Wise Words...

Good evening! What a busy and long week it has been! Busy in the normal day to day things, long in that I went quite a few days not talking to Jon! After my last post, he was just getting finished with his first mission. What an experience it was. He was excited to share that him and his unit were able to find a IED on a local road. For those of you non-experts in military terms, this is an Improvised Explosive Device. Hey it took me a long time to learn this stuff too...and I learned it on my own...well through various online sources. These are homemade bombs that the Talibans create and place throughout the country on bridges, roads, etc. I recently read an article that these IED's were being put into bags looking like candy in a city surrounded by children. How sickening. Jon's batallion have even found IED's in baskets and had one incident where it looked as if a corpse was laying on the ground. The enemies placed blood on the cloth so that when soldiers or local civilians went to grab the "body", they would get blown up. Again, thanks for my online 20th batallion sources! :) I don't think Jon would share that much information with me...ever!
I never realized how important and yet dangerous Jon's job really can be. How scary for local Afghanis who want a shot at a good life here on earth and are constantly being challenged with that on a daily basis. Anyhow, he has finished his first mission and has been sitting in a local unit near their mission for about two days waiting for a flight back to KAF (his original base.) So in the meantime he has been heading to an Army recreational facility so that he can get online and chat through skype. It has been a glorious two days. Not only because I got to talk to him...but I got a once again encouraging message in my inbox. Another sign from God.
On May 29, I was truly touched by a message that my pastor (Jerry Gillis) spoke on. It was Memorial Day. As he began speaking his eyes filled with tears and he read what his father had wrote. After leaving service that day, I kept thinking how I could get access to this information other than visiting http://www.thechapel.com/. His father truly has a way with words. I walked out heading home googling his father's blog, asking others, and just not having any courage to go up to our pastor and ask him. He's kinda famous in my eyes. So therefore, I got nothing. Two months later (yesterday) I get an e-mail saying Kristine I prayed for Jon today. Signed, Pastor Jerry! What a sign from a God and a great opportunity to get in touch with his father's story and blog. I was able to get Gerald Gillis' blog. What an amazing writer he is! Here is a special blog entry that was shared:

Since the sound of the first shots being fired at sunrise on April 19, 1775, in Lexington, MA, through the present-day sounds of battle being heard in Afghanistan, there have been an estimated 1,314,000 Americans killed in combat in service to this Nation.
Think of it this way:Twenty-two miles driving distance from Lexington is Boston's Fenway Park, with a capacity of 39,600 people. Fenway would have to fill to capacity a total of 33 times to equal the number of American war dead in our history. Thirty-three times! It would have to sell out every day in May, plus June 1st and 2nd, with different people each day, to reach 1.3 million total.
And that doesn't count the thousands upon thousands of wounded-physically and/or emotionally-who bled and suffered and came home changed forever. It doesn't count the grieving parents or the widowed spouses. It doesn't count the children left without a parent. It doesn't count the friends and classmates and teammates and unit buddies whose grief also adds to and pushes out those ripples of impact that spread far beyond the home address of the deceased. For every U.S. soldier, sailor, Marine, or airman who has fallen, for every white cross or Star of David in an American or foreign cemetery, many, many more have been touched.
Our fallen heroes are our collective loss. And, odd as it sounds, it is also our collective gain. We are free because of them. We can choose how we work, how we play, how we worship, whom we vote for, where we live, because of them. We have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in more than just the theoretical, because of them.
When Old Glory snaps in the breeze, proudly displaying its radiant colors and soliciting emotions that tend to constrict one's throat and moisten one's eyes, when taps plays and drives its somber notes into the very deepest parts of us, think of them. And their families. And those who are in harm's way, stil, in dangerous and far-away places.
But especially think of them. All 1,314,000 of them.
They gave us all they had. They've honored us, and made us better. "The last full measure," as Mr. Lincoln so aptly spoke at Gettysburg.
Now we pause to honor them. And to thank them. All of them. The thirty-three stadiums of them. May they rest in peace and may God bless.
-Gerald Gillis


How awesome, how incredible, how emotional. Gerald Gillis was a Marine himself. Today he is a writer. He recently published a book Shall Never See So Much. This book focuses on times during war. You can also follow his blog with updates continously and encouraging words. http://www.geraldgillis.blogspot.com/ -A Second Act.
I especially wanted to share this with the scary news of what has been going on the past few weeks right in Afghanistan. Four soldiers from the engineering company died last week. Yesterday, two more navy men were taken from the Talibans are either dead or being held hostage. July marks the deadliest month so far since the war began 8 years ago. We need to be thankful for each day we have and know that this is only our temporary home. Continue to keep Jon in your prayers. And thanks for everyones love and support during this difficult journey.
Love and Prayers,
Kristine