Joel Noland’s Blog

Hey ya’ll,

I thought I’d give everyone a quick update about reenlistment and what the latest news is. On Thursday, I recieved a call from the prior service recruiter in San Diego telling me that my initial reenlistment application had been approved, and she scheduled me for a physical this Friday at the MEPS (military enlistment processing station) in San Diego. This doesn’t mean that I’m approved for reenlistment, it just means that I can move onto the next step. The physical is just a full and I mean FULL medical exam just like I did back in January of 2002. I shouldn’t have any problems with it, and once that’s done I can put in my package for reenlistment into MARSOC. After that goes out, I will likely have to wait a month to a month and a half for approval of that package. If it gets approved then I can go reenlist. It is somewhat confusing I agree, but that’s the way government systems work. They take a very long time because literally three people make the decision to approve or disapprove the reenlistment packages and they have thousands of Marines’ packages sitting on their desks.

In other news, I recently practiced on my own, the MARSOC and recon swim test that I will be required to do on the first day there. The test was conducted in cammie top and bottom (fatigues no boots) and consists of a 500 meter swim in under 15 minutes, 25 meter underwater swim, tread water for 30+ minutes and retrieve a 10 pound brick in 15 feet of water and upon surfacing hold the brick out of the water for 5 seconds. I passed it with flying colors for the first time in my life, praise God! I also heard back from the LAPD, I passed the written exam, and they told me to wait to hear from them for the next step, that was two weeks ago.

So that’s the latest news. Thanks for your prayers =)

Well everyone its been quite a while since I last wrote. A lot has happened since October, and I’m sorry I haven’t been current in my updates.

So first things first, I’m out of the Marine Corps. Unfortunately this was not what I was going for. After a lot and I mean a LOT of prayer, and discussion with Allie, I have been trying to reenlist in the Marines since February. To some of you this is not a surpise as you guessed by the way I talked, plus Allie moving out here that my intentions were to stay in the Marines. Its been a long and hard decision, and when I first came back into the Corps, I NEVER thought that I would reenlist. When I got out the first time I was extremely bitter, and angry towards the Marines for some things that happened during my first four years. However, God took me out of the Marines to teach me that 95% of my problems in the Marines were my fault due to my own imaturities, and attitude choices. This past year, God has taught me to be patient and positive with things that used to make me nuts, and he has taught me to serve rather then be bitter. Those two changes made a HUGE difference this past year, and God really blessed the change in attitude.

There are three main reasons that I am tryng to reenlist in the Marines. First and most important is the ministry to the Marines. I’ve built some very strong friendships with the guys I worked with, and I’ve presented the gospel whenever I could to  the guys I worked with. These guys need to hear the gospel so badly as does everyone who is unsaved. Marines are a special animal however, and laying the gospel on them can be quite an adventure. Some of them can “react” a bit when they don’t agree lol. I’ve gotten into shouting matches with a few of them, but that’s the way they communicate, there’s no hard feelings. There are so few Christians in the Marines, and the need is so great and its a need that I’m willing to meet.

The second reason I wanted to reenlist was that I have a very strong desire to serve this country. As cynical as I’ve been in the past and as cheesy as this may sound, I believe that this country is very much worth defending. I have a unique set of gifts that God has given me, the gifts of a fighter and I want to use those gifts to serve him by serving my country.

The third reason is that of provision. Reenlistment is a guaranteed job for four years. If also offers pay and benefits that I could support my wife and a family on. The reenlistment bonus for the job field that I am trying to get into is enough to buy a house.

