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Miracle in Afghanistan

Posted by on Dec 3, 2013 in Military Prayer, Stories | Comments Off on Miracle in Afghanistan

By Chaplain, Captain, Rod Gilliam, US Army
The Military Chaplain Magazine

ChaplainOn the night of Christmas Eve 2012, we had a near tragedy hit our ranks. Four of our Soldiers were shot by an insurgent who disguised himself as an Afghan Soldier. Three of the Soldiers wounds were superficial. One of them was quite severe. This young Soldier was shot in the carotid artery, his right lung, his stomach and his femoral artery. By all appearances when he was brought to the aid station he would not live past the operating table. I stood in awe of the combat surgeon, (a young female doctor who just completed her resident training). She went into motion helping this Soldier in a way that I have never witnessed before and I doubt I will ever witness again. She instantly removed his clavicle bone and repaired the bleeding artery in his neck; she then bypassed his thoracic nerve and removed his lung that had been shot. She then quickly repaired the damage done to the Soldier’s stomach and finally, as she worked on the Soldier’s femoral artery there was a line of Soldiers outside the aide station that were of this Soldiers blood type – donating blood to keep the Soldier alive on the operating table. By the time this Soldier was airlifted out and sent to a location that he could receive higher care – he had gone through 43 pints of blood. A senior medic told me that “typically if an individual goes through more than 10 pints of blood his chances for survival are greatly diminished.” It was nothing short of a miracle that this Soldier lived.

When it was over the surgeon quietly and deliberately walked over to me and asked if “she could spend some time with me alone at the chapel,” I quickly agreed. As we arrived and the surgeon could see that no one else was watching she broke down and became very emotional. What she told me next shocked me. “Chaplain, as you know, I am a brand new surgeon just out of residency. My experience on the operating table is very limited. I saw all of the Soldiers, many of them his close friends and buddies – anxiously waiting outside to see what the outcome would be for their friend. I wanted to show my staff and all the Soldiers around that everything was under control. But I felt out of control on the inside. I cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, please God, don’t let this young man die on my table! Direct my hands so that he will live!”

Chapel

“Chaplain,” she said, “what happened next was incredible. I felt this instant surge of peace in my spirit and clarity of thought in my mind. And then it was if God just started guiding my hands through the wounds of that young man’s body. I can’t explain it but I know that it was real.” She was a Christian believer so we both took time out to pray, thank God, and give Him the glory for that young man’s survival. In the weeks to come I learned that several high medical specialists like senior thoracic and lung surgeons who had worked their crafts for 30 plus years had called her in to their medical review boards to see how a young surgeon out of residency could have performed such high level procedures so flawlessly. All of those professionals conceded that if she had not treated with the speed and proficiency that she had had – this young man would be dead today. But they remained puzzled at the level she performed these procedures – it was only a level that a specialist worked who had been in those respective specialties for many years. She has since gone on and written about her procedures in many medical journals.

Family

Gilliam Family Reunited

When I returned home to Fort Carson I was able to meet this young Soldier and his parents who had flown from Walter Reed Medical Center for a special Veterans Day celebration on the post of Fort Carson. I was able to share with this Soldier and his family – the incredible things that happened that night in the combat operating room. None of them were aware of the entire story. I was able to further say to this wounded warrior, “I hope that you realize that God has given you the very precious gift of an extended life. Never squander that gift, but use every day that you are breathing on this earth to give God the glory, to share your life as a gift to share with others. It is now your calling.” The wounded Soldier and his parents were so overcome with emotion that they could barely speak; but they agreed with what I was saying and they were very happy (and grateful) to close our meeting with a prayer of thanksgiving for the gift of his (their son’s) life.” If every day God sends a least one Soldier or military spouse my way that I can, in His name, make their day a little brighter – then I have had a good day. May God richly bless all who call upon His name In the United States of America.

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Light

Posted by on Dec 2, 2013 in Prayer Art | Comments Off on Light

LightBulb

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On a Wing, But Not On a Prayer

Posted by on Nov 27, 2013 in Military Prayer | Comments Off on On a Wing, But Not On a Prayer

Air Force Academy makes homage to God optional

By , Time.com

 

While there may be no atheists in foxholes, the Air Force Academy has decided there will be no mandatory God in the heavens.

The academy — at 7,258 feet above sea level, the closest of all the nation’s military schools to God’s realm — has long had a reputation as the most Christian of the nation’s military learning institutions.

But the Colorado Springs, Colo., academy has decided to make the “so help me God” coda to its cadet oath optional after a complaint from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

The academy’s original honor code dates to 1959 and reads:

We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does.

