Praying for Our Boys in Afghanistan

Have you got a son stationed in Afghanistan? I know--me too!  Matthew, my 25 yr.old son,  just called this week to say that he is leaving for a very dangerous and remote spot. I won’t be able to email him or facebook him.  I don’t think he will be able to call over the satellite phone as he has been doing either.


Matthew drew this silhouette and wrote the poem.

He will be living with a group of guys in three tents until July. I can’t say more but that they will be surrounded and are doing something very important and dangerous. He’s a  translator in the Marines and can speak Pashto to any natives or prisoners. 

He wrote this email yesterday…

Something to remember me by...

I love you all more than you'll ever know. I'll make it home one way or the other.

If I don't make it, know I died doin what I love, the way I love it, with people I love, for the people and home that I love, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. 

I plan to make it, kick tails and do my job the way only I can do it. I'm a mean, lean, Marine Corps Green fightin machine, and these past seven years have all been preparation for this day.

I don't mind bullets, I laugh at bombs, and I sleep with my boots on. Everything I own I carry on my back, and Ieat, drink, sleep and live motivated.

I am proud to bear the title of United States Marine.  You know all this. 

I love you, I love you, and I love you.Stay safe. 

Your son, 

Corporal of Marines,Matthew Bailey Rodgers

Somehow, it all seems so hard to fathom. We talked quite a bit these last few days. I know he’s pretty nervous but he feels mentally prepared for sure. I couldn’t sleep tonight…but I have been praying. I know they were flying him at 11:00pm our time. They can’t drive in because it’s too dangerous.
 

Ladies, I don’t know how much our young men in Afghanistan are on your mind, but we do need to remember that they are there protecting the Afghanis from the local Taliban who don’t want to allow them to live normal lives. And our sons are far from home with very few amenities. They live in tents. There’s dirt everywhere..all the time.
 

 
The locals try to build schools or stores, only to have them burned down and destroyed. Our men stay there and work to protect them. It’s that simple. I don’t know what the ‘bigger picture’ is, but this is what Matthew is doing.
 

As Matthew reminds me regularly, freedom isn’t cheap but it means the world to those who have it. It cost Matthew his best friend. It costs his children there Daddy. And many other families pay the same price. 
 

We have much to be thankful for here in the US. Other countries aren’t faring so well.



Yesterday, I went to pick up my fourth son’s graduation present, a gun, from a local store and there met the owner, whose son, had just been deployed. We are so proud of our young men who feel compelled to stand up and defend the defenseless.


Let’s keep them in our prayers…and not forget them out in that big desert! Pray they come home soon!