Okay so now I’ll tell you all what I plan on doing. My current job field of infantry rifleman is completely closed until December for reenlistment. Because of the state of the economy, reenlistment is closed to all job fields except for two of them. Those two fields are intelligence and reconnaissance or recon for short. I’m trying to reenlist into recon. Recon is the special forces echelon of the Marines, and it is very difficult to obtain that title. Recon conducts recon behind enemy lines very far away from friendly units. They often remain hidden and self sustaining for days on end. They also conduct raids on terrorist camps, hits on terrorist leaders and apprehending high profile and deadly terrorists. These are the guys who jump out of planes and repel out of helicopters. Its very very hard work, but from what I’ve seen and heard its very rewarding. Recon requires an insanely high level of physical fitness and mental endurance. They also require that you be a fish in the water. This was actually what I joined the Marines for when I was 18, but I was never a good enough swimmer, and I was too afraid of the water. This past summer my friend took me to the pool and taught me how to swim like a fish. Ever since then I’ve been swimming and training like a mad man to be ready for this challenge. I’ve been able to complete 3 out of 4 of the recon swim requirements, and I am very close to completing the 4th requirement. If I am accepted into recon, I will have to attend their school here at Camp Pendleton called Basic Recon Course (BRC). BRC is ROUGH, not as bad as the SEAL’s boot camp, but enough to make you wish you were dead. The school  is 3 months long and there are 3 recon battalions in the Marines. 1st battalion is here at Camp Pendleton, 2nd is at Camp Lejune, North Carolina and 3rd is in Okinawa, Japan. Now I will only reenlist into recon under the agreement that I will be assigned to 1st recon battalion so that Allie and I don’t have to move again as she loves her new job, and we’ve gotten connected at our church. I am also putting in a reenlistment request to go to MARSOC (Marine Corps Special Operations Command). These guys are like the Green Berets of the Marines. Their mission is similar to recon, but quite a bit more specialized.

Now for the problems. I put in my reenlistment package on Feb. 26th and the package has been kicked back 4 times for weird reasons such as they didn’t have a certain paper that they required, which was already provided in the package. In addition the Marine Corps did not tell me that the recalled Marines could not reenlist in the traditional way. Instead the Corps required that those Marines get out of the Corps, and then if they want to come back in, they have to go to a prior service recruiter out in town, and enlist the same way as when they first came in when they hadn’t even served yet. I found this out 10 days before I was supposed to get out. You can imagine I was very frustrated at this lack of information. On April 29th I was discharged from the Marines. Since then I have been putting my papers together to put the reenlistment package back in through a prior service recruiter. I’m still training, and still trying to get back in. However this may take a few months, and I am looking at other options out here. Right now I’m trying to see which door God will open. If the Corps doesn’t let me come back in, I will join the LAPD or another police department in the LA area. I took the LAPD written test on Wednesday and will know if I passed in 2 to 3 weeks.

As you guys can imagine this is very trying, and I have no idea what’s going to happen in the future. I would appreciate your prayers that if God would provide a job for me either way, and that I’m flexible and willing to follow him and not my own path. My faith is being tested because I’m pretty powerless to do anything about this. I’m doing the leg work, now its just a waiting game. So that’s it, I appreciate all of your prayers and thoughts and thank you all for your friendship and support. We love you guys and look forward to seeing or hearing from you in the near future.

Joel N.

Hey hey everyone, sorry I haven’t written in a while, I’ve been really busy the past month at Urban Leader’s Course. Urban Leader’s Course is a school at Camp Margarita (in Camp Pendleton) which teaches how to conduct combat operations on urban terrain (shoot terrorists in cities and avoid their IED’s). The course wasn’t super difficult but it had its challenges. More importantly then learning the combat ops, was what God taught me this past month. He taught me a LOT and the lessons were very humbling.

The work outs, or PT, was not easy. Lots of hill runs in boots for hours, leg torture and log drills (flipping a telephone pole end over end for about 50 meters) It was good stuff though, I definitely came out in better shape then when I started. The classes were mostly review but a good refresher for me. When I got there, I got a roster and learned that I was designated the squad leader for 1st squad. I was now in charge of 14 angry, steroid fueled, jock infantrymen and 3 motor transport guys. I honestly didn’t want the responsibility because I knew that I had forgotten a lot of my knowledge and that some of them knew more then I did. To make matters more difficult they were all Lance Corporals (two ranks bellow me). When it came to the stuff I didn’t know, I had a choice that I had to decide before we started conducting the training. I could either be prideful and try to fudge my way through the training by hiding my ignorance, or I could confess the things that I didn’t know and ask for help from the junior Marines. I knew confessing ignorance to the Marines ran the risk of them losing respect for me. I knew God was testing me so I accepted the responsibility and did the best I could.