But it was modified following a 1984 cheating scandal to read:

We will not lie, steal or cheat, nor tolerate among us anyone who does. Furthermore, I resolve to do my duty and to live honorably, so help me God.

The phrase “so help me God” was tacked on “to add more seriousness to the oath,” according to a former faculty member. Apparently, there was a subset of Air Force cadets who would cheat absent God as a wingman.

“Here at the Academy, we work to build a culture of dignity and respect, and that respect includes the ability of our cadets, airmen and civilian airmen to freely practice and exercise their religious preference – or not,” academy superintendent Lieut. General Michelle D. Johnson, said in a statement. “So, in the spirit of respect, cadets may or may not choose to finish the Honor Oath with ‘So help me God.’”

Cadets take the oath at the end of their basic training, and annually thereafter before graduating as Air Force 2nd lieutenants after four years. Similar oaths at the Army’s West Point and Navy’s academy at Annapolis have no such religious component.

Opinions were mixed among posters over at the independent Air Force Times newspaper.

“About time,” poster Eric Taylor noted. “Pledging to some mythological being is so 2000 years ago.”

Not so fast, countered Paul Hartnagel. “I guarantee that when they flame out and start going to ground at mach 1,” he said, “they WILL be calling on God.”

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/10/28/on-a-wing-but-not-on-a-prayer/#ixzz2llbg2YF6

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VA Sued for Harassing Christian Chaplains

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in Military Prayer | Comments Off on VA Sued for Harassing Christian Chaplains

Military pastors ordered to stop quoting Bible, leave Jesus at home
WND Faith
by DREW ZAHN

Two military chaplains are suing Eric Shinseki, secretary of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, or VA, for allegedly being harassed and drummed out of a training and placement program because of their Christian faith.

Chaplains Major Steven Firtko, U.S. Army (Retired) and Lieutenant Commander Dan Klender, U.S. Navy, claim they were mocked, scolded and threatened for their faith while enrolled in the San Diego VA-DOD Clinical Pastoral Education Center program, which trains and distributes chaplains to military and VA medical centers in the San Diego area.

According to their lawsuit, Firtko and Klender allege the Center’s supervisor, Ms. Nancy Dietsch, a VA employee, derided them in classrooms and even had one of them dismissed for failing to renounce his Christian beliefs.

For example, on Sept. 24, 2012, the lawsuit claims, during a classroom discussion, Dietsch asked Firtko what he “believed faith was.”

Firtko responded by quoting Hebrews 11:1 – “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Dietsch told Firtko, on the first of several such instances according to the lawsuit, that he was not to quote the Bible in the chaplaincy program classroom.

On another incident in October, Dietsch allegedly shouted at Firtko for quoting Scripture again, banging her fist on the table and stating “it made her feel like she had been pounded over her head with a sledge hammer.”

The lawsuit also claims Dietsch told her students that the VA in general and she in particular do not allow chaplains to pray “in Jesus’ name” in public ceremonies.

Dietsch is also accused of allowing other students to deride Firtko and Klender, mocking them in front of the class and telling Firtko if he held to his beliefs on such things as evolution, salvation and homosexuality, he “did not belong in this program.” Eventually, the lawsuit states, she threatened to dismiss Firtko for refusing to recant his Christian doctrine and ordered he serve a six-week probation.

The lawsuit claims Chaplain Klender’s superior even encouraged him to challenge Dietsch for her “bias against evangelicals.”

Klender later left the program voluntarily, citing Dietsch’s alleged abuse.

Firtko, however, according to the lawsuit, was ejected from the program through a letter, signed by Dietsch, which stated his probation period was not “yielding the results” desired.

In July, Firtko, Klender and their sponsoring organization, the Conservative Baptist Association of America, filed formal complaint against Dietsch and the VA.

Now the lawsuit, filed with the help of Military-Veterans Advocacy, explains that Firtko and Klender have exhausted all administrative options and that the harassment the chaplains endured violates the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Administrative Procedures Act and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“No American choosing to serve in the armed forces should be openly ridiculed for his Christian faith, and that is most obviously true for chaplains participating in a chaplain training program,” said Commander J.B. Wells, U. S. Navy (Ret.), executive director of Military-Veterans Advocacy. “Not only was the treatment these men received inappropriate, it was also a violation of federal law and the religious freedom guarantees of the First Amendment.”

The lawsuit, Conservative Baptist Association of America v. Shinseki, has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/va-sued-for-harassing-christian-chaplains/#lskaOfja2K53CTjU.99

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Fill Us With Wisdom

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in Prayer Art | Comments Off on Fill Us With Wisdom

Wisdom-Thanskgiving

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