The 2026 Operation Heal Our Patriots summer season concluded Sept. 18. We praise God for many lives transformed and many military marriages renewed.
A year after Doug Sevier joined the Louisiana Army National Guard “to pay for school,” planes flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The Seviers kayaked on Lake Clark.
The 9/11 attacks meant he was going to war.
In 2004 he was deployed to Afghanistan stationed at a forward operating base. Nearly every day they were rattled by incoming rockets. Also, during that first deployment, college-age Doug had to respond to wounded soldiers in downed helicopters.
Then, just weeks after his return to the states in 2005, he was sent with the Guard to serve in New Orleans for a security and relief detail. They were there days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall and for nine months after.
Classes helped the couple learn better communication skills.
There was little time to think about what he’d just experienced during his time in Afghanistan before being hit with the deluge of new chaotic circumstances as his home state’s famous city collapsed into terror and death.
This was how Doug’s 22-year military career began—with experiences that it’s hard for any rational human mind to comprehend. And at the end of his military service, after multiple deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, other foreign stations, and stateside call-ups, Doug had gone silent. He didn’t talk about the war. He shut himself off from loved ones.
Once a jovial young man who had loved to laugh and to hang out with friends and family, Doug had become distant and reserved.
The Seviers collect special stones from a beach on Lake Illiamna.
He and his wife, Stacie, were at a loss for how to connect with each other. Their home was tense, quiet, and emotionally cold most of the time.
This is why she decided to sign them up for Operation Heal Our Patriots.
Hope for Failing Marriages
The Seviers came to Alaska during week 14 of the Operation Heal Our Patriots 2026 summer season. Before that, Doug never talked about his combat years, not even to Stacie. He’d also been avoiding other soldiers.
The Seviers reconnected in Alaska.
“Doug had shut himself off from the veteran community,” Stacie said. But within days of arriving at Samaritan Lodge Alaska, Doug was surprised that he and Stacie were connecting with other couples.
“I didn’t realize how much I needed that,” Doug said.
The Seviers had come to Alaska hoping to resurrect their marriage from a season of silence. They felt their marriage giving way to the strain and knew something was missing.
When Stacie and Doug learned they’d been accepted to the program, Doug breathed with relief hoping something would change to save their relationship.
“I went with the anticipation of Stacie and me growing closer,” Doug said. “We thought we’d had it figured out. What I found though was that what we were missing was God.”
The couple also connected with other military couples.
Stacie enjoyed fishing with her husband, and out-fishing him almost every time they went out. Doug enjoyed connecting with other veterans and forming friendships with the same type of men he’d been avoiding for so long.
The couple developed friendships with couples they’ve texted or talked to nearly every day since returning from Alaska. Stacie said that hearing from the other spouses helped her feel less alone in her struggles.
“When we got around each other, the women could talk about it openly, and one of the wives said, ‘Now I know that we all have issues, and that we can get through this.’ Having that group has been a really big thing, just keeping each other accountable to building our relationships with our husbands,” Stacie said.
But the greatest gift they received up there, the one that makes all the other goodness stay with them, is the joy they’re experiencing through their restored relationship with Jesus Christ.
“When people ask me about the experience, I tell them ‘Well, first off, I found Jesus up there, so I wanna get that out the way. I found Him again. Secondly, reach out to your other battle buddies.'”
In conversations with chaplains one night at the lodge, the Seviers invited Jesus into their lives and marriage. On Friday of their week, Doug was baptized in Lake Clark and Stacie joined him in the water. Now they talk more than ever to each other and to God.
“He wouldn’t talk about the military at all with me ever. And I respected that. I didn’t know how to deal with his military stuff. And he didn’t talk to me about it,” Stacie said. “In Alaska, we could laugh. We started to get along. We understood each other and I have never seen Doug smile and laugh as much as I have while we were in Alaska, and it was really good to see.”
The Seviers are one of 155 couples who joined us in Alaska for a week of marriage enrichment and renewal this summer. Over the 17 weeks, from Memorial Day to Sept. 18, 81 couples rededicated their marriages, 79 participants were baptized in Lake Clark, and 65 individuals professed faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
The couple is also eager to be a part of Team Patriot, the Samaritan’s Purse program for Alaska alumni that allows them to serve together on the frontlines of disasters in the U.S.
Doug said that he and Stacie experienced renewed joy in Alaska.
“What I did for 22 years was go help when there was a need,” Doug said, sharing his excitement to serve on a team helping suffering people. “It was difficult when all of a sudden, something big’s going on, and I’m no longer needed. I’m excited go help again.”
“We’re both excited about it,” Stacie said. “We want to give back and volunteer our time and abilities.”
The Seviers said they are looking for a church back home where they can grow in their knowledge of God’s Word.
They’re also eager to continue connecting with other military couples through our Family Care ministry, which provides ongoing spiritual care, local church connections, and alumni reunions and activities. Family Care is a lifelong commitment of community, support, and Biblical discipleship grounded in the Word of God.
“We’re looking forward to everything with Operation Heal Our Patriots,” she said. “The marriage retreats, Team Patriot, the conferences, and everything else that we can do.”
Only the Sick Need a Doctor
Javy Castro and his wife came to Samaritan Lodge Alaska for Week 6 of the 2026 Operation Heal Our Patriots’ summer season. They thought they knew why they had come. However, during their stay at camp, the Castros came to a surprising realization.
“I came out here to fix my relationship with my wife,” he said. “And I ended up realizing that I needed to fix my relationship with Jesus.”
Many of those who come to Alaska arrive with similar expectations. But they depart with more than they could have hoped as they experience healing and new life in a right relationship with Jesus Christ.
“You don’t go to a doctor until you are sick,” Javy continued. “So, if you hide your symptoms, you’re never going to get cured. You’re never going to get that medicine. Coming here was the medicine that my soul needed.”
Please Pray for Our Military Couples
Since 2012, more than 2,200 military couples have become a part of the Operation Heal Our Patriots family. We praise God for the 1,008 individuals who accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior through the program and for more than 1,200 individuals who’ve been baptized by our chaplains in the waters of Lake Clark. Since the start of the program, we have seen more than 1,100 couples rededicate their marriages under God’s authority.
Please pray for the many military couples who will apply this coming November to be part of Operation Heal Our Patriots that the Lord would bring many of them to Alaska to restore marriages and bring new life in Jesus Christ to hurting souls.