During the first week, I got to know some of the guys from weapons company 3/5…….that was the unit I was trying to get into a few months back……..I’m really glad God kept me out of there lol that unit has major major problems at the command level. When their Marines arrived at the course, 3/5 weapons company was supposed to get their weapons to the school armory,  and get them chow and amo for the ranges. Their staff never did any of that and their Marines almost got dropped from the course because of the neglect of their command. Also 3/5 is not going to Afghanistan, they’re going on the dreaded 31st MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit). I went on the 31st MEU when I went to Okinawa Japan in 2006…….it SUCKS, and the worst part is they won’t get any combat time. All they’ll do is sail around the pacific and waste 7 months trying to intimidate Kim Jon Ill. So needless to say God spared me from that tediousness.

Back to the humbling, that’s the good stuff anyways =). During week 2, we did convoys with humvees. I don’t know jack crap about humvees because I rode in Light Armored Vehicles in my first fours years which are very different from humvees. Also the convoy tactics that have been developed since I got out are very different from what I knew 2 and 1/2 years ago, and the junior Marines in the course knew them already, but I had no experience in applying them. When we got to the convoy range, I was told that I would be leading the convoy………it was a dear in the headlights moment for me. I was given 10 minutes to come up with standard operating procedures (SOP’s) for the convoy, which means I had to come up with the plans for what to do for every conceivable scenario that we might encounter. I gathered up my squad and told them straight up that I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. I got a mixed bag of reactions from the guys, some gave the are you kidding me look? Most of them offered their help though which I appreciated. We didn’t really settle on anything because no one could agree on the tactics, and I was to unsure to say which one was right. I prayed hard for the knowledge and wisdom to know what to do. A few hours later we set out on our first run…..it was a DISASTER. We did literally everything wrong. I was told by the instructors that we were the worst squad they had ever seen go through the course. In my previous enlistment due to selfishness and immaturity, I would have gone down a spiral of selfish anger and negativity, but I turned to God instead and fought to listen to the truth instead of to myself and the evil one. The funny thing was after failing every event in the convoy run, I actually knew what I should have done for each event. It was like switches were getting flipped in my brain and I started remembering my training from years ago. After some prayer I knew what I had to do, I went to each of my teams and asked the most senior guy what the SOP’s for all the events were in their own units. That was hard to do because most sergeants would NEVER ask a Lance Corporal for knowledge even if they didn’t know. Marines are notorious for being prideful and never admitting when they’re wrong, it’s actually something that’s taught in boot camp, even though it’s totally unbiblical. Good thing we have the Bible to live by instead of man’s hollow philosophies and “wisdom.” After the guys gave me their two cents, I got the squad together and went over the new SOP’s. A little bit later we did the course again and did much better, we still missed some important things but the guys performed really well. On the final run that we did that night, our squad Aced the course. After the whole thing was over, I kept running the day’s events through my mind. I realized that I hadn’t done very well as the convoy leader or as an infantry Marine. The thing was, though, all the other Marines in the convoy performed outstandingly and the mission was accomplished with excellence. I had this really weird feeling that I couldn’t put my finger on, then after some prayer it hit me. What I was wrestling with was the fact that I wanted glory and recognition for the mission’s success! How selfish of me! It was then in my car that I realized that that was exactly the attitude I had in my first enlistment. I would get so angry when things wouldn’t go right, or the Marines didn’t perform perfectly, I would obsess about failures and grow bitter towards my subordinates and leaders and I would blame everyone else for poor performance. After repenting to God for my selfishness, I realized that why I felt weird was because I had performed the mission with humility and received no glory for it, which in fact was right because God is to receive all glory, and it felt so unnatural! I knew I had done the right thing that day and I thanked God for giving me the humility to ask for help from my Marines. It was as a TEAM that God had given us success. This was wisdom from God, no part of the mission became about my ego anymore, instead it was about serving and leading so that these guys come back alive when they go into battle.

