Wednesday was the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, at the Pentagon, and aboard United Airlines Flight 93. Since the attacks, nearly 5,300 U.S. military personnel have been killed in action and more than 51,000 have been wounded. Operation Enduring Freedom, which…
Growing Toward Hope in Alaska
Marine Captain Ray Penny and his wife, Maggie, carried their own fly fishing gear to Alaska. Using their rods again reminded them of the “old days”—before kids, before the military, before so many difficulties. You could tell from his casting in the Tanalian River that Ray knew what he was doing. Maggie, his wife, was…
Discipleship, Education & Training
Confronting PTSD Head On
Marine Corporal Anthony Owens was a little lonely on his first deployment to Afghanistan. So, a fellow Marine’s girlfriend connected him to her roommate, Ashley. Ashley thought they’d just become long-distance friends. But when the couple started a relationship through Skype, which allowed them to talk via video over the Internet, it went way better…
Discipleship, Education & Training
Patriots Remember 9/11 While Visiting Alaska
To this day, 13 years later, Tito Velez can’t stand to look at any of the pictures. Immediately after Islamic terrorists slammed commercial airliners into the twin towers at the World Trade Center, Tito, a first responder with the New York Police Department, rushed to the scene. What he saw that terrifying day both sickened…
Discipleship, Education & Training
Recharged in Alaska
For Specialist Laura Hodges Rossi, ARNG, and her husband, Steven, time spent in Alaska through Operation Heal Our Patriots is the closest thing they’ve had to a honeymoon. “It’s raised her spirits 300 percent,” said Steven, an Army National Guard veteran. Laura contracted a mysterious and debilitating autoimmune disorder while serving in Afghanistan in 2011.…
Discipleship, Education & Training
The Meeting Place
Daniel Zeidan has served in various roles with Samaritan’s Purse, including as country director in Bolivia, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, and as part of several disaster responses around the world. He currently serves as ministry strategist for the organization, where he supports Samaritan’s Purse globally in developing project strategies that maximize…
Operation Heal Our Patriots Strengthens Couples Over the Long Term
Aimmie Jenkins was surprised in Louisiana to see her war-injured husband, former Army Staff Sergeant Andrew Jenkins, mudding out homes; cutting up and carrying trees; and tarping damaged roofs. After more than a decade of watching him painfully and slowly recover from injuries he sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan, she was suddenly watching the man…
Discipleship, Education & Training
A Celebration of Marriage and Freedom
Nine military couples enjoyed bear watching, pike fishing, hiking, kayaking, and rafting this week from Port Alsworth, Alaska, as part of the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Heal Our Patriots project for injured service personnel and their spouses. Plenty of cell phone cameras also recorded the couples’ polar plunge into Lake Clark alongside Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin…
Old Burdens Go Up in Flames Giving Marine Couple Fresh Start
Marine Corporal Tim Read had just knocked out a couple miles of hiking and a steep descent to the falls of the Tanalian River—on one leg. “That was the fastest I’ve hiked in a long time,” he said. Then, he knelt on the banks, his left prosthetic leg digging into the sand, as he scraped…
Discipleship, Education & Training
Fighting For Their Marriage
Marine Staff Sergeant Brandan Taylor and his wife, Chelsey, of Sneads Ferry, North Carolina, ended their Operation Heal Our Patriots week at Samaritan Lodge Alaska by getting baptized together and rededicating their marriage to God. It was an amazing turn of events, as just the week before Brandan had told Chelsey, “Take me to the…
