Daniel In Iraq: "Coming Home"

Friends and Family,

I am safely out of Iraq and out-processing in Kuwait. I will arrive in Norfolk, VA, on Thursday evening to a long-awaited homecoming with Erin, my family from Texas, and her family from Tennessee. My last week in Baghdad was very busy with the check-out process, turnover of duties, an award ceremony, a farewell luncheon, and plenty of goodbyes. I enjoyed my deployment to Iraq, and I learned a lot from serving with the Army and working for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Before I left on this deployment I was praying for several things that can be summarized by the acronym REAPP. These prayer goals were:

• Relationships with believers and unbelievers
• Establish myself early as a Christian
• A servant’s heart toward my superiors
• Purity
• Protection

I developed these prayer goals with Pastor Mullen in Dec 06 and Jan 07, and I shared them with several of you before I deployed. I am overjoyed to say that God heard my prayers and redeemed every single one of them! And I must caveat this by saying that I was not the only one praying, but that all of your prayers were heard and answered by the Lord. I had great relationships with both of my bosses, my co-workers, and my Iraqi associates. My immediate boss, LTC Vann was a Christian and we had a weekly, Wednesday night bible study in his office with MAJ Lightner that was a great time of learning, fellowship, and prayer. God also used this time for LTC Vann and MAJ Barrick before him, to mentor me and teach me how to be a Godly husband to Erin. Finally, God protected me, and everyone on our two compounds from several indirect fire attacks with an unexplainable “protective shield” as our chaplain would say.

At the awards ceremony and my farewell luncheon I had the opportunity to speak and I shared the following verses:

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends.” (John 15:12-13)

This tour only confirmed the truth of these verses to me – that love is the only way. I also shared a passage from a book my mom sent me called Grace Under Fire: Letters of Faith in Times of War. It’s a collection of letters from service men and their friends and families from every major American engagement. It included a letter from a Navy chaplain serving with the Marines in Vietnam. Chaplain Stubbe came to an understanding about his situation that I also experienced in Iraq. He states:

“I am convinced as I have never been convinced before that the Gospel is the
only solution – that is, when people are more concerned with giving than
getting, with self-giving than self-fulfillment, with loving than being
loved, of understanding rather than being understood, or genuinely being
interested in doing good without expecting any returned reward, recognition,
and benefit, when people realize that complete forgiveness and selfless
service are the only way – only then will everyone be really living.” (Page
99)

I pray that God will bring peace to Iraq so that my friends there can have the opportunity to “really live”, and I know that with God’s grace and our country’s continued outpouring of love we may very well see it come to fruition, but again I say – that love is the only way.

Once again thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, letters, cards, emails, and care packages, and love. They were very encouraging, and as I said before, vital for my protection, purity, servanthood, and relationships. I can not wait to see some of you in a couple of days, especially Erin, and most of you at the wedding.

God bless,
Daniel

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (1 Timothy 4:7)