The last week of the course was MOUT week (Military Operations on Urban Terrain) that was the fun stuff. MOUT training involves going to a range which resembles a small town, and practicing clearing rooms and buildings SWAT style, and conducting patrols and raids on the town. One small thing, there’s a team of “insurgents” (made up of the course instructors) in the town that you have to kill, and they have IED’s and grenades. These little battles work when we shoot each other with something called simunitions. These are 9mm handgun rounds with plastic tips on them that are filled with paint. With some modifications and added parts to our regular weapons, we can fire these rounds. They travel extremely fast and they hurt a LOT. It feels like being hit with a jagged rock and they leave giant bruises and blood blisters on your body. The only protection worn is a face mask, gloves and your helmet. The rest of your body will feel the pain. I’ve done training like this several times before in my previous enlistment. The training is usually a lot of fun and this past week was no exception. We were in the field from Monday to Thursday doing battle with the instructors. During this training phase, I didn’t lead the squad until the end of the week. I was a gun fighter in the squad for the first couple of days so it was fun to get a chance to shoot the instructors. The first time I lead the squad was on Wednesday and unfortunately I got handed the most difficult mission, but at the time I didn’t know that. It was a standard cordon and knock, where we were supposed to surround and search a specific building in the town with 2nd squad supporting us. When we had finished the search and we were exiting the building, the crap hit the fan, and the insurgents opened up on us. The whole mission went to crap, we took massive amounts of casualties, all teams were lost and cut off, and 2nd squad abandoned us. I lost complete control of the squad and took 30 minutes to get everyone out. At the debrief my guys were mad and I thought they were mad at me and had lost faith in me as a leader. After talking to my guys though, I knew it wasn’t me they were mad at, it was the whole situation and the other squad they were mad at. We were given 30 minutes to rest and then we were going to do the mission again. This time I came up with a really good plan. I appointed my A+ Marines as team leaders and executed a near perfect mission. I posted two snipers on the tallest building and they shot every insurgent who tried to take a shot at the Marines on the ground. I posted myself up there with them so that I could see the whole battlefield and coordinate with all of my Marines on the ground. I also hid a reaction team on the far edge of the town to ambush any insurgent teams from any point in the town. God used that mission to gain me the respect of the other Marines as their leader and in the following missions, we rocked. A really big problem I had in my previous enlistment was that I micromanaged my team leaders for fear of them making me look bad, which usually hindered the mission and caused problems. This time I gave them their tasks and let them do the tasks their way. The result was that the squad worked as one and performed to a stellar degree.

Overall I didn’t learn a ton of new knowledge from the course, but it was a great refresher for me to get back into leading a squad, coming up with plans for battle and executing them. God taught me so much from this course though which was the real lesson and is always the real lesson from everything that we do and everything that happens to us as followers of Christ. It says in God’s word that he opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, I most certainly believe that and saw it in my life this past month.

Prayer requests:

-Allie and I are coming home this weekend because Allie is running the Chicago Marathon! Please pray that God will give her strength and endurance to complete the grueling 26.2 mile run.

-Allie has been having trouble finding a job out here, she’s applied for several but only a few have looked any good. Please pray that God would provide a good job for her, where she can be used for his Kingdom and be a light somewhere.

-We are on the church hunt again. The church we have been going to has gotten steadily worse from when we started. Poor quality worship, soft messages that aren’t that Biblically centered or challenging and felt-needs ministries have got us looking again. It’s frustrating, it makes both of us realize that Harvest is an OUTSTANDING church because of it’s obedience and submission to God’s word, and also James’ leadership in having a Biblical purpose for everything they do. Please pray that God would lead us to a mature, Bible teaching church that values quality and testosterone infused leadership and that isn’t an hour or more away.

Thanks guys we love you all and thank you for all of your prayers. God bless.

Hey Ya’ll! Sorry for the lack of blogging, I’ve been busy being a husband again lol. Allie moved out here on August 26th to our new place, and she loves the apartment. Our stuff got out here about 6 hours before she arrived all intact except for our fishbowl which didn’t survive the move. I guess that’s God telling us we’re not supposed to have a fish because all the ones we’ve had died tragically =( Our other car also got here last week so we’re all settled in. Allie has been looking for a job out here and there’s a few options, but we’re waiting on the Lord right now for a more specific type of job. Basically we’re more leaning towards Allie getting a part time job so that she can either serve at church more often or she could go to school and get her Masters degree which would be paid for by Uncle Sam. Allie would love to be a school nurse but that requires that she have a Masters degree. We would both really appreciate your prayers with this that God would give us both patience and wisdom to make a good decision, and that he would provide a good job for Allie.

