Operation Heal Our Patriots 2022 Special Report
A New Battle: From Fighting Wars to Fighting for Their Families
When the nine wounded military service members and their spouses arrived at Samaritan Lodge Alaska on May 26, they were strangers, but six days later, they left as friends—renewed, refocused, and with new tools to sustain their marriages. After starting their week with a special Memorial Day observance, the couples participated in a kayak lesson…
Military Couples Mark New Beginnings in Alaska
Mike Parsons served as a Marine from 2002-2006 and was first injured in 2003 during an IED blast in Iraq that left shrapnel in his leg, arm, and back. He continues to require surgeries for these physical wounds. But like many Marines and soldiers, airmen and sailors, Mike has struggled hardest with post-traumatic stress disorder…
Hurting Military Marriages Find Healing in God’s Love
Chad and Ellen Peacock were childhood sweethearts—growing up with close families and annual beach vacations together. The summer that Chad was set to leave for Marine boot camp, he asked Ellen to wait for him, planning to marry her when he returned. The couple wrote 277 letters back and forth while Chad was away and…
Programa Operation Heal Our Patriots motiva soldados heridos y sus parejas
Varalin never anticipated that the impact of her husband’s wartime brain injuries could be so devastating—that expressing any kind of emotion would become nearly impossible for him. “After 13 years of marriage, he still struggles to tell me how he’s feeling,” Varalin said. “He has to choose every day to feign emotion. He doesn’t laugh…
Celebrando a Dios obrando durante la semana uno de Operation Heal Our Patriots
The first week of the 2022 Operation Heal Our Patriots summer season (May 29-June 3) got off to a quick start and ended powerfully. On the very first night that military couples arrived at Samaritan Lodge, Marine Staff Sergeant Martin Lucero and his wife, Courtney, received Christ after 90 minutes of counsel with one of…
Parejas de militares ven sus oraciones contestadas en Alaska
He was shivering so violently he could hardly stand still. The wind had suddenly picked up, the sun was nowhere in sight, and the air was noticeably chillier than it had been all week. Not even the crackling fire on the beach offered much warmth. But it didn’t matter. Army Sergeant First Class David Larson…
Dios contesta las oraciones para salvar el matrimonio de una pareja militar
Sean and Brandy Karpf’s teenage romance began one summer as they both worked the late shift at their local McDonald’s. They spent until the early hours of the morning breaking down equipment, cleaning, and closing the store. Some fleeting high school crushes are quickly forgotten, but this one lasted three years and culminated in an…
Military Couples Begin New Chapter in Alaska
Terror, violence, and death weren’t supposed to follow him home. Army Staff Sergeant Josh Abbatoye thought he’d left war on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Throughout multiple deployments in a 17-year military career he’d survived eight traumatic brain injuries, five improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and a rocket-propelled grenade that left shrapnel stuck in his…
Hope for Wounded Lives and Marriages
As his unit rolled out on regular patrol that day, Army Specialist Marco Fernandez took his position in the mounted gun of a Stryker armored vehicle. They were transporting an officer to another base and then checking out Iraqi villages to look for potential threats. As Marco’s convoy sped past a town on that sunny…