Today is a special day to me. A day that I can never forget because even daily I am reminded of it. So the story begins.

Six years ago in a little town in Iraq called Samarra a 19 year old boy woke up like he usually did every morning for six months. He was under the only air conditioner in the building and even though it was still 85° F, he was freezing.
Normally on this day of the week he had very little to do because it was the first day of the week. The meetings the team had scheduled with the local leaders had been moved because of some small attacks that started during the day. Now when I say small attacks I mean nothing bigger than a rocket propelled grenade or a couple of AK-47′s. So it was better to lay low for a while and wait for the festivities to die down. The team however did have one meeting in a dreadful place that day. It was known as Balad. It was a sand filled hole in the middle of nowhere. Why they had to go to this place was a mystery because there was plenty of other places he would have rather been.

They began the journey to Balad around nine in the morning. Most days started around that time so this wasn’t to different. However the drive was not going to be ordinary as they soon would discover. The drive down to Balad was normally a 45 minute trip. This time however they were not so lucky, when they got into the town they turned on the dirt/dust road and ‘BANG’ a loud crash and then the rear passenger wheel flew off and rolled away. They slowly and safely rolled to a halt and then waited for the maintenance team to arrive to tow the truck back to their main base. This is where they hitched a ride back with the convoy to go back to Samarra. Now the reason they went down there in the first place was to go to a meeting, this still happened but the main character in this story and his buddy just waited instead with a broken truck for hours in the heat.

Beginning on the second leg of the trip on the way back to the main base they noticed something a little out of the ordinary. It wasn’t uncommon to see a broken down vehicle on the side of the road in Iraq but this particular vehicle was almost brand new, and usually most new vehicles don’t break down that easy. Noticing right away the first convoy driver notified the others and began to move to the right lane to avoid anything that might trigger an attack. Improvised explosive devices or IED’s were just starting to be a way of attack that the insurgents used. So they were very cautious about where the vehicles would go on the pavement. Just then the second vehicle noticed some movement from the bed of the broken down truck and shouted over the radio ‘CONTACT’! Before the tail of the convoy could do anything the ambushers began to open fire. Somewhere between the firing and the crazy maneuvering, one of the 3 attackers remote detonated a very large IED. Destroying all of the attackers and the truck they positioned so well, it was over just as quickly as it started.

Moments went by very slowly for everyone in the rear vehicle because they were all shaken pretty good by that little scuffle. No one could hear anything but ringing from the loud bomb that just went off merely 25 feet away. The 1st Sgt. in the front yelled to see if everyone was alright when the gunner in the back screamed in horror. He wasn’t hurt but the young 19 year old boy was pouring blood from his foot and leg. So much blood in fact that the floor of the truck began to gather the blood in pools. Scared the driver floored it forgetting that they had just sustained heavy damage to the vehicle. The tires were flat the top was shredded but still he drove on so he could try and help the young boy who was in pain. The boy was hurting more than he ever had in his entire life. Yet he was comforted by the lousy jokes and aid from the buddy he had spent and served every waking minute with, for over six months now. He was only able to slow the bleeding down but it helped in any case.

Now obviously that boy survived because he is the one that just typed this story. He is me. This is just the beginning of the story and I am still facing challenges each and every day, but I have made it so far. Not by myself either. It is only by the grace of God that I am here today. Even though sometimes it is hard to believe that He would care for me so much; I know for a fact that He saved me. I didn’t deserve anything but death but He chose to pull me out of the darkness and into the light. He knows all about sacrifice because He sent His own Son to die on a cross to save and set free all of us who were lost (which is all of us). Everyday I owe to Him and I had to again thank Him publicly for saving my life in more ways than one on this very day six years ago.

Thank you God for my life.