark, Jon, consider the message passed.

Comment from SangerM on 2007-02-21

2007-02-22T01:11:55Z

Thank you for that. As you might imagine (those who know), the folks I've been engaged with since last year tend to not like it when I say things like: I believe Winston Churchill was meant by God to be the 20th Century's Horatius at the Bridge. Or that I believe God delivered copies of King George's speech to G. Washington on 1 Jan 1776, the last day before the Continental Army would have disbanded, at the hearing of which, the soldiers burnt "the speech and then raised the new red and white striped flag recently authorized by Congress on the liberty pole at Prospect Hill in Cambridge." Or that God put Joshua Chamberlain at Little Round Top. And so on.... In fact, I imagine a lot of people get kind of antsy (kind of all 'iffy') when I say stuff like that. We're ok in the USA with such things, but not too much, really, and not in public so much, eh? But it's certainly not ok (even provincial and embarrassing) to many furiously and righteously agnostic Europeans. S'ok. Just a couple of weeks ago, though, at the end of an interesting on-line post, a very spiritual, amazingly articulate co-student of mine wrote "God is not an American." I wrote to him to about it and he responded with something that is just absolutely typical of him: "I too believe that God is in the warp and woof of our country's governance. I wrote that last stark unsettling sentence to jolt both left and right to the fact that his agenda is beyond our comprehension; just like when he used Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1. Nevertheless, he has informed our lives with his word and his promises. Informed by his words and promises we can by faith take action. And yet we are still uncertain - that is what makes up half the equation of faith. The other whole (half) is the trustworthiness of faith's object." I was, as always, awed by the clarity of his thinking and his ability to touch truth. And, after reading CPT Brooks' msg, all I can think of is the hundreds of trillions of times in the past 230+ years that Americans have been "just" missed or "just" helped by the smallest of margins, so that not only could people like Churchill and Lincoln fulfill their appointed tasks, but so could we all, as "informed by His words and promises" we in faith take action. I believe. I have no proof except what I know in my heart, but for me that is enough. Again, thank you for the post. V/R SangerM

Comment from kat-missouri on 2007-02-21

2007-02-21T17:48:23Z

Prayers keep going out everyday.

Comment from Mark on 2007-02-21

2007-02-21T15:52:46Z

Russ or anyone. You have my permission to pass this along. Of course my son will die as with most of these guys he hates any kind of limelight. However, in these days of discouragement it is good to be encouraged! So pass it along! Mark

Comment from Russ on 2007-02-21

2007-02-21T15:09:19Z

I would like permission to post this at my church. It sounds like he wouldn't mind, but I would rather know for sure. Thanks for posting the letter.

Comment from MajMike on 2007-02-21

2007-02-21T14:11:23Z

it never hurts to stop by the chaplain's office before going out and after coming back in... it also never hurts to be going out in an M1A1.