Things changed all of a sudden and before I knew it, I sitting in a van looking at my fiancé getting behind the wheels of an armored personnel carrier. Before zooming off, he blew me a kiss and said he love me. That began a turnaround in my love story; my fantasy could no longer be…
We got married about 4 years after and though I don’t remember the wedding ceremony I do remember how I would hold him in my embrace each time he got back, knowing that I soon would have to say goodbye again. I remember going to the base each time they were back from their tours, which took months, sometimes years. Though I would try to be strong, he knew too well how I had suffered in silence, especially in his absence.
Though he is retired after investing 44 years of his life in his country, I can’t forget that sensation, that awareness of him that was always in my heart when I think of him so far away… I can’t call it feeling, because it was more than that; I could always sense he was alive, when he was in danger. I always knew he needed my prayers. My trouble years as a teenager and a young woman paid off, as they served as a training ground for me to pray for my husband day and night. I would pray and pray for him until all strength went out of me. I would pray for his protection, that he would be a light to every unit he was posted to, drawing everyone to Christ with his life. He became a beacon that everyone looked to and he never wasted time in pointing them to Christ. He was one of the few soldiers that never fell ill; he didn’t even have a single bullet wound throughout his military career. So that stood him out; he either wasn’t going his job or there was something different about him. And there was; he has Christ and a praying wife who loves him. I don’t know whether it is right for Christians to be soldiers and go to war “killing people.” But, I do know this: God protects Christian Soldier out there on the battlefield; my husband is a testimony.
God has used his life to save many young Soldiers out there on the field; whether on camp while they were chatting, while a soldier on his unit was mortally wounded and he led him to Christ on his last breath or when all else failed (especially medical science,) and he had to lay his hand on the young in faith that Jesus is the healer. He was never a preacher out there, but he always took his time to talk about the God he know for himself and God did use him for the Soldiers of our country that went out with him. His career was a fairy tale that was all too real.
Now, we spent our time counseling young military men and women; he counsels the mostly the soldiers and I focus on their wives and families, helping them go through life in the military with the ease that comes with having the Grace of God upon your life.
I waited all my life to have a good Christian man, but every night I lie beside him, watching him go to rest after laying down every troubles at the Master’s feet, I simply thank God for giving me the BEST Christian man as my husband. I asked for cake, but He gave it to me with icing, so that even after 57 years of marriage, he is the next best thing that ever happened to me after salvation.
-Amanda