It looks like the church hunt is over! Last weekend we visited a church about 5 minutes away from our place and it was actually good. It’s called New Song Community Church, and when we went last weekend the teaching was very Biblical and challenging plus they have a huge military ministry and they’re very big on Biblical teaching and small groups. The people were very warm and friendly and made effort to talk to us and meet us. We’re going to head there again tomorrow morning so  we’re very excited about all of this. Please pray that God would provide friends and good small groups for both Allie and I.

Finally I don’t know if you all knew this, but way back at the beginning of this year Allie signed up to run the Chicago Marathon in October for World Vision. Well Allie is still going to run it next month. She and I will be coming back to Chicago next month for one weekend so she can run the Marathon and I can be there to carry her back to the car when she’s done. Allie has been training really hard for this and it’s been a goal her entire life to run a Marathon. She just ran 18 miles this morning as part of her training she’s been doing since June. Well since she is running this for World Vision any of you reading this can sponsor her if you feel God leading you to do so. This is Allie’s giving page so feel free to check it out

http://www.firstgiving.com/allisonnoland

Alright everyone that does it for this edition. Thanks for all of your support and encouragement with us moving and for keeping in touch with us. We love and miss you all.

Joel N.

Today I got to do something not every Marine gets to do…..I went through the non-lethal course here on Camp Pendleton taught by the MP’s (military police). Sounds like fun, and it was until the end when they spray you with OC spray. The non-lethal course basically teaches you how to be a very basic beat MP. They teach you how to beat someone with the baton, how to apprehend a suspect and also how to put them on the ground should they resist arrest. The last portion of the class deals with OC spray. If you don’t know what OC spray is it stands for Oleoresin Capsicum which is a fancy way of saying pepper spray on steroids. For the last portion of the class the instructor tells you to face him, close your eyes and seal your lips, he then blasts your face with OC………this stuff is awful, I’m not even kidding if was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. I would rather put a 150 pound pack on my back and hike for 30 miles at an 15 mph pace then get sprayed with that crap again. This was worse then when I had my jaw smashed in. It feels like someone lit your face on fire, then your eyes start to seal shut and it takes the breath out of your lungs because it burns so bad. After that your throat and lungs start to contract so it feels like you’re choking and can’t breathe and every time you breathe you just soak more of it in. Right after they spray you, you run through a course where you have to knee a punching bag that’s being held by an MP and scream, “get back!” and “stop resisting!” If you do that correctly you have to run to the next event which is two guys beating you with punching bags and you have to keep your eyes open and block them and yell the same thing. If you succeed, you move onto another punching bag which you just lay into with your fists, from there you’re almost done. Next you have to find the police baton in the sand and start beating your target withthe appropriate strikes, and then last of all at the beginning of the course you’re given a rubber pistol and a guy comes up behind you and tries to take it from you. You have to get him off of you and put him on the ground and apprehend him. After you’ve apprehended him you yell, “OC officer in distress!!” and then they take you off the course and hose you down, but the pain doesn’t stop. This stuff burns like hot lava on your face for at least another hour, and you’re already out of breath and breathing is hard because you’re choking on OC. Oh yeah water accelerates it and makes it worse so you just have to sit there and let it burn. I would never use this stuff on someone unless they made me really really really mad. 3 and half hours later my eyes are still burning and I can’t stop blinking. So if a cop ever tells you to do something and you think you’re Dr. tough stuff and going to resist you will hate the next 3 hours of your life so don’t do it.

Okay so now onto bigger and much better things. Allie, my amazing wife, has gotten everything packed and ready to move the last two weeks and today the moving guys came and picked everything up! I know I said she would need help loading stuff, but she didn’t have to do any of it, part of the payment is that these guys take care of and pack all your stuff in the truck for you, which was awesome for Allie. So thanks to those who offered we really appreciate it, God just blessed us with this moving company so yeah thanks. The guys said our stuff would be arriving in Cali on either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week! Praise God, he has really provided for us and blessed us with this whole move. Allie will most likely be flying out here on Monday night and then we’ll be moving our stuff in either the next day or the day after. Thank you guys for all of your support and prayers with everything that has happened we really feel loved and that God has blessed us with some really awesome friends so thank you all.

