Thank you soldiers for giving me this opportunity to be here in Peru, experiencing life away from busy schedules, and the norm.

This is an excerpt from a good bye letter sent to me by my brother who is now serving us in Iraq. Be encouraged.

This is the hour that our country, our families and our
loved ones, need us. It is the reason we agreed to raise our right hands in
solemn oath, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States
against all enemies. We all want to spend our long fifteen months in combat,
and earn our plane ticket home. So getting into Iraq will do a lot to raise morale.

In short, I am
happy, healthy, and whole. God is watching over me, and He has got me. I'm
good. Thank you for your prayers and intercession on my behalf. I feel like I
don't have to pray for myself, or worry about myself—you do that for me. I
continue to look for ways to let my light shine in the darkness, and believe
me, the darkness is all around. Funny thing is, the darkness isn't scary. It's
where I belong. The light belongs in the dark. So pray that God would give me
the opportunities to be make the difference in the lives of those around me.
They desperately need Jesus, just as we do.

You can pray for
our leadership, as we prepare to figure out just how to go about the mission;
how to deploy troops and equipment. You can pray for us as we get acclimatized
to the hot weather. You can pray for all the family we have at home, that God
would keep them out of harms way, and that they would patiently wait for the
day we get to come home. There will be the marriages and families that dissolve
in the absence of the Soldier. Pray.

I love you all,
and miss being at home. There will come a day when I get to do that, having
earned the freedom that we all enjoy.

My brother, now deployed in Iraq