So what’s next, well I really don’t know at this point what’s going to happen. I’m using the time I have here though to get back into fighting shape and do some training that I always wanted to do and never got to do. Two weeks ago I qualified on the pistol range which I had never done before and shot really well. All this means is that now in addition to being issued a rifle, I can get issued a sidearm pistol as well. Next month I’m going to a 5 week school called Urban Leader’s Course, it used to be called MOUT Instructor’s Course (Military Operations on Urban Terrain) from September 8th to October 3rd. When I was in before I really really really wanted to go to this school but my command never let me go. Urban Leader’s Course teaches you advanced fighting in cities and urban terrain, at an instructor level. In other words after going through the course you’re qualified to teach others the same thing. Very cool stuff. So yeah I’m just taking life a day at a time and training myself up.

Now for prayer requests:

Ryan Weemer, my friend and roommate, his trial starts this week. Please pray that he is acquitted of the charges and that real justice prevails. Please pray that he is not made an example of for political reasons as he did not do anything wrong and was totally justified for what he did in Fallujah.

Ben Jefferies, my other roommate. I had a long spiritual conversation with him a couple of weeks ago in which God used me to lay out the gospel to him. He respects it, but he thinks he has no need for God and that he’s an okay guy who lives a moral life. Please pray that God would show him the truth and Ben would submit his life to God.

The move. Please pray that Allie is able to find a good job that she likes and also that we would be able to find a church out here….nothing has come close to Harvest.  So far I’ve been to about 8 and haven’t found anything good that’s close by. We will really need the support of other brothers and sisters in Christ, so we would appreciate prayers about that.

Alright guys and gals that’s it for now. Thanks so much for your prayers, feel free to call anytime and also know that if you ever come to Southern Cali you will have a place to stay with me and Allie. God bless you all and thanks again.

  So it looks like God has some changes for me and Allie for the next year or so. Since it seems apparent that I will be at Camp Pendleton for quite a long time, and not deploying anytime soon, with a lot of prayer and thought and planning, Allie is going to move out here around August 23rd. This seems like its very sudden, but she and I have been giving a lot of thought and prayer to it over the past month and we believe that this is God’s will for us for the next year. Being a newly-wed and seperated but living in the same country doesn’t make any sense since she and I are supposed to be one and a team in ministry and in our walks with God. This is going to be a huge adjustment for her, but she’s been really awesome about making this change and being obedient to God’s calling.

   I’ve been amazed at how God has been providing for us to make this move over the past two weeks. Allie was out here last weekend to look at apartments and get her nursing license for California, and we found an awesome apartment that’s 10 minutes from the Camp Pendleton South gate. One thing that’s nice about the Marine Corps payroll is that when you live off base you are paid an additional amount of money for housing based on the cost of living where your address is. The money we are getting for housing will be more then enough to cover the rent of the apartment. Earlier last week I put down a deposit on the apartment we wanted but we were waiting for the price to come down and yesterday the agent from the apartment complex called to tell me that the apartment we wanted was available for $150 less then the usual price. I’m moving in there on Friday and Allie will come about two weeks later. Also last week in the mail we received an $800 check from the hospital where I was admitted to the ER last November. Praise God for that and his timing. Please understand that this is going to be a very tough move for us, and we’re taking a huge leap of faith here. We will need a lot of prayer for many things so here’s the list:

   The move, that we will be able to move our stuff out here cheaply and on time.

   A job for Allie that she will love and not have to work nights on.

   A good church, the search has not been very sucessful, frankly the churches out here minus Shadow Mountain which is over an hour away have sucked.

  Friends for us at church and in the Marine Corps to minister too. In case you guys didn’t know 80% of Marine Corps marriages fail, the reason is really obvious when you watch the couple interact and they don’t even have the basics in place.

  That we would stay focused on God’s mission here for us to bring the gospel to the Marines and their families.

  Okay guys thanks for all of your prayers and to answer your question in advance yes Allie will need help packing and moving lol thanks guys I love you all and I’ll post again soon.

A couple of weeks ago I had an appointment with the pulmonologist in which I asked him to do a bronchoscopy. Well today I had my bronchoscopy done which wasn’t exactly pleasant. They stick a camera up your nose that goes down the back of your throat to take a look into your lungs, oh and you’re conscious for the whole thing. It wasn’t that bad, the bad part was the preparation in which you snort this numbing goo up your nose which burns like crazy and then they gave you a sedative which doesn’t do a whole lot, and then in goes the camera. So the results are the doctor didn’t see anything unusual in my lungs which is good and he took a sample of the mucus in my lungs to see if anything grows in a culture of the mucus over the next few days. However through the process of elimination its been concluded that I don’t have asthma or any type of chronic lung disease which is awesome! What the doctor thinks is going on is that I have post nasal drip in my sinuses which at night drains snot and goo into my lungs which agitates the air passageways of my lungs, causing them to be inflamed and produce excess mucus and the result is a severe cough that feels very similar to a lung infection. When it got really bad last year, it inflamed the air passageways so badly that it felt very similar to an asthma attack. Two weeks ago the doc gave me a new medication called Atrovent which is an anti inflammatory inhaled drug that is not steroid based. It has done wonders for me with my air passageways in that I don’t have difficulty breathing anymore and I’m not coughing up mucus from my lungs. However I’m still coughing up snot from my throat so he gave me an Atrovent nasal spray to hopefully do the same thing for my sinuses. So I’m not taking any more asthma meds and from here it will probably be a process of finding the right drug that will put an end to the nasal drip. I feel like God is bringing some answers to light in his timing and he will heal me if he sees fit. The funny thing is this this whole ordeal really humbled me because for several years I have taken massive amounts of pride in my physical abilities and been very cocky and arrogant towards those who I thought were weaker then me. God showed me during those times when I had trouble getting a full breath that every breath comes from him and that the abilities he has given me are not to be used for my ego but for his glory. Once I accepted that truth I actually have been able to thank him daily for the hardship because it keeps me humble and reminds me that he is in control of everything and also working out becomes about getting strong for the job of the infantry so I can glorify him instead of feeling superior to others. If I’m supposed to have this for the rest of my life I take joy in that because like I said it’s a reminder to me how dependent I am on him.

What this means for the deployment. Well right now I’m pretty much hidden from anyone who’s deploying because I’m in the guard shack and I’m under SSGT Lucero who I know is not going to send me anywhere anytime soon so I could conceivably hide out in the guard shack for a year, but I can tell you I’m not going to do that. I’m going to probably stay on guard for several months and go to some of the combat schools like, Urban Leader’s Course, HRST course (fast roping out of a helicopter) and PSD school (personal security detachment) you learn how to be a bodyguard for important officials in combat zones. When the time is right I’ll deploy where God sees fit to put me, my intention is to be ready for it when it comes.

Prayer requests:

SSGT Lucero, he’s my boss and I’ve been able to have some interesting conversations with him and build a relationship with him. From what he says I think God is pursuing him so just pray that the gospel would be revealed to him and for his salvation.

For the guys in the guard shack. They can be a handful of belligerence so just patience and grace for them and also their salvation.

Finally for the right medication to cure the cough.

Thanks guys, I love ya all.

  I forgot to give you guys an update on my friend Norem. I don’t know if you remember his story, but I mentioned it in an earlier blog. He’s going to deploy in about 2 weeks and his pregnant fiannce, who has had heart trouble all of her life is going to have to have open heart surgury as soon as the baby is born in October. She needs the operation or eventually she will die, but they can’t do it now because of their baby. As you know the birth will put an enormous strain on her body that could kill her to begin with. The operation will keep her in the hospital for about two months, and the sad thing is Norem will not be able to be there when his daughter is born, or to take care of her while her mom is in the hospital because he will be in Iraq. What’s even worse is Norem brought this up to his chain of command to see if he could insure that if his fiannce dies that he would be able to be discharged to take care of his daughter (usually they will do that, I’ve seen it for a guy who was orphaned and had a little brother to take care of so they discharged him) the enlisted higher ups accused him of trying to get out of the deployment and shot the request down.

   This is a really bad situation, but Norem does have options beyond the two nuckle heads who shot down his request. Please pray for Norem and his fiannce, that God preserves her life and their daughter’s life, that the command would be resonable and care about Norem as a human being and that Norem would see that God is real and pursuing him. I’ve seen evidence that Norem is starting to see a need for grace in his life, so just please keep praying for this Marine. 

Well now I think it’s time for another post for ya’ll, yeah I talk like a hick sometimes so sue me =) This past week was cool, Allie came out to visit for a whole week! We had fun, we stayed at her Uncle Jeff’s house (he’s posted on the blog before) with his family where we went hiking in the mountains, and boating plus skiing. Then we stayed at the home of some family friends for a couple of days. It was a good vacation and I’m definitely missing my wife, she brightens my day =)

Okay so I’m now the assistant guard chief for Camp Margarita which really isn’t a bad job at all. Basically it goes two days on two days off, but the guard chiefs really are just there in case something goes really wrong. The guard guys manage themselves fairly well and don’t need a lot of management so I mostly try and help them out with various things. Camp guard in actuality is more like a punishment to those who are at the rank of Corporal and bellow, these guys are about 5 months or less from getting out of the Marine Corps so they’re pretty bitter and don’t really care that much about anything. It’s sad to me that they think everything is going to get easier when they get out and their mentality and attitude of indifference will change, but in truth it won’t because they’re basing their joy on their circumstances. There are definitely ministry opportunities with these guys, but this may be a bit more challenging because these guys are more surely then the IRR Marines I was with before.

My status with going to the grunts is that I’m just waiting to work with the doc, but he can’t see me until August 5th so I have some waiting to do. I can’t go to 3/5 until my lungs are fixed or made drastically better. I talked to the crusty Doc this week on the phone and he was way different this time. He was much less agitated and he listened to what I had to say, but he still thinks its asthma. I did a pulmonary function test which is supposed to test for lung diseases but I guess the technician who did the test did such a poor job that the results were inconclusive. However they did have me inhale a chemical that was supposed to trigger an asthma attack if you have asthma, but I didn’t feel any different even after being hit with the max dose. My theory is it’s a rouge bacteria or fungus that lies dormant in my lungs and avoids detection because I’m not having a coughing attack when they do the tests. I’m pushing for him to do a bronchoscopy which is where he’ll go into my lungs with a camera and get a sample of this nasty gunk that lives in my lungs, he’s resisting this though because he’s convinced that because I have no conventional signs of infection that there’s nothing there to find. Oh yeah if any of you guys have any doctor friends or know any pulmonologists feel free to ask them and give me any ideas they might have as to what it could be.

That’s where life stands right now, so now for prayer requests.

-The wisdom to reach the guard guys for Christ and also a softening of their hearts to receive him an repent

-Healing of my lungs and wisdom for the doctor to figure this thing out

-Ryan Weemer, he’s my partner for the guard chief and he’s on trial for murder in Iraq during the Fallujah battle of November 2004. It’s a tricky situation, and I don’t have a personal problem with what he did, it’s a battle of legal actions and terms so please pray that the truth is revealed and real justice prevails. Ryan was out for 3 years and was recalled to stand trial. He is an A plus Marine and an extremely squared away guy, who was shot 3 times in that same battle in a famous gun fight called “hell house.” (read the story in “No True Glory” by Bing West) He’s married and was working as a counselor for combat vets to help them cope with PTSD and various addictions.

Thanks guys I love you all and am grateful for your prayers.

 Just to give you guys an update I’m staying here in Cali until the doctors figure out what the problem is with my lungs. Thanks for all of your prayers, this just reminds me that God is good and is not out to get us, but has the best planned for us.

   So how this all came about…….well it went down like this. On Monday I called the grumpy Pulmonologist and left a message with his secratary, letting him know what was going to happen on Thursday. At the very end of the day she called me back saying he had written a letter to the command telling them I needed to stay and get the issue resolved and that it could take quite some time! I just finished checking out of the MEF and have been ordered to report back to HQ Battalion on Monday, where I will be until I get a prognosis.

   Thanks again for all of your prayers, I love all of you guys and I’ll let you know more details as they come.